Shatter

January 5, 2009
Winner of Australia’s Ned Kelly Award for Best Novel, Robotham’s compelling fourth thriller (after The Night Ferry
) finds clinical psychologist Joe O’Loughlin and his family in Somerset, where he teaches part-time at the University of Bath. When Joe fails to persuade a suicidal woman not to leap from a bridge to her death, he becomes obsessed with understanding the woman’s motives. The woman’s grief-stricken teenage daughter tracks down Joe, but the police don’t take notice until another woman ends up dead under suspicious circumstances. Joe calls on an old friend, retired London detective inspector Vincent Ruiz, and together they race to catch a killer who uses psychological techniques Joe recognizes from his own practice to destroy people. Robotham smoothly mixes Joe’s investigation and personal struggles with glimpses into the killer’s mind. Even the sharpest readers may not anticipate all of the plot’s agile switchbacks or foresee the chilling climax.