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The
Breaker
is Minette Walters sixth novel, it is also the first I have read so far.
My favorite mystery writer being Ruth Rendell (followed by Elizabeth George and
P.D. James), I am often reluctant to discover new authors. Why? Simply because in my opinion,
worse than a bad novel is a bad mystery novel…
Let me explain:
A mystery novel can fail in many ways: the characters lack depth, the plot is
too simple, or, what a disappointment!, the outcome is foreseeable…
Or else, you
realize after reading three books by one author that he or she tells the same
story over and over again, changing the characters and some twists of the plot,
like Mary Higgins Clark, the Barbara Cartland of the mystery novel…
Clark usually follows the same steps:
1) A disappearing connected to a murder that happened years
ago
2)
People who know something that would enable the
murderer to be found but
they won’t
say it, until…
3) Somebody finally talks and the person is
saved at the last minute…
I’m
oversimplifying, but it’s still real close…
A
mystery book can be enjoyable for many different reasons too: even if the characters are a bit
stereotyped, the plot is twisted enough and here comes the big surprise at the
end...
These are Agatha Christie’s novels (who used to be my favorite before
I discovered Rendell).
Although…after you have read some of her novels, she becomes
quite predictable too: just follow the rule of “who seems the less guilty”; it often works… But of course Christie is one of the great ancestors of the
genre, and I still can spend a pleasant time reading her books.
Ruth Rendell has a completely different style, and if her Wexford mysteries are
more classical, her novels generally build suspense through the atmosphere and
the psychological complexity
of her characters.
But we’re not discussing Rendell here;
let’s
come back to Minette Walters…Well, she’s not Rendell, that’s for sure... But her novel is interesting nonetheless, and innovative in many ways.
The
plot is the following (I’m not going to give away the end!):
In The Breaker, a young woman is found dead on a beach, along the coast
of Southern England. The author skillfully orients the suspicion toward different
people connected to the victim, until the final revelation is broken.
What
makes this mystery interesting is how Walter
constructed it:
Walters
is much more realistic than many other mystery writers; for all the
preceding reasons, plus the fact that unlike many she doesn’t have
a
fetish inspector: her policemen and policewomen characters work as a team
and the conviction of the murderer is the result of their combined
efforts, not the consequence of a sudden inspiration of a Holmes-like
genius. In that she is probably much closer to the truth about murder
enquiries…
As
a conclusion, even if Walters didn’t quite fulfill my expectations for
the perfect
mystery (but then my expectations are very high!), I will definitely give a
try to another one of her novels...
Rating: 
© Discussing Books, 2000 |
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