Customer Reviews

The Breaker

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Walters is an Edgar Award winning author with books translated into 32 languages. She writes with an edge that keeps the suspense flowing till the very end.

From the cliffs above, two young boys who have slipped out of the house with their parents prized binoculars find a woman viciously murdered on a deserted beach. A glib yet brazen cast of characters comes into play as we slowly watch the constable and his partners unravel the mystery that surrounds Kate Sumner's last days on this earth.

I was torn between the possibilities of the murderer being several of the characters, right up until the end; this to me is the mark of a good mystery. If you are in the mood for a good detective mystery this one will hold your attention. Simon Prebble whose deep and distinguished voice is pleasant to the ear and adds to the telling of the story, narrates the book on tape. I would give this book 3.5 stars. Kelsana 12/17/01

Minette Walters offers us the tale of a young woman whose nude and battered body is found washed ashore from the sea while her young toddler daughter is found wandering alone in a nearby village. As events unfold we learn about the suspects: her obsessive research scientist husband and the self-obsessed actor who summoned police to her body. Throw in pornography, drugs, scuzzy friends, and a blossoming romance for the local policeman and you've got the recipe for a well-rounded whodunit.

This was a relatively quick read, but, as with all murder mysteries, details were important. I confess I wasn't certain about the killer's identity until the end. The plot was evenly paced and the personalities of the various characters were well presented.

...and not at all what I expected from Minnette Walters. Where the Dark Room and The Echo and all of her other books are intricate puzzles, bending and twisting in on themselves, this books was sadly plodding and straight forward.

At first, I found the mystery of the dead woman, and the lost little girl to be tense, but the tension rapidly disappeared into boredom. It took me two weeks to read this book, and it never takes me any more than four hours. The back and forth red herrings that led first to the husband, then to the boyfriend, and back again got tired very quickly, especially as none of teh twists were either original, or unexpected.

The only good characters were the rural policeman (his mild romance with the owner of a local stable barely keeping her head above water was the only really interesting part of the book.) and the dead woman, and then only real mystery was teh sea itself.

If you want a good mystery, read The Dark Room, or The Sculptress. Definitely skip this one.

The Breaker was a very good book. It kept you guessing who the killer was until the very end. I mean you think you would have it figured out and then the cops would find another clue to fool you. But overall I thought it was a very well written book with a good plot and good characters.

Walters added in a murder/mystery with a love story to attract all kinds of readers. Even if you are accustomed to reading only love stories, The Breaker can still be a book you would enjoy. It may even attract you to different genres of books. From the very first page, Walter's is able to capture the reader's attention and still keep them guessing until the end. This thriller begins with a woman who is raped and murdered by an anonymous killer and later discovered on an almost deserted beach. "She drifted with the waves, falling off their rolling backs and waking to renewed agony every time salt water seared down her throat and into her stomach. During intermittent periods of lucidity when she revisited, always with astonishment, what had happened to her, it was the deliberate breaking of her fingers that remained indelibly printer on her memory, and not the brutality of her rape." (prologue) The Breaker was an interesting book that I would definitely recommend.

The Breaker written by Minette Walters is an okay book. The beginning of the book is really good. It goes through talking about suspects. As the book goes on you start realizing whom the suspect is. Before the book gets halfway done you know who the killer is. That makes the end of the book bad. By the time it gets to the end there is no point in finishing it. If she would've let the climax wait till the end it would have been a great book.

The Breaker by Minette Walters is an exciting murder mystery that keeps you guessing to the very end. At the beginning, Walters gives a brief suspect list, and you begin to think that you already know who the killer is, but throughout the book new developments come up that make you question your decision. The Breaker contains a very unique writing style that I had never seen before. Minette Walters includes police interviews, suspect affidavits, and investigation reports. These greatly contribute to the plot because the reader gets a new perspective, one through the eyes of the investigators and townspeople. Normally, the reader sees the story through the eyes of one of the main characters, but in The Breaker I was exposed to multiple views. These helped me to determine who the guilty party was by seeing the entire aspect of their life. If you're looking for a unique murder mystery, coupled with extensive character development and multiple plots, go out today and read The Breaker.

Minette Walters has given us a novel that is not so much a thriller as it is simply an enjoyable book. The ending certainly lacks the traditional twist and suspense but the trip to the end makes this one of the more enjoyable books I have read this fall. I took this book on a week trip to Mexico and it was never out of reach. The story begins with a body washed up on the breakers and from this point Walters moves through the lives of the people of the Dorset region of southern England. There are several suspects for sure. Each with their own reasons for thinking murder. The sexual relationships of the characters are well documented in a mostly tasteful manner. The book keeps you moving right up to the end thats where I have my only problem. The ending has very little rush, just reason. Do not let the lack of thrill in the end detract from the enjoyment of the journey. A well written book. I grade hard and 3 stars is not bad.

My first thought on this novel is ... don't spend any money on it! Borrow it from a friend or a library. First of all, I don't have to much insight on English policing, so when they named officers I wasn't sure which were officers or detectives and such. I often had to back track tring to keep names straight, thus taking the book longer to read.

The plot wasn't bad, although I knew who the murderer was from the beginning. A woman is found dead on a shore of Chapman's Pool by two young boys. The murdered womans credibility is thrashed,her motives questioned and her parenting skills abolished all to find her murderer. Unlike other reviewers, I liked the occasional drifts from the main story, to Nick Ingram and Maggie Jenner, no these parts of the novel do not have anything to do with the main plot, but its a nice escape from all the technical jumbo.

All in all this book was O.K., I probably wont read it again...

This is suppose to be a mystery novel isn't it? This book lacked the suspense that previous efforts by Mrs. Walters has had. I found many of the characters one dimensional and flat. I kept reading waiting for the twist only to be disappointed. Not one of her best efforts.