Audiobook Review: Shattered by Dick Francis

Shattered
Author: Dick Francis
Narrator: Fiacre Douglas
Publication: Brilliance Audio (August 21. 2008)
Length: 6 hours and 23 minutes

Description: When jockey Martin Stukely dies after a fall at Cheltenham, he accidentally embroils his friend Gerard Logan in a perilous search for a stolen videotape. Logan is a glassblower on the verge of widespread acclaim. Long accustomed to the frightful dangers inherent in molten glass and in maintaining a glassmaking furnace at never less than 1800 degrees Fahrenheit, Logan is suddenly faced with terrifying threats to his business, his courage, and his life.

Believing that the missing video holds the key to a priceless treasure, and wrongly convinced that Logan knows where to find it, criminal forces set out to press him for information he doesn't have. To survive, he realizes that he himself must sort out the truth. The final race to the tape throws more hazards in Logan's way than his dead jockey friend could ever have imagined.

Glass shatters. Logan doesn't...but it's a close-run thing.

My Thoughts: Glassblower Gerard Logan finds himself in the middle of a mystery when his friend jockey Martin Stukely dies at Cheltenham. Martin had given his friend Gerard a videotape to take care of since he had a nosy wife and four curious children. 

Unfortunately, Gerard loses the tape when his shop is entered, and the tape and his day's take is stolen. What makes it even more unfortunate is that those who want the tape don't believe that Gerard doesn't know where it is. 

Gerard has two problems. The first is identifying who wants the tape enough to hurt him and search his home for it. Second, he needs to know what is on the tape. Finding it would be good too. He gathers friends as he searches including a new girlfriend in the form of the police officer who first appears to document the shop break-in and thefts. 

As he searches, he comes ever closer to answering all of his questions. But someone has to die before all the answers are found. 

This was another excellent mystery by Dick Francis. As in many, he builds a strong, smart hero. This one also had all sorts of interesting facts about glassmaking. 

I bought this Chirp audiobook October 3, 2025. You can buy your copy here.