Shards

By Tom Piccirilli

Book Overview

After the break-up of his latest relationship, Nathaniel Follows meets beautiful, wealthy, and melancholy Susan Hartford; their rapport is immediate. She invites him to her home for a grandiose birthday celebration, and Nathaniel finds that Susan's life is not as enviable as it seems - in the midst of the gathering he realizes there is a wall of fear around her, and that her self-deprecation has a decidedly violent streak.Susan is both mentally and physically scarred, and after a brief sexual interlude with Follows, she jumps to her death from a window in the Hartford's palatial Southampton home Helpless to have prevented her death, and unsure of what part he's played in it, Nathaniel grows obsessed with understanding the cause of her suicide.In his search he learns that she had a cocaine habit supplied by her former boyfriend, a classy, amiable, yet dangerous nightclub owner. The wounds, welts and scars cross-thatching her body were caused with sadistic precision by a genuine master at inflicting pain. The trail leads him to both Susan's ex-boyfriend - a polite and bookwormish man on the outside, but a loose cannon within - and to her sister, Jordan Hartford, a woman with her own ferocious tastes.As he hunts he is hunted, barely surviving attempts on his life. Growing increasingly fixated, and stumbling over the shards of his own life as repressed memories of his brother's crimes seep into the present, Nathaniel finds himself trapped between the police, who are suspicious of his involvement, and the forces lurking behind Susan Hartford's death. Shards is a mystery at its best, but it's also the story of living with the pain of the past - or dying of it.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1948929805
• ISBN13: 9781948929806
• Release Date: June 2018
• Publisher: Gordian Knot Books
• Length: 182 Pages
• Weight: 0.48 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 5.5" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Brilliantly witty, and a great story, too!

Shards is simply a great read. Piccirilli writes wonderfully; he doesn't just tell a great story; he fashions that story with so much style and humor that the reader hesitates to skip even a single sentence for fear of missing something. Shards is like a fusion of Fletch and Lethal Weapon; it's tough and smart and fast paced and spiced by some of the wittiest one-liners I have ever encountered. I liked this book so much that, having finished it, I immediately bought everything available by Picirilli, and have yet to find any book which deserves less than a four or five star rating.

A wild, weird, and thrilling mystery

SHARDS is an outstanding novel that has an atmosphere like no other book I've ever read. Like its title, the protagonist of SHARDS has been shattered by trauma as a child and rebuilt himself into a hero. The balance between horror, humor, crime, and humanity works to perfection. Definitely check it out!

A creepy, edgy, dark mystery that is top-notch!!

SHARDS by Tom PiccirilliSHARDS starts out with a writer, Nathaniel Follows, going on a binge after the breakup with his girlfriend. He meets with a mysterious, rich girl Susan Hartford. She invites him to her B-day party the next day and that's when the s*** hits the fan. Something surprising happens at the party and Nathaniel must pick up the shards (get it?) of pieces to solve the puzzle. Along the way we follow Nathaniel trying to get at the bottom of it all and when we all realize what's going on, I was shocked, mad and spellbound. High energy, hilarious dialogue and true motivations behind the characters actions. Highly Recommended.

spellbinding

SHARDS starts out with a writer, Nathaniel Follows, going on a binge after the breakup with his girlfriend. He meets with a mysterious, rich girl Susan Hartford. She invites him to her B-day party the next day and that's when the* hits the fan. Something surprising happens at the party and Nathaniel must pick up the shards (get it?) of pieces to solve the puzzle. Along the way we follow Nathaniel trying to get at the bottom of it all and when we all realize what's going on, I was shocked, mad and spellbound. High energy, hilarious dialogue and true motivations behind the characters actions. Highly Recommended.

another winner

I'm a fan of all of Tom Piccirilli's novels, but SHARDS is perhaps my favorite. Dark but with plenty of humor, believable characters, and plenty of hardboiled-type mystery. You won't find a better fusion of intensity and wit.