September 22

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Broken Harbor, Tana French

Posted by on September 22, 2012 in Reviews | Leave a comment

*****

Broken Harbor

Author: Tana French

First Edition: Viking, 2012

This edition: Kindle

Original language: English

 

Summary:

From Amazon:

“Mick “Scorcher” Kennedy, the brash cop from Tana French’s bestselling Faithful Place, plays by the book and plays hard. That’s what’s made him the Murder squad’s top detective—and that’s what puts the biggest case of the year into his hands.

On one of the half-built, half-abandoned “luxury” developments that litter Ireland, Patrick Spain and his two young children are dead. His wife, Jenny, is in intensive care.

At first, Scorcher and his rookie partner, Richie, think it’s going to be an easy solve. But too many small things can’t be explained. The half dozen baby monitors, their cameras pointing at holes smashed in the Spains’ walls. The files erased from the Spains’ computer. The story Jenny told her sister about a shadowy intruder who was slipping past all the locks.

And Broken Harbor holds memories for Scorcher. Seeing the case on the news sends his sister Dina off the rails again, and she’s resurrecting something that Scorcher thought he had tightly under control: what happened to their family one summer at Broken Harbor, back when they were children.

With her signature blend of police procedural and psychological thriller, French’s new novel goes full throttle with a heinous crime, creating her most complicated detective character and her best book yet.”

 

Quotes: 

“It feels like someone’s using a tennis ball machine to fire starving pug dogs at you.”

“crazy as a bag of cats,”

“O’Kelly’s office always looks like the paperwork is on the verge of winning.”

“a ferocious sister-tangle of emotions,”

 

Opinion:

Classic weird Irish Tana French! This time, I had no clue who the murderer was- fantastic ending! It was creepy and French wove her characteristic tale of present-day Irish life that envelops the reader completely.  I love how she takes characters from the Squad that she introduces in previous novels as pricks, and then totally humanizes them.  I hated Scorcher in Faithful Place, but I am now a fan.  I love the way she does this!

 

Tana French’s Dublin Murder Squad Series & Main Characters:

  • In the Woods, 2007: Detective Rob Ryan
  • The Likeness, 2008: Detective Cassie Maddox
  • Faithful Place, 2010: Detective Frank Mackey
  • Broken Harbor, 2012: Detective Mick “Scorcher” Kennedy
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