Shattered (published in 2000) - Written by Dick Francis, another murder investigation

Gerard Logan is justifiably distraught. Martin Stukely, Priam Jones, Lloyd Baxter and Gerard had driven to the Cheltenham races, it’s New Year’s Eve, 1999. Sadly, of the four, only three men return. Martin loses his life when his mount crushes him in the race. The jockey Stukely and professional glass blower Logan (proprietor Logan Glass) had first met in a jury room, and although they had little in common, the men came to enjoy and shared a great camaraderie. But now, Martin is dead.
Gerard owns a charming glass art studio in a picturesque part of the Cotswold. He earns a decent living selling art to tourists and locals.
As the remaining three friends leave the racecourse, they are met with Eddie Payne, Stukely’s valet, who hands over a videotape to Gerard, telling him that Martin had planned on giving him the tape after the races.
On his way from work at his art studio, Gerard decides to stop by at a local pub, leaving the tape in the studio - bad idea. In his absence, the place is ransacked and the tape stolen. Also, Martin’s widow – Bon-Bon suffers the same fate, as her home is raided. Gerard is assaulted in his studio a few days later, the masked men demand that he disclose the whereabouts of the tape to them - funny, didn’t they have it already? When he does get his hands on the tape, Logan is shocked to see Ed (the valet), his daughter Rose and wily bookie Norman Osprey in the film - there is a fourth person present, whom Gerard cannot recognize.




Later, Logan finds out that the fourth entity is one Dr. Adam Force, described to be ‘a very plausible con man.’ The doctor has stolen audio visual material related to cancer research, a priceless boon to many sufferers. Could the tape be the one with all these goodies in it? Gerard almost gets killed many times over in the process of finding out! There are a million questions on his mind - why would the trespassers steal every single videotape in the Stuckely home? Why should they believe that he, Gerard, is aware of the tape’s possessor?
In the end, Gerard chooses to honor Martin’s memory by creating a trophy - a horse leaping over a crystal ball - featured on the cover of the hardback version of Shattered. The villains in the story are indefatigable, especially Rose Payne. Kudos to Dick Francis for his range of characters - Michelin starred chefs, solicitors, meteorologists, and now a professional glass blower. Like all of Francis’s characters in the main lead, Gerard is drawn into reluctant heroism and triumphs, but is self effacing and therefore makes no fuss over his heroism!
The story is interesting, holds the readers imagination for quite a bit, although the equine backdrop is somewhat subtle, the only reference made to horses and racing – begins and end with Martin Stuckely’s fateful death. Shattered, sadly, the fortieth book, would be his last with wife Mary, who died shortly after the release of the novel. He dedicated Shattered to England’s Queen Mother on her hundredth birthday; incidentally, Francis had served as jockey to her and Queen Elizabeth as well.

Dr. Death (Published in 2000) - Authored by Jonathan Kellerman

The Humanitron had taken fifty lives. And now, its final victim was the inventor of the pieced together death machine - Dr. Eldon Mate aka Dr. Death, but the IV bottles with potassium chloride and thiopental hooked to his arms are just a cloak behind which the actual cause of death is hidden. Injury to the head, castration - in fact, the doctor was bled through eight cuts. Macabre.
No secret that many would’ve kicked their heels up in joy at the news of Mate’s death, actually, there were many you’d suspect wouldn’t mind murdering the man or getting someone else to do it for them - the Church, supremacists, proponents of religious & moral conservatism - the list is endless. For his part, Eldon has many shades to his character - his surname for instance , could vulgarly be translated to mean the obvious, however, ‘mate’ in Spanish also means ‘to kill’ (he is survived by his widow, who being of Latin origin may have given him this useful insight into the nomenclature of his name!). All said and done, Eldon is far from likeable, as his post-life profiling reveals - he willingly assists anyone for any reason, walking the tight rope between morality, ethics and just pure thrill for kill.
The man of the hour is Alex Delaware, who makes his fourteenth appearance with Sturgis - the two team up to create a profile of the killer as well as set out to map the road taken by him or her that led to the horrific death of Eldon Mate. However, the two friends experience a slight turbulence, as Milo is offended that Alex should invoke doctor-patient secrecy and sanctity, by not giving him details of his dealings with one of the ‘travelers’ (as the incumbents awaiting death were referred to) relatives. Joanna Doss, the late wife of Richard Doss, a real estate developer, was one such traveler who was brought on board by her daughter Stacy. Joanna was being suffered immensely before she sought Eldon’s help - unbeknownst to Richard. The impropriety of discussing his patient’s revelations weighs heavily on the relationship which Milo and Delaware have shared for years.



The other suspect is an obsessive FBI Agent, Leimart Fusco, who has been trailing the suspect of many euthanasia-related deaths in healthcare facilities, and several other ‘mercy killers’, one of whom has a taste for psychopathic geometrical carving of corpses, who would vie for Eldon’s shoes are also suspect. Even his own son - who was abandoned, and lives on the fringes of society is on the list. The interesting aspect of the story is the network Kellerman creates while building up to the climax, while many readers have found it somewhat disappointing, one appreciates the effort taken to build the crescendo.
Kellerman brings in Detective Petra Connor who has a cameo appearance (her own novels being Survival of the Fittest, Billy Straight). His writing is short and layered at the same time - the average person has no difficulty understanding the shades, without any intellectual maneuvering to do. Implied inspiration from the real life Dr. Death - Dr. Jack Kevorkian – this thriller is a must, great weekend read, difficult to put down!