Here, we gradually learn the painful origins of Scorcher's rage for order. The central detective in Broken Harbor is Mick 'Scorcher' Kennedy, who came off in Faithful Place, the previous novel in this series, as an arrogant control freak. You certainly don't have to read the books in order, but if you do, the bonus is that you come to know characters inside and out, and, consequently, realize just how wobbly our knowledge of anybody's 'true' nature is. Each of her novels focuses on one detective in the Murder Squad.

French's psychologically rich novels are so much more satisfying than your standard issue police procedural. The development here may be outside of Dublin, rather than on the California coast, but the same odor of high-priced dreams gone rotten with damp rises off both MacDonald's work and French's moody and ingenious tale.īroken Harbor is French's fourth novel in what's called her 'Dublin Murder Squad' series if you haven't read her yet, don't be mislead by that label. I don't know if mystery novelist Tana French is a fan of MacDonald's - in interviews, she credits Golden Age Scottish mystery writer Josephine Tey for inspiration, as well as newer champs like Dennis Lehane - but French's latest novel, Broken Harbor, is set in the kind of suburban wasteland that MacDonald made a career out of excavating. In MacDonald's mythical California town of Santa Teresa, modeled on Santa Barbara, evil noses its way into gated communities, schools and shopping centers that have been built expressly to escape the dirt and danger of the city. Mid-20th-century mystery master Ross MacDonald is credited with moving hard-boiled crime off the mean streets of American cities and smack into the suburbs. Your purchase helps support NPR programming. Close overlay Buy Featured Book Title Broken Harbor Author Tana French

Broken harbour by tana french