The Breathtaker - Alice Blanchard

The Breathtaker is a pretty fast moving, serial-killer murder thriller set in the town of Promise, Oklahoma in the tornado belt of middle America. At the height of tornado season, a family is found mutilated in a house on the edge of the tornado’s path, bodies torn apart by debris. But the deaths look more elaborate than the random impalements of flying debris and someone has extracted a tooth from each of the victims, replacing it with another.

Police Chief Charlie Grover investigates further and finds a pattern with similar deaths that were thought to be simple storm deaths. Someone with an incredible skill for predicting the path of a tornado is using the storm as cover for a series of bizarre, gruesome, almost ritualistic killings. The killer appears to be both defying the storm and challenging it by demonstrating his own devastating power. As the killings continue, they become less covered-up, more elaborate, and are starting to look like a personal challenge or message to the Police Chief. 

The Chief, bearing the scars of the loss of his wife to cancer and the literal scars of a brutal father and an abused childhood is trying to get his life back together. He is protective of his daughter Sophie, who is getting mixed-up with tornado-chasers and town low-lives. He teams-up with Willa, a scientist researcher into the effects of tornadoes to learn more about storm prediction and tornados. This is the element which somewhat predictably but nonetheless effectively provides the human interest in the story, generating the tension that leads to a pretty thrilling conclusion.

It’s all very formulaic, a standard by-the-numbers serial-killer hunt with a romantic element and personal challenges to the investigator and danger to his family to keep things exciting. It never really rises above this, but is still a good read, moving rapidly along, effectively blindsiding you to the identity of the killer and keeping you guessing long enough to not realise you’ve sped through most of the book in a single sitting. It’s entertaining and if that’s enough for you, then The Breathtaker delivers.