A Look at Tana French’s Dublin Murder Squad Series
Image via Viking Penguin
Broken Harbor
Synopsis: Mick “Scorcher” Kennedy only made a brief appearance in Faithful Place, budding heads with Frank Mackey over the the case of Rosie Daley. Putting him at odds with a beloved character did not warm him to readers and theme continues in his own book. He’s a tough detective with few friends and no life outside of his job, which makes him great at solving crimes, but not much fun to be around. Scorcher and his partner, rookie Ritchie Curran, are put on case where it appears a man went crazy and tried to kill his wife while actually succeeding in killing his children and himself. But of course, with French, nothing is ever as it seems.
Why to read it: Broken Harbor is the most supernatural of French’s tales. The case on the outset appears to be a simple murder, a man snapped and killed his family- tragic, but ordinary. Until the scratches on the walls are revealed. And the skulls lined up in the attic. Is there something more going on or is it all just a coincidence? The best part of French’s novels are the way they play on the fears within your own mind. Can you trust what you see? What about what you think or even what the characters are telling us? She builds layer upon layer of paranoia until you believe you may have gone mad too.
Broken Harbor is also the most evocative of French’s settings. The book is named for the seaside estate that has now been left abandoned after the global financial crisis. The houses have been left unfinished or left empty by tenants who could no longer afford to live there. This housing settlement contains ghosts, both of Scorcher’s own past and the hopes of the country itself. And in the case of this book, maybe even some real ghosts too.
At its core Broken Harbor is a deeply sad story. It is about dreams and what happens when those dreams don’t come true. It’s about desperately clinging to the idea and the outward appearance of the perfect life even when it no longer exists. About the madness that comes from trying and failing to have it all. It might be fiction, but for many people the story hits close to home.