Shatter
by Michael Robotham
Book of the Month: January 2009
An Interview with Michael Robotham
Where did the idea for Shatter come from?
The central premise was inspired by two true events on different sides of the world. The first occurred in the North of England more than a decade ago and involved a malicious phone caller who would target his victims by trawling local newspapers, looking for stories about teenage girls. Then he’d wait for these girls to be at school before phoning a mother and convincing her that he’d kidnapped her daughter.
This case haunted me for many years because I could imagine the psychological scarring it caused to the victims. The caller would make these mothers take off their clothes, walk out of their houses and drive to remote locations. This is where the police would find them, half–frozen, terrified and convinced they were saving their daughters’ lives.
I live in Australia now, on Sydney’s northern beaches, where I came across an almost identical case with the same MO. In the Sydney case as many as six hundred women became victims.
What made you return in Shatter to the character of Joseph O’Loughlin from your internationally bestselling debut The Suspect?
Joe O’Loughlin is like an old friend, who is as real to me as any of the living, breathing characters that I have collaborated with as a ghostwriter and journalist. However, when I finished The Suspect, I didn’t want to see Joe for a while. (Imagine spending a year living in a tiny flat with your best friend and you’ll understand what I mean.)
When I came up with the idea for Shatter I knew that Joe was the perfect narrator for the story. His body might be crumbling from Parkinson’s, but his mind is still brilliant and in Shatter he comes up against an adversary who is arguably cleverer and more cunning than anyone he has ever encountered.
Shatter is such a dark, confronting story that I felt it needed someone like Joe to guide readers safely through it and not leave them traumatised. He has such a wonderful sense of humour and sense of humanity that he lightens up the darkest moments.
Are we likely to meet up with characters we've met before in your future books?
My recurring characters are like old friends now, but I never consciously look for stories that might suit them. When I was a ghostwriter, each time I took on a project I got to look at the world through a fresh set of eyes. That’s what I love about shuffling my main characters around and introducing new ones.
Joseph is suffering from Parkinson’s disease. Why did you decide to add this plot–twist?
When I first wrote the character of Joe O’Loughlin in The Suspect, I gave him early onset Parkinson’s because I liked the idea that here was a man with a brilliant mind whose body was slowly abandoning him. It seemed very cruel to many readers, but it also made him a vulnerable figure who couldn’t fight his way out of trouble. Bringing him back was easy, although I obviously had to make his Parkinson’s a little worse than before.
Your books seem to include a wider scope of issues than a standard crime novel. They often deal with complex, grey–area social issues rather than just focusing on the black and white morality of the crime itself. Is that a conscious decision?
There is nothing black and white about human behaviour. When you look closely at the people responsible for terrible crimes, you will often find a history of abuse, violence and deprivation. It doesn’t forgive their actions, but it helps explain them. This is something I try get across in my novels. My villains tend to have complex personalities and their actions, however twisted, can be justified to some degree.
You have written more than a dozen non–fiction books. Does this experience inform your novels?
Absolutely. I was a ghostwriter for nearly ten years, working with celebrities and others to pen their autobiographies. This process relies on the ghostwriter capturing the voice of the subject so perfectly that not even their best friend or spouse can see the writer’s fingerprints. I tackle my novels much the same way. My characters are as real to me as anyone I have ever worked with. Joe O’Loughlin lives and breathes in my head. He talks to me... he talks through me. I’m just his ghostwriter.
How do you go about creating the mind of a convincing killer?
P.D. James is quoted as saying that our fascination with murder stems from the fact that it’s the only crime we cannot make recompense for. It can’t be corrected or taken back. She also believes that we’re all capable of taking another life in the right circumstances.
In the course of my career as a journalist, I had occasion to interview killers, talk with forensic psychologists, and give evidence from the witness box as a convicted murderer stood in the dock. Consciously and subconsciously, I draw upon all of these experiences when I write. That’s the beauty and the terror of the imagination. It’s capable of conjuring up evil far more frightening than anything we’ve ever witnessed in reality.
