Rating: 
Summary: Boring and predictable...
Review: ...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.
Rating: 
Summary: A Jolly Good Whodunit
Review: Two young brothers are spying on swimmers through binoculars when the nude body of pregnant Kate Sumner washes up on shore. She has been raped, her fingers broken, but the boys are more afraid that their father will punish them for ogling the women than they are of finding a body. Then Stephen Harding, a good looking young actor, arrives and reports the discovery to the police. When Constable Nick Ingram shows up, the two men take an instant dislike to each other. To complicate matters, the dead woman's three-year-old daughter, Hannah, turns up wandering the seaside alone. Nick finds out that Harding, who just happened to be on the scene when Kate's body washed ashore and his sailboat just happened to be moored near where Hannah turned up, has stared in and also collects pornography. And the police soon learn he'd lied to them about his relationship with Kate. Not only did he know her, but they'd had a brief fling, which apparently ended badly. However, Kate's older husband William can't be ruled out as a suspect, either. Especially when his rock solid alibi begins to come apart. Nor does it help his defense that his daughter won't speak to anyone, has a disturbing knowledge of sexual practices and throws a fit every time he tries to touch her. The question must be asked, Is she frightened by some memory of her father's involvement in her mother's death? There are enough red herrings in the mix to make us believe each man could be the murderer in this excellent tale, but it's a mystery to me how Ms. Walters can suck you right into a story about such hideous and psychopathic characters. It must be her excellent writing, the way she paints the pictures of this lovely part of the English coast, the way she makes us believe in her people, no matter how much we may dislike them. This is an excellent story, a super mystery, a jolly good whodunit.
Rating: 
Summary: She's a wonderful writer; the mystery is fair.
Review: I agree with most of the previous reviewers that the mystery wasn't too difficult to figure out. I think the present book, "The Breaker," is a wonderful read if you like good writing, but the mystery is a bit stilted. However, I think Minette Walters is a gifted writer. Her characters (both major and minor) jump off the page and the dialogue is believable. In all of her books, she's great at developing her characters. I particularly like the fact that all of them are flawed, even the protagonists. What's really good: She has no reoccurring characters through her books. They're all new and different - a new cast of characters to discover and enjoy.
Rating:
Summary: Good psychological thriller...
Review: My wife got me to read this book, and I liked it enough to give it 5 stars. We've watched the PBS Mysteries based on Walters books, and I find her characters reflect her understanding of male and female psychology. I am a counselor--deal mostly with abused women--and I cannot begin to tell you how many abusive, egocentric males live in our midst. They don't have a rational explanation for why they break fingers, arms, legs, hips, jaws, or heads. Walters is apparently aware of this problem. The "Breaker" has a double meaning. Yes, the victim is found floating in water with her fingers broken, but 'breaker' is also a term for the waves that break as they come into shore and roll over a patch of rocks. The victim is broken and found in the breakers. Also, the breaker 'breaks' the family as he kills the mother. There are three suspects. The one most people probably overlooked is the best suspect and the one I thought did it until near the end.
Rating:
Summary: You can count on this author....
Review: This isn't "The Ice House" but Minnette Walters writes extremely well, and on a bad day is better than most other writers in her genre. Every story I've read--and I've read them all--is self contained, so we never know who is bad, who is good or who is guilty--it could even be the policeman investigating the crime. Walters used to write romances, which may be why there's always a little love interest in her books--not unwelcome by this reader. She doesn't write soap operas with self-absorbed, shallow characters however. Her characters are less-than-perfect as most of us are, but attempting to live relatively happy lives. Some you remember long afterward. Who could forget "The Sculptress". Walter's plots are good to excellent--this one is excellent--and she ties the loose ends together. "The Breaker is a sad book, but some of the characters see a glimmer of hope at the end. The victim was not above reproach, but she was loved, and she left a small child behind. The killer is a misogynist not surprisingly, but a huge misunderstanding has caused him to become a murderer. The main character in this book is the southcoast of England. Anglophiles like me will love Walter's description of the coastal area just southwest of Southhampton (her maps helped, but drag out your own just for fun). Her discription of the role of the tides and currents in the crime scene is fascinating. Oh, that's another thing Walters does, her homework.
Rating:
Summary: She's a wonderful writer; the mystery is fair.
Review: I agree with most of the previous reviewers that the mystery wasn't too difficult to figure out. I think the present book, "The Breaker," is a wonderful read if you like good writing, but the mystery is a bit stilted. However, I think Minette Walters is a gifted writer. Her characters (both major and minor) jump off the page and the dialogue is believable. In all of her books, she's great at developing her characters. I particularly like the fact that all of them are flawed, even the protagonists. What's really good: She has no reoccurring characters through her books. They're all new and different - a new cast of characters to discover and enjoy.
Rating: 
Summary: A British who-dun-it.
Review: 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
Rating:
Summary: Well executed .....
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: Solid, not spectacular, bounce between 2 suspects
Review: In many ways, this is a good read. I enjoyed the world of coastal England. It was also refreshing to have the local constabulary solve the crime without Scotland Yard (which rarely leaves London these days). I enjoyed the use of interviews and reports to give the reader some different points of view. I stayed up late to finish this book. Still, something was lacking. Maybe it was the less than sympathic victim. It's hard to make a 30 year mother unlikeable and deserving of death but Kate Sumner may be that character. The use of only two suspects was at times intriguing but left me feeling a little like a tennis ball after a long volley. I'll admit that I cheated and read the ending ahead of time. That may have actually improved this read since I was concentrating on how they'd unmask the killer, not who was the killer. The police procedural part was fairly interesting.
Rating:
Summary: Exciting and Mysterious
Review: 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.
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