Review by briatyne -- Breakers by Barry Litherland

[briatyne]

[Following is a volunteer review of "Breakers" by Barry Litherland.]

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3 out of 4 stars

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There’s a storm brewing in the town of Portskail; bodies washing up on shore, an imaginary friend that might not be quite so imaginary, and the mysterious death of a local fisherman are all only the tip of the iceberg in this small town on the coasts of Scotland that acts as the setting for Breakers, an engrossing paranormal crime thriller by Barry Litherland.

While the book offers several points of view, it primarily follows young fisherman Billy McArdle, who gets into a boatload of trouble with a violent gang, a bad situation made even worse by the addition of drugs, illegal immigrants, and the mysterious death of his childhood friend. This situation brings Billy into tempestuous contact with Clive, the new guy who has arrived in town ahead of his wife and son with a host of secrets of his own, who quickly finds himself caught up in the brewing mysteries of Portskail’s past and present.

While I initially had some difficulty getting properly invested in the story for the first few chapters, primarily due to the constant jumping between different points of views and time periods, the intrigue of how these different story lines were ultimately going to connect kept me going. The author deftly crafts an effective mystery, with elements of crime and paranormal activity both contributing to create an exhilarating reading experience for a wide range of adult audiences.

Something that is especially worth nothing is the masterful use of setting and atmosphere in the storytelling process. The town itself is as much a character as Billy and Clive, and the way that the author is able to create such a lush and vivid image in the reader’s mind of this place is truly next level. It is this skill in particular that easily elevated what could have been simply a run-of-the-mill crime story into a deeply atmospheric and smoldering mystery, with plenty of twists and chills that will keep your eyes glued to the page.

The one notable problem that I did have with the book was in its method of switching between each characters point of view. All of the POV characters are written in the first person, but there is little to no change in the writing style to clearly differentiate between each individual character, which can potentially make it difficult for the reader to discern where they are in the story.

Ultimately, I rate this book 3 out of 4.

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Breakers
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