Broken Harbour

Yulande Lindsay

Actually four and a half stars here. Much more than a mystery but an exploration of how the mind deals or chooses not to deal with traumatic events from, in my opinion, three different perspectives. Recommended.

Les Reynolds

Enthralling. The ending was a bit disappointing.

Bryan Alexander

For the first time in my life, I saw the place for what it was: lethal, shaped and honed for destruction... (406)

I picked up Broken Harbor because I liked French's first novel, In the Woods (my review). French has turned out a series of murder mysteries taking place in Dublin, but Broken Harbor attracted me because of its Great Recession theme. And I'm glad I selected it, since it's a fine read.

Two caveats: I'm not a very good mystery reader. As I've said before, mystery is a genre I like, but in which I am not very fluent. Here's my little shelf.
Also, my daughter and I read this together, as we drove her to university. We're morbid like that (think Addams family). So Broken Harbor has some extratextual emotional resonance for me.

To the book!

Broken Harbor's plot concerns a brutal mass murder and its solution by members of the Dublin Murder Squad. The narrator, a detective nicknamed Scorcher, leads the investigation to its very bitter end.
A second plot concerns Scorcher's family. He and his sister care for another sister, Dina, who is seriously mentally ill, probably schizophrenic. All three siblings have spent their lives coping with their mother's suicide... which took place in the seaside town of Broken Harbor, where the main plot's killings also occurred. Like In the Woods, these two narratives - police procedural and psychological trauma drama - echo each other and intersect.

In terms of plot the novel is very satisfying, with two possible flaws. Naturally we have now entered the domain of (view spoiler)[As with In the Woods, French really knows how to put together an exciting resolution to a police procedural. She lays out a series of possible solutions, leads the cops through them one by one, until the final, awful truth. 
Two flaws might appear, though. The first is that the mother/wife's motivation is not as deeply laid as are the motives for so many other characters' extreme actions. I see that she was driven mad by her husband's sudden decline and the isolation of her home, but that seemed... not rushed so much as metaphorical or formal. I can see her snapping, but am not sure she'd wipe out her children and husband.
The second is unresolved supernatural elements. We never get the answer to what the hell was in the house's attic and walls. Who or what left the four (ahem) headless skeletons? What did the daughter see on her last night? 
Based on In the Woods, I'm willing to believe in some kind of Gothic genius loci that drove both of these things, mother murder and monster muttering. See the passage I quote at the top of this review for a sample. But I'm not sure that's how the novel ultimately settles out. (hide spoiler)].

Back to non-spoilery topics, Broken Harbor is beautifully told. French continues to show her gift for lyrical descriptions of emotional states and Irish sites. This stylistic skill also powers her characterizations, which are rich and convincing. It's very well put together, from setting up different voices to repeating the etymology of the titular locale (156) in the book's very last word.

Tonally, this is one of the saddest novels I've read in a while. It begins with brutal killings in a scary place and goes downhill from there. It's not slow - far from it - but the main and secondary characters confront so many defeats, traumas, and horrors that the novel ends up as a resounding tragedy. Yes, the murders are solved, and that makes it so much worse.

Especially sad was (view spoiler)[the broken relationship between the detectives. My daughter and I were sick to read of Ritchie's well-intentioned scheme and its backfiring. Ditto Connor's path through multiple layers of guilt, well-intentioned lying, and extensive suffering. And every scene with Dina raised my hackles (hide spoiler)].

I don't want to scare off readers by over-emphasizing the book's sadness. I think it's a successful tragedy. It's also very funny. There's a family of neighbors who are brilliantly realized as satirical objects, both humorous and neatly slotted into the plot. It's also a very warm book, based on friendships and family relationships that are genuinely moving. And the two lead detectives enjoy their work for much of the novel, reveling in the process of detection.

Broken Harbor is also a solid Great Recession novel. French uses multiple characters almost as a social novel to show us Irish people living through the boomtime and devastated by the crash. Many perspectives, careers, political views combine to offer a rich historical take. 

I enjoyed the horror touches (see spoilers above for more). Without giving anything away, there are some scenes and details which would have done well in a non-gory Gothic tale. I don't know if this is due to my professional investment in the Gothic and relative lack of awareness of horror's role in mysteries, but I liked what French did.

Overall, I recommend Broken Harbor. The sadness might be too much, and I still have questions about the resolution, but those are cavils next to the novel's general power and beauty.

(Thanks to my brother Kevin for recommending this one)

Broken Harbour

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