Shattered Silk

Shattered Silk - Barbara Michaels

This is a solid book in Barbara Michaels' collection, but not really one of my favorites, primarily because it has neither creepy family secrets nor paranormal activity. This is a thriller, really. It is not badly written, because that is kind of hard for her to manage, but it is not exactly in the same style as most of the stuff that made me fall in love with her writing. 

 

Theoretically it is the second book in the "Georgetown Trilogy," but honestly, I read it without realizing that the first (several?) times I read it and felt like I missed pretty much nothing, so you can definitely dive in without worrying about it. There are a few recurring characters, but they are off-screen the entire time and pretty much just mentioned in passing. 

 

Karen is a likable enough main character; you do feel for her and find yourself rooting for her to succeed. She manages to grow a little bit of spunk throughout the adventure, though she starts out a bit whiny for me. Yes, what happened to her was absolutely awful, but the cringing and the crap she takes from people bothered even me, and I am extremely unlikely to get in people's faces. The connection between her losing weight (apparently--it sounds like she was never really fat?) and suddenly gaining spunk was a bit too heavy-handed (pun not intended, but I'm leaving it because I like it ;) ) for me. Apparently she was keeping herself heavy because she hoped her husband would leave her? Well, okay then. Fantastic. It worked, I guess, so why is she so unhappy about it? And isn't it handy she loses weight just in time to attract a new fellow?

 

Whinging about that part aside, there is some strong female friendship in addition to the romance, and though it is a thriller novel, it is a pretty good one. There are plenty of suspects, weird things going on, and a bunch of old stories we get to hear because of the business she is in: it's amazing how many old clothes have interesting stories behind them, even if the women were making them up some of the time. 

 

Cheryl is kind of adorable, even though she clearly doesn't always know what she is doing. Her enthusiasm about the old clothes and about auction is contagious even through the pages--I was tempted to start an antique clothing boutique myself after reading it! Her issues are valid and handled well, I feel, and I enjoyed the way her part of the story ended. 

 

There were more suspects than you could shake a stick at and most of them had completely valid motives, and I did not guess who the real perpetrator was, though re-reading it I could see the clues that I had missed. 

 

I did enjoy this, and it is a decent read on its own, but I would not really suggest it as a first-time Barbara Michaels book. It does not quite have the flavor of her others and is missing some because of that.