Sunday, July 29, 2012

Broken Harbor (Dublin Murder Squad #4)



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. (from Goodreads)

My Thoughts
I like how the author paired the veteran detective Mick with a newbie detective Richie, so we could walk along with them through the process. The pace of the story is slow, but in a good way. We get to see each step, as Mick works to teach Richie the nuances of a murder investigation. What questions should Richie ask the suspects? What should we do next? Why do you think this person is a suspect over this one? It’s like we get to learn right along with Richie.

I liked both detectives. Mick has many years under his belt, and has the cynism that sometimes comes with age. Richie is all excited about being on such a big case and is pretty darn smart. I was sad to see what happened with Richie at the end. Hmmmm - what does that mean? Sorry, you’ll have to read the book to find out.

This is my first Tana French novel. It is a well crafted murder mystery. She has a very descriptive writing style. So now, not only do I need to go back and read her other books, I will be anxiously awaiting any new books.

My thanks to Penguin Group and Netgalley for allowing me to read this ARC in exchange for an unbiased review.

Publish date: July 24, 2012

My rating: 4 out of 5

2 comments:

  1. Great review Lisa. Since this is book 4 did you feel lost at all or does the author provide enough background as characters are introduced? I am assuming the books work as standalone since you enjoyed it so much but wondered if parts were lost to you. Was the tale complete or are there some threads of the tale left unanswered?

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  2. Hey Kim - good questions! The book read fine as a stand alone. From what I understand, only the lead detective has appeared in previous books - and no unanswered endings!

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