[amazon_link id=”0670023655″ target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ][/amazon_link]Title : Broken Harbor
Author : Tana French
Genre : Mystery/Thriller
Publisher : Viking
Pages : 450
Source : Publisher ARC
Rating : 3.5/5

Broken Harbor features Detective Mike “Scorcher” Kennedy, who appeared in a minor role in Faithful Place – French continues to build upon her “connected” people stories. Scorcher must investigate the murder of the Spain family – father, mother, 2 children in a new housing development in Dublin – Brianstown, or Broken Harbor as it is now known. Only the mother survives – barely. Along with his ongoing investigation, Scorcher must also deal with Dina, his mentally unhinged sister. Dina, deeply affected by a family tragedy makes several appearances in Scorcher’s life, mostly at inopportune times.

Tana French is in form here – her descriptions are lyrical, languid and detailed; all that you’d want to know to get entrenched in the mystery. You get a feel for the Spains’s life, their upwardly mobile, happy-does-it philosophy, so there is some pathos to this story, when it ends the way it does. The economy is in recession, and Pat was jobless. Broken Harbor is a promising new development now stalled and decaying, much like, it appears, the Spains marital relationship might have been.

Scorcher and Robbie look into the Spains’s personal lives, their friends, family and relationships, so there is some intrigue here. Jenny and Pat seem to be sensible folk, she of a sunny disposition and he of measured restraint. Theirs has been a much looked up to relationship. Both, very much in love, were a part of a tight-knit friend’s circle, a circle of people that have now scattered, leaving behind the residue of jealousy and a huffy parting of the ways that only comes with changing circumstances.

Scorcher has a rookie partner, Richie Curran, who comes from a blue-collared background and has carried over his mental baggage to his job. French gives us a flavor of this newly developing partnership and the nascent element of trust between the two. Scorcher himself is firing on all cylinders – keeping unearthly hours on the job, and spending the remaining trying to make sure he doesn’t fly off the handle when baby-sitting Dina on one of her “off” episodes.

For all her gorgeous word-play, I did not think that this book was on par with her previous work, mostly because of the lack of psychological intensity. Yes, we do get haunted memories (Scorcher’s) and unnatural physical settings on the crime scene – the Spain home is set up with hastily set-up video cameras, as though to catch an intruder. Emotions factor in – jealousy, insecurity, envy, and red herrings abound. But I never truly got any insight into the Spain’s lives from a psychological point of view, something which French excelled at in her previous books. Jenny and Pat’s friends seemed a little flat and clichéd, and the reasoning for the crime just didn’t seem believable. So when the conclusion came, I was not truly convinced – something that has never happened before with a French mystery.

This is still a decent book as far as mystery-thrillers go, even if it is a let-down coming from Tana French. I still think she’s a great writer though – it is not often that mysteries can read like literature. I will look forward to her next book. If you haven’t read her yet, I recommend “The Likeness” and “Faithful Place”.