PC Nick Ingram, first at the murder scene, feels both pity and anger for the murdered woman. He is also suspicious of the stranger who called in the boys' find, a man named Steve Harding who describes himself as an actor and who seems oddly excited by the events he is witness to.

Later the same morning, a blonde toddler is found wandering on her own down a busy sidewalk. A concerned couple take her to the police station, only to find there have been no reports of a missing child.

The murdered woman is identified as Kate Sumner, the abandoned child as her daughter Hannah. Police suspicion soon focuses on two suspects, Kate's husband William, and Steve Harding. William Sumner is a suspect for obvious reasons, and the more the police find out about the Sumner's troubled marriage, the more suspicious William appears. Harding is also a strong suspect, both because he was on the scene when the body was found and because he knew Kate, perhaps even had an affair with her. Both men appear to be keeping secrets.

This is a dark, complex, and somehow intimate mystery. The investigation focuses on two suspects, both with "good" reasons to have committed the murder, and as the evidence is put together, we begin to glimpse the true picture of both the victim and her killer, and the sequence of events that led to her being found on that lonely beach.

Walters handles the many points of view well (something that often does not work for me), though I confess I would have enjoyed more of a personal story, such as seeing more of PC Ingram and the sub-plot involving him and one of the other minor characters, The style will likely appeal to fans of P.D. James and Ruth Rendell; while more plot-driven than many of my favorite novels, the plot is so strong that it carried me along with it, making The Breaker an engrossing read.

--Jeri Wright