Broken Harbor

Starred review from May 28, 2012
Edgar-winner French’s eloquently slow-burning fourth Dublin murder squad novel shows her at the top of her game. In a half-built luxury development near Dublin, a family of four is attacked and left for dead, with only the mother clinging to life. For Det. Mick “Scorcher” Kennedy, introduced in 2010’s Faithful Place, this is a case that makes—or breaks—a career. With his new rookie partner, Det. Richie Curran, Mick arrives soon after Patrick Spain and his two children, six-year-old Emma and three-year-old Jack, are discovered stabbed to death in their home, while mother Jennifer is taken to the hospital. The house, one of the few completed in the Brianstown development, is a bloody mess, and suspicion immediately falls on Patrick, who recently lost his job. The recession figures prominently, as Brianstown—once known as Broken Harbor—was abandoned by contractors when money dried up. Mick’s own childhood memories of Broken Harbor are marred by tragedy and intertwined with watching over his mentally unstable sister, Dina. As usual, French excels at drawing out complex character dynamics. 5-city author tour. Agent: Darley Anderson, Darley Anderson Literary, TV & Film Agency.

Starred review from July 1, 2012
A mystery that is perfectly in tune with the times, as the ravages of the recession and the reach of the Internet complicate a murder that defies easy explanation within a seemingly loving household. The Irish author continues to distinguish herself with this fourth novel, marked by psychological acuteness and thematic depth. As has previously been the case, a supporting character from a prior work (Faithful Place, 2010, her third and best) takes center stage, as Mick "Scorcher" Kennedy attempts to penetrate the mystery of what transpired during a night that left a husband and two children dead and a wife barely clinging to life, with injuries that couldn't have been self-inflicted. Or could they? This is the most claustrophobic of French's novels, because the secrets seemingly lie within that household and with those who were either murdered or attacked within it. The setting is an upscale property development at what had once been Broken Harbor, where Kennedy's family had itself suffered a fatal trauma decades earlier. The property development has been left unfinished due to the economic downturn, which had also cost Patrick Spain his job. He and his wife, Jenny, had done their best to keep up appearances, with their marriage seemingly in harmony. Then came the attack that left Patrick and their two children dead and Jenny in intensive care. The investigative net cast by Kennedy and his younger partner encompasses Jenny's sister and some of their longtime friends, but the focus remains on the insular family. Had Patrick gone insane? Had Jenny? Was this a horrific murder-suicide or had someone targeted a family that had no apparent enemies? Says Scorcher, "In every way there is, murder is chaos. Our job is simple, when you get down to it: we stand against that, for order." Yet Scorcher's own sanity, or at least his rigid notions of right and wrong, will fall into question in a novel that turns the conventional notions of criminals and victims topsy-turvy. The novel rewards the reader's patience: There are complications, deliberations and a riveting resolution.

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February 1, 2012

Remember French's top cop, Mick "Scorcher" Kennedy? He's back, puzzling over the murder of Patrick Spain and his two children, found at one of those half-built luxury developments riddling now-broke Ireland; Patrick's wife, Jenny, languishes in intensive care. Weirdly, the baby cams are all turned to holes bludgeoned in the house's walls, and Jenny recalls an intruder who got past every lock. Worse, the case upends Scorcher's sister, Dina, recalling a trauma from their childhood. With Deborah Harkness's Shadow of Night, among the publisher's biggest fiction of the year; get multiples.

Copyright 2012 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from September 24, 2012
You can tell from the very start that Stephen Hogan’s narration of French’s fourth thriller about the coppers of Dublin’s murder squad is going to be a standout. It’s not just because his melodic, accented voice is such a perfect fit for the book’s protagonist, Mick “Scorcher” Kennedy. It’s that Hogan performs French’s words, turning Scorcher’s first-person narration into a nuanced, naturalistic monologue and his conversations and interrogations into what resemble full-cast ensembles. French’s book is a psychological study of its leading characters wrapped in the popular trappings of a police procedural. The case on the murder squad’s docket is a brutal attack on the Spains, a family living in a hastily gentrified suburb, that has left the father and two children dead and the mother severely wounded. Hogan does a stellar job capturing the book’s gloomy atmosphere (a result of Ireland’s economic downturn) and the effect it has on the characters. But Hogan’s greatest success is his portrayal of the highly moral Scorcher as he mentors his partner, cares for his unstable and difficult sister, and desperately tries to do the right thing even at the cost of his honor and his job. A Viking hardcover.