Fractured by Catherine McKenzie

Amazon Publishing | October 2016 | 349 pgs

Source: Library

Secrets and insanity. Yeah, I think these about sums up what's happening in this story. I've to admit I'd have given this book a miss (perhaps it's the cover) if I didn't read the reviews from a few of my book blogging friends. 

This story is told from two POVs - Julie Prentice and John Dunbar and a non-linear time frame. Julie is the bestselling author of The Murder Game* and is happily married with two kids. However, she is bothered by a stalker and has since moved to Mount Adams in Cincinnati. But the new place doesn't offer her much peace as she has hoped. With a tight knit community and a set of (ridiculous) rules to comply, she feels like an outsider except for John, whom she feels an instant connection with since she has moved into Mount Adams and it makes better that they just live across from each other. They run together often, too, but that's because Julie has no running partner and that it's always safer to run in pairs, especially after what Julie had gone through to shake off from her stalker. 

John Dunbar, on the other hand, sympathies Julie's situation yet he is drawn to her (more like BFF) although he loves his family and is a devoted father, too. His friendship with Julie begins to bother his wife and with that tight knit community it's easy to blow things out of proportions even if a small act could appear innocent and harmless. 

Fractured is one addicting fast-paced psychological thriller. Well, I can't really say it's a hardcore thriller since it seems more like a case of character study packed with some marital issues. Most of the characters are unlikeable, though I did sympathise one or two of them. Mount Adams itself is an interesting setting where everyone seems to know what's everyone doing (thanks to a self-nominated Chairwoman/housewife who seems to think she is responsible and owns the whole of Mount Adams with her controlling rules and regulations) and I think this overall atmosphere adds more intensity to the already foreboding setting. Readers are aware that some bad things have happened but don't know what and why until the truth hit them as the story slowly unfolds. This is a well crafted layered story; one I didn't expect and although it is good storytelling the characters left me feeling sour and hollow.


* The Murder Game, written by Catherine McKenzie as Julie Apple (yes, she's Julie Prentice in Fractured) is another book readers wouldn't want to miss. A fiction based from a fiction, how cool is that? 

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