The Breaker

Two young brothers are spying on swimmers through binoculars when the nude body of pregnant Kate Sumner washes up on shore. She has been raped, her fingers broken, but the boys are more afraid that their father will punish them for ogling the women than they are of finding a body.Then Stephen Harding, a good looking young actor, arrives and reports the discovery to the police. When Constable Nick Ingram shows up, the two men take an instant dislike to each other. To complicate matters, the dead woman's three-year-old daughter, Hannah, turns up wandering the seaside alone.Nick finds out that Harding, who just happened to be on the scene when Kate's body washed ashore and his sailboat just happened to be moored near where Hannah turned up, has stared in and also collects pornography. And the police soon learn he'd lied to them about his relationship with Kate. Not only did he know her, but they'd had a brief fling, which apparently ended badly.However, Kate's older husband William can't be ruled out as a suspect, either. Especially when his rock solid alibi begins to come apart. Nor does it help his defense that his daughter won't speak to anyone, has a disturbing knowledge of sexual practices and throws a fit every time he tries to touch her. The question must be asked, Is she frightened by some memory of her father's involvement in her mother's death?There are enough red herrings in the mix to make us believe each man could be the murderer in this excellent tale, but it's a mystery to me how Ms. Walters can suck you right into a story about such hideous and psychopathic characters. It must be her excellent writing, the way she paints the pictures of this lovely part of the English coast, the way she makes us believe in her people, no matter how much we may dislike them. This is an excellent story, a super mystery, a jolly good whodunit.

This author has settled down into a thoroughly reliablethriller writer. The plotting in this book is compelling although hardly any of the characters are at all appealing. The plot revolves around the sad and tawdry sex lives of the main protagonists and the author achieves this without descending into tawdriness herself.Thoroughly recommeded.

i have now read all of minette walter's books that i could get my hands on, and this was definitely my favorite. everytime you think you know who did it, something changes your mind. i also enjoyed how the different characters evolved throughout the novel. this one (like her others) i couldn't put down til i got to the end. i can't wait til she comes out with another book! one of my favorite things about her books is the way she writes statements in different typefaces, so you always differentiate who is narrating. another is that she always has a map at the front, which i tend to refer back to, just to keep a more accurate track of what's going on. i highly recommend this book.

If you have never read a Minette Walters books before, this is an excellent introduction to her writing. If you have read any of her other books, you will not be disappointed with "The Breaker". From the moment you settle down and read the first chapter, you will find an exploration that you won't want to put down. The mastery of Walters' style is shown here as the story quickly devolves down to only two main suspects, yet the suspense is held to the very end.Definitely a miss-your-stop commuting read!

This was a very well crafted mystery; gripping, suspenseful, horrific in parts. As Walters narrowed the suspects down very early in the book, I found that I spend the rest of the book enjoying her development of the characters. A nice twist!