The Breaker

Minette Walters' stature and sales record is growing faster than any other crime writer. This stunning new book will continue this spectacular ascent.

Twelve hours after a woman's broken body is washed up on a deserted shore on the south coast of England, her traumatised three-year-old daughter is discovered twenty miles away walking the streets of Poole, alone and apparently abandoned.

Why was Kate Sumner killed and her daughter, a witness, allowed to live? More curiously, why had Kate willingly boarded a boat when she had a terror of drowning at sea?

Police suspicion centres on a young actor, a loner with an obsession for pornography who lies about his relationship with Kate, and whose sailing boat is moored just yards away from where the toddler is found. As the investigation proceeds, attention shifts inexorably towards the murdered woman's husband. Was he really in Liverpool the night she died? And is Kate the 'respectable woman' he claims her to be? And why does their daughter scream every time he tries to pick her up?

About the Author

With her first four novels Minette has established herself as one of the most exciting crime fiction writers today. Two of her novels The Ice House and The Sculptress have been adapted as television dramas by the BBC, and this year The Scold's Bridle , starring Miranda Richardson, will be screened on the BAC. Minette lives in Hampshire with her husband and two children.