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lilias 's review for:
Broken Harbor
by Tana French
Oof, goodness.
Back when I reviewed Faithful Place, Tana French’s Dublin Murder Squad book that precedes this one, I said her books were more character studies than typical mysteries. And that’s how they had been, until Broken Harbor.
The mystery was truly a mystery. And it was more of a horror story than many horror stories I’ve read. Every development was creepier and creepier.
French’s character development was as strong as ever. As is the case with this series, we had met the main character, Detective “Scorcher” Kennedy in the book before, the aforementioned Faithful Place. But we had met him as seen through the eyes of the main character of that book, Frank. And Frank thought Scorcher was kind of a prick. In Faithful Place, Frank comes off as the one with problems, but when we are in Scorcher’s thoughts in this book we see why Scorcher can rub people the wrong way. That’s the brilliance of French’s characters and structure; you see characters from all sides and don’t necessarily love the characters even as you empathize with them.
I loved this book. It was one of the saddest books I’ve ever read that didn’t make me cry. It just sat heavy in my throat.
Back when I reviewed Faithful Place, Tana French’s Dublin Murder Squad book that precedes this one, I said her books were more character studies than typical mysteries. And that’s how they had been, until Broken Harbor.
The mystery was truly a mystery. And it was more of a horror story than many horror stories I’ve read. Every development was creepier and creepier.
French’s character development was as strong as ever. As is the case with this series, we had met the main character, Detective “Scorcher” Kennedy in the book before, the aforementioned Faithful Place. But we had met him as seen through the eyes of the main character of that book, Frank. And Frank thought Scorcher was kind of a prick. In Faithful Place, Frank comes off as the one with problems, but when we are in Scorcher’s thoughts in this book we see why Scorcher can rub people the wrong way. That’s the brilliance of French’s characters and structure; you see characters from all sides and don’t necessarily love the characters even as you empathize with them.
I loved this book. It was one of the saddest books I’ve ever read that didn’t make me cry. It just sat heavy in my throat.