thedailychannel.com — recommended books

Shattered
by Dick Francis

As soon as the Gerard Logan, the glassblower hero of Shattered, is handed a videotape, you just know it's going to get stolen before he finds out what's on it. And don't you think the bad guy (or guys) will assume that our hero DOES know?

I've always liked the heroes of Dick Francis novels, mostly for their independence and strength of character. They're sympathetic, too. I always feel bad for them when they get beat up or tortured.

The baddies are bad, too, sometimes frighteningly bad, even when not fully believeable, as here. May I say, however, that Shattered is not quite up to the standard of prior novels? It was a little rough in the interior -- so much so that I nearly put it down once or twice before finally finishing it at 3:00 a.m.

I will say that the glassblowing scenes had particular fascination for me, as I had only weeks before been out on the floor of a glassblowing 'hot shop'. If I had realized what can sometimes occur, I doubt I would have been out there at all.

If you want a good exciting read, canter on over to amazon.com and pick up a copy of Shattered, by Dick Francis

reviewed Saturday April 14, 2001