The Reading Frenzy

Shattered
Karen Robards
G. P. Putnam’s Sons
388 pages

Deep in thoroughbred county Lisa Grant has come home to be with her mother dying of ALS. Working for the DA’s office she stumbles across a photo that’s like looking in a mirror, but asking questions about the woman and her family that went missing 30 years ago is like opening Pandora’s Box, she needs help and she turns to her boss local DA Scott Buchanan who she’s known for years and lusted after almost as long. Scott Buchanan son of the town drunk and all around no account father has made good for himself by hard work and it’s brought him to the pinnacle of his career, being the DA. His long time nemesis coming home to be with her ailing mother asks him for a job, even though he knows it’s a terrible idea, he does it. It’s a terrible idea because he’s been having illicit thoughts about her since before it was legal to do so. But she’s here and she’s in trouble and he’s the only one that can help. But there’s trouble in paradise and it seems to surround Lisa wherever she goes. Scott is determined to help her, but in doing so he finds more than physical danger also the danger of loosing his heart.
Karen Robards gives us a spine tingling mystery/thriller and a sensual romantic suspense in one terrific read. The plot takes us to the privileged in horseracing and the underbelly of society and does it with page turning excitement. Her dialogue is precise and yet flows fluidly throughout the novel. Her depictions of the lifestyle of the rich and famous brought down to earth really resonated with me and made the characters more real. And speaking of the characters, her hero Scott is the man that all mother’s want their sons to turn out to become and he’s made ever more human with all the ghosts of his pasts that only increase his attraction to the readers. The heroine Lisa is someone you may want to despise because of her lofty beginnings, but when she’s brought down to earth not only by her mother’s illness but also because of financial difficulty the audience will find itself championing for this unlikely star. Her co starring characters are a very solid addition to the telling of the story. Her love story is honest and heartbreaking, it’s intense and sensual and it makes you want to cheer for them. The love scenes are extremely physical with a great deal of carnality to tempt the purest of us and yet there is also a feeling of that Grand Passion that most of us find so elusive.
But don’t be fooled by the romance because there is an incredible mystery inside this fast paced page-turner with all the requirements that a true mystery fan looks for, a great who-done-it. So all you mystery and romantic suspense fans alike will find just what you’re looking for in Shattered which is #9 on this weeks NY Times Best Seller list.