Shattered

Glassblower Gerard Logan finds himself in the middle of a mystery when his friend jockey Martin Stukely dies at Cheltenham. Martin had given his friend Gerard a videotape to take care of since he had a nosy wife and four curious children.

Unfortunately, Gerard loses the tape when his shop is entered, and the tape and his day's take is stolen. What makes it even more unfortunate is that those who want the tape don't believe that Gerard doesn't know where it is.

Gerard has two problems. The first is identifying who wants the tape enough to hurt him and search his home for it. Second, he needs to know what is on the tape. Finding it would be good too. He gathers friends as he searches including a new girlfriend in the form of the police show more officer who first appears to document the shop break-in and thefts.

As he searches, he comes ever closer to answering all of his questions. But someone has to die before all the answers are found.

This was another excellent mystery by Dick Francis. As in many, he builds a strong, smart hero. This one also had all sorts of interesting facts about glassmaking. show less

When jockey Martin Stukely dies after a fall at Cheltenham, he accidentally embroils his friend Gerard Logan in a perilous search for a stolen videotape.

Logan is a glass-blower on the verge of widespread acclaim for the originality of his work. Long accustomed to the frightful dangers inherent in molten glass and in maintaining a glass-making furnace at seldom less than 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit, Logan is suddenly faced with terrifying threats to his livelihood, his courage and, finally, to his life, as he seeks to find the truth. The final race to the tape throws more hazards in Logan's way than his dead jockey friend could have imagined.

A glassblower and a jockey have an unlikely friendship. The jockey takes an unfortunate fall and passes away, and his valet delivers a VHS tape to the glassblower. As they ring in the new year the glassblower is robbed, including the VHS tape. And the trouble is just beginning.

I have loved Dick Francis books for decades and this is no exception. The characters pop, the plot is fast paced, the romance is present without being overpowering. This was my first time reading this one but I imagine I'd read it again and enjoy it.

Shattered is an imaginative but awkward tale published in 2000 by veteran writer Dick Francis at the age of 80. Horse-racing plays only a peripheral role; in fact the protagonist is a professional glass-blower named Gerard Logan. The plot centers around a mysterious videotape passed to Logan by his friend, a jockey (who meets his death in a racing accident in the first few pages of the book). The video is stolen from Gerard that very night and he, as well as a collection of vicious rogues, spend the book searching for it. The rogues are after the tape under the strange misconception that its contents are worth millions of dollars, and they are willing to torture and kill in order to get it. As it turns out, the tape contains scientific show more data that might lead to a cure for cancer, a strangely incongruous element that serves as a classic "MacGuffin" in the plot.

The reader learns much information about the procedures of glassblowing (which the author reveals, was gathered by his wife as a long-term collaborator on his novels) -- I found this information both interesting and unexpected. Glassblowing figures in the story's climax in two ways. The criminal thugs invade Gerard's shop, and their cruel and sadistic leader, Rose, tries to use the dangerous, molten glass to force Gerard to talk (ultimately she ends up killing a police detective) and wounding others. In addition, Gerard fashions a large glass horse (to be awarded as a major prize to the winner of the horse racing competition.) He purposely fails to anneal the piece in the furnace, and at a key moment (timed carefully by Gerard), it shatters (as the outside cools too fast to house the molten inside) -- sending dangerous shards of glass everywhere, sufficient to divert and immobilize the criminals. A less skilled writer might have had the shattering glass kill Rose and her band of thugs, but Francis doesn't opt for such an obvious climax. Further, as in many of his other novels, the torments that the protagonist undergoes are not compensated by a sufficiently cathartic retribution on the miscreants, making the ending more realistic and understated than in many popular works of crime fiction.

Reviewers of Shattered at Amazon and Goodreads mostly liked the story. However, some judge it as far from the quality of the author's best work. Below are links to two reviews that I found especially meritorious:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-reviews/R1QKB85TDYSDJE/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_tt...

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2439233307?book_show_action=false&from... show less

You kind of know what to expect with Dick Francis, a bit of light entertainment; not much more, not much less. This isn't one of his better books, but fun none-the-less. The main character is a glass-blower, which is kind of unusual. I've taken exact one glass blowing class (therefore I'm an expert :-) ), I found the glass blowing details very interesting and the denouement fairly believable (again due to my vast experience with glass blowing).

The last of my unread Dick Francis mysteries. Three with Felix remaining to read.

I enjoyed Shattered, despite a couple of hunh moments when a plot device seemed too contrived. Otherwise very good, and classic Francis style.

Pretty good. Not one of my favorites, but interesting characters, interesting angle for the main character (glassblowing), pretty good story. Even if he did screw up badly near the end. Other than that a standard Francis - tough guy in a bad situation, solves it partly with brains and largely by being tougher than the bad guys. Oh, and gets a girl in the middle of it.