In an old estate house, two children--Emma and Jack, ages six and four- and their father Patrick are murdered, and their mother Jennie wavers between life and death in the hospital. This is what has happened to the Spain family.

This setup presents itself as if the crime is a cut and dried police-procedural whodunit, but its internal story is far from it. It isn’t only the murders that startle the readers but the traumatized characters in it, beginning with the detective on the case.

The novel is told in the first person by Michael Kennedy, a.k.a. Scorcher, a top detective on the Dublin Murder Squad with the highest solve rate, who sometimes turns into an unreliable narrator.

The story takes place in a town off Dublin called the Broken Harbor, to which Scorcher has disturbing ties. It was a place where, as a child, he loved to vacation until, during his teens, his mentally ill mother committed suicide and his sister Dina became mentally unstable as the result of it. Throughout the story, Scorcher not only tries to solve the crime while fighting with his own demons but also, he worries for and chases after Dina so she doesn’t hurt herself.

Scorcher also takes under his wings a rookie detective, Richie Curran. Richie too, as competent as he seems to be throughout the events, may disappoint Scorcher at the end since his understanding of the law and morality is somewhat unsteady.

Then, there is the stalker of the family, Conor Brennan, a computer expert who wipes out the memory in Pat’s computer. Conor was once the best friend of Pat Spain, although he had eyes for Jennie. Even if Conor confesses to the murders, something is off in his confession as if he’s protecting someone or something, which Scorcher has to investigate.

Also, the other secondary characters, Jennie’s sister Fiona, the neighbors, detectives and lab workers in the squad are presented brilliantly and in-depth throughout the story.

In the novel, also other side-stories and themes exist like Pat Spain’s obsession with finding the theoretical animal invading their house and making holes in the walls of their very well furnished and kept the house. This animal is a reflection of Pat’s anxiety due to the family’s financial difficulties. The supposed existence of it disturbs his wife and children so much so that they eventually end up believing it.

The financial difficulties happened because the couple spent too much to be socially acceptable, and when the economy went down due to the recession and the bust of the Irish housing’s boom and Pat lost his job, Jennie cut their ties to their friends and neighbors. What happened to this happy family with a couple who were in love and their innocent children was a bit of a heartbreak for me, and I couldn’t help feel for them and for everyone else in the story, which proves the expertise of this author’s storytelling that makes her readers become emotionally involved.

The title of the book has a lot to do with the story in it as the reader finds out at the end. Just like the other books of Tana French, Broken Harbor is multi-layered, complicated, and brilliantly presented.

everything, characterization, surprises, plot construction and the literariness of the story in general.

is Tana French, the bestselling author of In the Woods, The Likeness, Faithful Place, Broken Harbor, The Secret Place, The Trespasser and The Witch Elm. Her books have won awards including the Edgar, Anthony, Macavity and Barry Awards, the Los Angeles Times Award for Best Mystery/Thriller, and the Irish Book Award for Crime Fiction. She lives in Dublin.

With the exception of In the Woods, I think I have read every book Tana French has written so far.

Although I used to shun the murder-mystery genre, this author made me love it. If only I can find other authors of the genre who can write as well and as literarily as Tana French!

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Created Jul 11, 2019 at 10:50am • Submit your own review...