Broken Harbour

Broken Harbour by Tana French
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

In a lonely development on the Irish Sea, two children and their father are dead and the mother is on death's door. Who killed them? That's what Scorcher Kennedy and his new partner, Richie, mean to find out. Will what they find destroy them?

Broken Harbour is the story of one man's obsession with order and a family's gradual descent into chaos. When Pat Spain gets downsized, things start falling apart for the Spain family but was it enough for Pat to kill his family and himself?

Scorcher Kennedy is a typical Tana French lead. He's probably as damaged as the criminals he's been chasing all these years, obsessed with order and being the best. He's got some skeletons in his closet, namely his mother's suicide when he was 15 and his crazy sister Dina.

The relationship between Scorcher and his new partner, Richie, drive the book and set it apart from typical cop dramas. Richie is the sensitivity Scorcher lost somewhere along the way and maybe also his conscience.
As Scorcher and Richie tug at the loose threads of the case, the story gradually shifts toward what it's like to have a relative that's insane.

French's writing is as fantastic as ever, parsecs ahead of most crime books. She paints a vivid picture and Scorcher and Richie seemed like cops that could show up on your doorstep after the neighbors have a fight. As usual, the entire cast goes through the meat grinder, leaving little to do at the end but wiping down the counter and turning off the light.

Broken Harbour was my favorite Tana French book yet and one of the best two or three books I've read so far this year. Five out of five stars.

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