Broken Harbour by Tana French

[lightreads]

Broken Harbour by Tana French

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Proving that, along with everything else, French can bring the creepy. Investigation of a triple familial homicide reveals a house with holes knocked in the walls and cameras pointing into them, which is just the start.

This was, hm. I can't say I wasn't riveted, because I was. And I can't say it isn't a good book, because it is. It's more complicated than this sounds, but it's about the order that we keep to shut out the wild, and about where violence comes from. Our protagonist genuinely believes in victim-blaming – it's not that he won't pursue justice, he's just so very sure that anyone who gets dead did something to open up a crack in their life and let the violence in. And it doesn't take much, just the smallest slip will do it. The book is – I won't say sympathetic to him, but it is even-handed. We know why he thinks that – he has to think that – and French is very, very good at complicating the viewpoints of people with those kinds of self-serving blinders on.

But for all that, and I've said this before. I really wish she'd write a different book. Like around the 20% mark of this one, two characters began deliberately building a strong, healthy, functional emotional connection, and I knew instantly that it would be destroyed, and had a pretty good guess as to how. French writes that kind of destruction beautifully, but come on. We've seen this before. Maybe I've just read all of her books too close together, but there's a sameness to them which is frustrating given her obvious and ridiculous talent.




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Comments

[fleurrochard]

I know exactly which relationship you're talking about and my reaction was the same (and it still hurt when the inevitable happened.)
I love her books, but I also wish she'd allow a little light in the bleakness.

[lightreads]

Yeah, and when she does add an element of lightness like -- spoilers for the first few books, I assume you've read them -- Cassie and Sam, or Frank reconnecting with his ex, you can tell she doesn't actually care about that part much at all.

Basically, what I want is to read a French book which does not contain a line, always somewhere around the 70% mark, that goes something like, "when in the dark of night I look back on it, at least I know that for that one moment, I got everything right on the case." Because every. book. has it, and it always signals the same thing.