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Fractured
Fractured
Fractured
Audiobook9 hours

Fractured

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

4/5

()

About this audiobook

Welcome, neighbor!

Julie Prentice and her family move across the country to the idyllic Mount Adams district of Cincinnati, hoping to evade the stalker who’s been terrorizing them ever since the publication of her bestselling novel, The Murder Game. Since Julie doesn’t know anyone in her new town, when she meets her neighbor John Dunbar, their instant connection brings measured hope for a new beginning. But she never imagines that a simple, benign conversation with him could set her life spinning so far off course.

We know where you live…

After a series of misunderstandings, Julie and her family become the target of increasingly unsettling harassment. Has Julie’s stalker found her, or are her neighbors out to get her, too? As tension in the neighborhood rises, new friends turn into enemies, and the results are deadly.

LanguageEnglish
Release dateOct 4, 2016
ISBN9781531830687
Fractured
Author

Catherine McKenzie

Catherine McKenzie was born and raised in Montreal, Canada. A graduate of McGill University in history and law, Catherine practiced law for twenty years before leaving to write full time. An avid runner, skier, and tennis player, she’s the author of numerous bestsellers including I’ll Never Tell and The Good Liar. Her works have been translated into multiple languages and I’ll Never Tell and Please Join Us have been optioned for development into television series. Visit her at CatherineMcKenzie.com or follow her on Twitter @CEMcKenzie1 or Instagram @CatherineMcKenzieAuthor.

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Reviews for Fractured

Rating: 3.983673408435374 out of 5 stars
4/5

735 ratings60 reviews

What our readers think

Readers find this title to be a captivating and well-written book. The story keeps readers engaged and guessing until the very end. The characters are well-established and the narration is excellent. It is a book that listeners would consider revisiting. Overall, this title is highly recommended for fans of the genre.

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  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    From the beginning of this book to the end you are waiting for another shoe to drop, on the edge of your seat with your heart in your throat.Moving thousand of miles from a known stalker, should have been a new start for Daniel and Julie, but things are beginning again, and all thoughts are about the original person, Hannah, whom Julie has know since she was in college.Now it seems they have moved into the neighborhood that seems to be run by a dictator. All through the book you get a feeling that someone might end up dead, but who, and how could that happen again?If you enjoy suspense and drama this story is abounding in it, and once you start, you will be at the end in no time!I received this book through Lake Union Publishing and was not required to give a positive review.

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    While I like the author’s approach and turn of phrase, this story dragged on too long and was confusing. I had to listen again to make I understood who was in the accident. I didn’t get the John/Julie relationship other than they were attracted to one another. Catherine’s story seems to be dropped in for convenience. And Chris and Ashley? Whoa - talk about teens needing counseling or at least phones removed. I think John was a slacker and Hanna had more issues than revealed. Interesting that Hanna and Julie both had a law background but this coincidence was never noted. It was okay, but not her best.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This series is awesome and if you haven’t started it, be prepared for some major lack of sleep and binge reading!
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Loved it… avid listener to this genre and I couldn’t stop… a bit confusing at times but nothing to keep you from it!! Really good!!!
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    When I first started reading this book I thought it was a standalone but quickly realized it was the next book in a series which started with Triptych. The story starts with a woman arriving home and finding her door open and the window glass smashed. She thinks of her daughter and runs up the stairs but at the top of the stairs she sees a girl obviously murdered (presumably her daughter) and a man kneeling next to her with a knife in her hand. She screams and runs down the stairs, she falls down the stairs, the man follows, grabs her legs, she kicks him, gets on top of him and strangles him to death. A very exciting start and things slowly unravel to not be as they first appeared. This was an enjoyable mystery with lots of turns in the plot and a satisfying solution. However, I expected more from a Karin Slaughter book. I'm used to using the word "gruesome" to describe her books and this was nowhere near that calibre which is somewhat a shame since the first book in this new series, Triptych, was an incredibly brutal and intricately woven story. I honestly felt that for some reason Slaughter was purposefully trying to tone down the stomach-turning details of her previous works and that is not what I expected. The book ends on an obvious note that there will be more books in this series. The main characters from this book appear as minor characters in a few of her other Grant Country series books so I would suggest starting from the beginning with Karin Slaughter and read her books either by series or by the order in which they were published.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    All I have to say is I'm so glad I don't live in a neighborhood like this one. Protagonist Julie and her family move into a seemingly charming community (a welcome basket showed up on their doorstep! the neighbors have monthly block parties!) but quickly find themselves the targets of harassment. Is the harasser a neighbor who thinks Julie's family has run afoul of community sensibilities, or a stalker from Julie's past? ... or is Julie somehow to blame? This is a fun read, full of twists and dark secrets.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    A great psychological thriller! Julie, an author who has written a bestseller has relocated to a neighborhood in the suburbs of Cincinnati to try and start over as she is being stalked. This story is told from alternating perspectives of Julie and her neighbor from across the street which covers a years time. Many times throughout this story I thought I knew what was happening only to find out I was wrong. This book kept me reading late into the night to find out what happens. I will be eagerly awaiting more of Catherine McKenzie's books. Thank you to NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    A well plotted mystery with layers of secrets revealed throughout, Fractured keeps the reader wondering who the good and bad guys really are. A couple who are moving away from a fractious situation in the old neighborhood have researched the new neighborhood pretty thoroughly...but maybe not thoroughly enough. The new neighborhood seems welcoming enough at first, but soon Julia and her husband Daniel feel oppressed by an overbearing...even nosy...neighborhood association.Soon there are questions about the stability of several of the neighborhood families, and before long we are questioning what we had believed about Julie and her family originally. Are they victims, or the heart of the problem?The book came out in October 2016. It's a compelling study on neighbor to neighbor relations, spousal trust, and honesty within families. It is very thought-provoking....even after you have finished the book.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Book Description
    1CBreathless tension! 1D raved the San Francisco Chronicle. 1COne of [the year 19s] most remarkable achievements, 1D crowed the Philadelphia Inquirer. Karin Slaughter dazzled readers and critics alike with Triptych, her New York Times bestselling suspense novel set in metropolitan Atlanta. Now the #1 internationally bestselling author returns to the damaged landscape she knows so well in a bold new novel 14at once a powder keg of suspense, a gritty portrait of a cop 19s life, and a searing exploration of a shocking crime and its aftermath 26

    With its gracious homes and tree-lined streets, Ansley Park is one of Atlanta 19s most desirable neighborhoods. But in one gleaming mansion, in a teenager 19s lavish bedroom, a girl has been savagely murdered. And in the hallway, her horrified mother stands amid shattered glass, having killed her daughter 19s attacker with her bare hands.

    Detective Will Trent of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation is here only to do a political favor; the murder site belongs to the Atlanta police. But Trent soon sees something that the cops are missing, something in the trail of blood, in a matrix of forensic evidence, and in the eyes of the shell-shocked mother. Within minutes, Trent is taking over the case 14and adding another one to it. He is sure that another teenage girl is missing, and that a killer is on the loose.

    Armed with only fleeting clues, teamed with a female cop who has her own personal reasons for hating him, Trent has enemies all around him 14and a gnawing feeling that this case, which started in the best of homes, is cutting quick and deep through the ruins of perfect lives broken wide-open: where human demons emerge with a vengeance.

    My Review
    This was a fast-paced read with lots of suspense. It had well-developed plot and characters. It was very well written and leaves you wanting to learn more about Will. I 19m looking forward to reading the next book in the series, Undone.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I love Catherine McKenzie's novels. It started when I read Forgotten and realized there were more books of hers to read. Now I get that happy feeling every time I see a new book is out. Fractured alternates between Julie, a famous author who recently moved into the neighborhood to get away from a stalker and John, her neighbor and new running partner. I need to note, the neighborhood that Julie and her husband Daniel move into is one of the craziest ones and I could never imagine living there. Between the self elected head of the neighborhood association and her wacky rules to the iNeighbor website reporting where you are at all times of the day. It was just scary!!! Julie moved to Cincinnati to get away from a crazed stalker. Little changes when she moves into the new house. Everything leads up to the big accident at the end and the reason everyone is testifying at a grand jury. Honestly, I never guessed the ending or who was involved in the accident. I knew who the driver was because that was talked about but I never guessed the victim. The book alternates between present time and flashbacks leading up to the accident. Julie wasn't always my favorite character, sometimes I liked her and sometimes not so much. She wanted to be treated a certain way but couldn't always reciprocate to others. Susan was the best example. I loved this book and definitely recommend it. Plus now I want to read Julie's book, it sounded so interesting.Thanks to NetGalley, Lake Union Publishing and the author for a free electronic ARC of this novel
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This is a fantastic book full of twists and turns that you won't see coming. It's told by two different people in two different time periods and it doesn't take very long to get into the rhythm of how the author is unfolding the story.Julie and her husband and two children move to a new community in Ohio to get away from a stalker in their old home. Julie has written a best selling novel about the perfect crime and is trying to write her second novel. The family lives in a house with alarms and cameras to try to protect themselves in their new home. John is the neighbor across the street who has just lost his job in IT and starts running with Julie every morning. He isn't aware of the scope of her past but knows that she is hiding secrets. The entire book takes place in a seemingly friendly suburb where the neighbors have monthly parties and keep in constant contact with each other. But nothing in life is ever what it appears to be on the surface.I loved this book and I especially enjoyed the way the author told the story from two very different view points. It was a book full of twists and turns that kept me riveted to the story until the last page.Thanks to the author for a copy of this book for a fair and honest review.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Julie Prentice has had a stalker ever since the publication of her bestselling novel, The Murder Game. Hoping to start anew and leave her stalker in the past, Julie and her family move across the country. Their new neighbour, John Dunbar, befriends Julie but soon their friendship brings complications within their close-knit, watchful community. Despite her best efforts to fit in Julie inadvertently creates more problems that lead to disastrous consequences.

    The chapters count down from twelve months ago with Julie's point of view and John's point of view with "today" in between each month. We know something bad has happened. The build up was great. The writing was excellent. I love how every little thing came together to set the end in motion. The characters felt real. I love that this book is about Julie, the woman who wrote The Murder Game (but The Murder Game and Fractured are actually written by Catherine McKenzie) Very interesting concept and very well-done.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I won copy of Catherine’s very first book years ago. I fell in love with her then and I am still!! And her writing has changed from a chick lit to a literary fiction/thriller. She has really out done herself with the one though. I thought her first novel Spin would always be my favorite but, I was mistaken. Julie is a famous author with a stalker. She moves across country to start fresh. Needless to say, this does not turn out the way she hoped. She moves her family to Cincinnati with great expectations. These expectations are very quickly quelled and plain squashed. She becomes a pariah on her own street. Catherine Mckenzie really knows how to weave a tale and keep you guessing. I will be honest, I really had no idea where this book was leading until almost the very end. There were many places I thought, “have I missed something?” But, the more the tale unfolded the more I was addicted. And I means addicted. This reads like a psychological thriller with a massive twist. So keep reading….this book has a kick at the end! I would absolutely love a sequel. There were many items left unanswered, as per the authors whim. For fans of Girl on the Train…..this one is for you!!I received this novel from Netgalley for a honest review.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I am a fan of Catherine McKenzie and I really enjoyed Fractured, a story about people’s lives who are fractured by events in their neighborhood.When Julie and Daniel Prentice move to a small community in Cincinnati, Julie meets her across-the-street neighbor, John Dunbar, and the two become running buddies. But when a few things happen in their neighborhood, their friendship is tested and things take a deadly turn. Julie, a best selling author, never really fits in with the rest of the neighbors, and is subject to harassment. But, who is harassing her? Is it her old stalker, someone new, or is this just a cry for attention?Catherine McKenzie always writes novels with underlying tension and I just can’t wait to devour them. This was no exception!
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I very much enjoyed this book and found it to be engaging from start to finish. The characters were well developed and interesting, and the plot stayed intriguing. I am looking forward to reading more by this author.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I couldn't put this down and it kept me guessing through the very end. Delighted to have found this author!
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This was an extremely well written book and very easy to listen to from start to fininsh. This is one I'd consider listening to over again.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I found the characters unbelievable and the plotting weak. I kept reading because I wanted to see how the protagonist got herself out of the mess she had made of her life.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I loved this story! Wow that was awesomely detailed and well written. Characters were well established. Narrators were great.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    A friend recommended this book to me and I am so glad she did. There is so much suspense and the book comes alive in the sense that I could imagine myself right in the middle.Julie is a successful author who decides to relocate to a small and seemingly perfect neighborhood after being the victim of harassment and stalking. Little does she know that the perfect neighborhood is definitely not perfect and she is in for a wild ride.I loved this book and could not put it down until I finished it. It was so vivid that I could see the characters and action in my head as if it were a movie. Julie definitely has the patience of a saint. I definitely would not have lasted more than a week in this perfect "utopia" of a neighborhood.If you are looking for a well-written suspense novel then look no further. This is definitely the one.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I really enjoyed this book. The suspense had me on the edge of my seat for the last 40% of the book. The beginning took a bit to get moving, but sticking with the story was very rewarding as the pace picked up at the half way point of the book. I was questioning who and what was going on all the way to the end of the story and I had no clue up until the big reveal. I enjoyed the characters, even the ones that I wanted to throttle by the end of the book. I would definitely recommend this book to everyone and it is a solid 4 star read for me. Thank you Net Galley for the opportunity to read this book.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I thought this book was ok. Julie and her family moved to a new neighborhood seeking a safe zone away from a stalker. She moved to a suburban community where the residents allow an overbearing busy body a ridiculous amount of power. Similar to Murder Game, the author tells an interesting story alternating between current and past timeline. The novel had some slow moving sections I struggled with but things picked up towards the end.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Oh my gosh! This was such a good book! I read it in less than 48 hours. The twists and turns and slow reveal was fantastic. Julie Prentice has written her first book The Murder Game which has brought her huge fame. But it also has brought her a stalker that causes her family to have to move away and kind of go into hiding. But the street they move to is a little crazy. Or it's filled with a few crazy people. Cindy was a little cray-cray the way she appointed herself the head of the street sending out newsletters, making rules and banning people from the monthly block party. It seems like bad things follow Julie around. She becomes friends with neighbor across the street, John who becomes her running buddy. They both feel an attraction to each other. McKenzie does a great job of having all kinds of different personalities and showing how they can co-exist and not co-exist in the same neighborhood. There is a plot twist that I kept trying to figure out and never did until it was revealed with about 20 pages left to the book. Fantastic book and well worth the read.

    I got this copy as being part of The Life of a Book Addict group.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Fractured is the story of Julie Apple and the train wreck that her life has become since writing The Murder Game, which was actually penned by Catherine McKenzie under the pen name of Julie Apple. It's quite an angle.Fractured is a story with a ton of dimension, although it took me awhile to see that, almost until the end in fact.The beginning was right down confusing. Narration didn't just alternate between two character, but also time hopped, and I had a miserable time settling in. I am glad that I kept plugging along, however. As it turns out, Catherine McKenzie penned a book that shows the vulnerability of human nature. The choices that we make have consequences and what starts out as something that seems so innocent can change dozens of lives.Julie moves into a neighborhood under a cloud of suspicion, and trouble brews, families are shaken, and it isn't entirely clear who exactly is causing these problems. The neighborhood is filled with odd, broken, and desperate people. Is it Julie, or is she just a victim herself? When the reader gets the answers there is a remarkable eye opener that rocked my world. Fractured may have started out as a confusing mess, but it ended up being one of the most thought provoking novels that I have read, and there was an important message that shined through the final sentence.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I love Catherine McKenzie's books and am so happy I was fortunate enough to receive an advance readers copy. Fractured is my favorite of Catherine's thus far. It's filled with twists and turns and I was never really sure what was going to happen next. This is my favorite genre of book to read and it did not disappoint!
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Julie, an author whose first book, "The Murder Game", has made her successful but has also attracted some unwelcome attention, relocates to a seemingly picturesque suburb in Cincinnati with her husband Daniel and young twins in order to get a fresh start. Unfortunately, she picks an area that takes Neighborhood Watch and community regulations to a whole new level. I kept wondering whether such neighborhoods really exist? I just could not imagine living in such an environment. But anyway, I'm digressing. So, Julie's fresh start soon turns into a bit of a nightmare. But is that simply due to her new neighbors or is there something "off" about Julie as well? How much is she to blame for everything that occurs?From the start, the reader is aware that something tragic is going to happen, but Catherine McKenzie keeps the reader guessing to whom, how exactly and who is responsible. While I sometimes find this withholding of information quite annoying, it worked well here. The author did a great job of dropping the odd statement here and there that would make you wonder about different characters' intentions, secrets, and reliability.The alternating first-person perspectives of Julie and John, the married guy from across the road whom Julie befriends, combined with the non-linear time frame worked surprisingly well, and although these two characters had their flaws, I really liked both of them. All the way through, I was trying to predict where the story was heading and even though I amended my theories several times, I was still way off the mark. I love it when that happens. I was getting rather grumpy over the last few days because I couldn't find enough time to read this. I really didn't want to put it down.Well-written, with believable characters and an exciting and clever plot this was a very engaging domestic psychological suspense novel.This was my first book by Catherine McKenzie, but I intend to catch up with her back catalog and am now looking forward to reading The Murder Game, the book that McKenzie's character Julie wrote about committing the perfect murder, and which will be released in November.Many thanks to Lake Union Publishing for my ARC via NetGalley in exchange for this honest review.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Imagine going up this ridiculous incline for a roller coaster. All that anticipation and build up. You know the top is there, but it's so far away. And as you get closer and closer to the top, you just know the ride down is going to be awesome, right? With how long it has taken you to get there, all the promise of a wild ride.And then ... A short little bloop and you're done.That's how this book read for me. The jumping of timelines and perspectives, the hinting, foreshadowing. Playing coy with the end game. And then a very anticlimactic ending. For all the build up, I really expected some earth shattering reveal. Alas, it fell pretty short.Maybe it would have felt bigger if I had cared about any of the characters enough to be invested in what happened to them. But I just didn't like them that much. Cindy was probably the most interesting character, followed by Heather. Julie and John and their little ... Fling? Meh.I really wanted to like this more, and it did keep reading until the end, but I feel a little lead on.*A free copy of this book was provided by the publisher/netgalley in exchange for my honest review.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    "When Atlanta housewife Abigail Campano comes home unexpectedly one afternoon, she walks into a nightmare. A broken window, a bloody footprint on the stairs and, most devastating of all, the horrifying sight of her teenage daughter lying dead on the landing, a man standing over her with a bloody knife. The struggle which follows changes Abigail's life for ever."
    The author weaves a fascinating tale of monsters who hide in plain sight, monsters who show who they are but the concept is difficult to grasp and people who are sworn to protect the public but have a plethora of their own secrets. Will Trent's series is off to a great start and I cannot wait to continue the ride.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    This is the first time in my life when I read a detective novel solely for the character of the investigators. The story starts very strong with the nightmare scenario of a rich woman coming back from tennis to find her daughter lying in a pool of blood and a man kneeling above her holding a bloody knife.

    The story does not improve from then on if it were not for my interest in Will Trent the investigating officer and his new partner Faith Mitchell.
    The investigation unfolds over the course of three days with following up the usual leads in the tradition of CSI and Law and Order, the only thing is that it takes longer to get to the conclusion and when it finally comes it is a little bit of a cliche. It would have been all deadly boring if it was not for the interest in the character of Will Trent, a Special agent who grew up as a ward of the state, and Faith Mitchell the 33-year old detective whose son is a college freshman. I think I had a secret wish for them to get involved romantically, but by the end of the book they only managed to hit it off to a friendship and a long-term partnership.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I found this book in the library and was halfway into it when I noticed that I had it on my 'reject' shelf in Goodreads. I'm glad I did not check that first or I would not have given it a chance.

    It's a very good story with very interesting characters including an illiterate police detective.

    I see that I have read another book of hers and didn't like it as well. She's prolific so I have some more to try and will.