Broken Harbor by Tana French (A Dublin Murder Squad mystery)

Having already rhapsodized about Tana French's incredible ability to narrate in distinct voices and the literary quality of her novels, one wouldn't think there would be much left to say in terms of the fourth installment in the Dublin Murder Squad series.

And yet.

This installment continues French's leitmotif of forcing the detective, in this case Mick "Scorcher" Kennedy, to solve a brutal murder in a locale that is also the setting for a dark period of their past. And, once again, she pulls this off well, creating a totally plausible past and present for both the setting and the protagonist.

Kennedy, the unapologetic straight arrow that most people on the squad dislike for being that guy, the one who won't even bend the rules a little, is called to solve the deaths of a father and his two kids. The mother and her husband were brutally stabbed while their kids upstairs were suffocated in their bed. The mother survives, just barely.

The entire home, a shoddily built McMansion in the middle of an abandoned, half-built subdivision, has bizarre holes broken into the walls with baby monitor cameras pointed at them.

French's setting of perfect homes surrounded by the gutted, skeletal remains of a developer's dream-turned-nightmare gives the entire story an eerie, zombie-like feeling that permeates the entire novel.

Admittedly, I found the initial premise of this mystery particularly compelling, but that's not what made this the kind of read I stayed up far too late for with no regrets.

What struck me most about this installment was French's research into real police procedures. The meticulous details she includes gives the reader insight into how actual investigations work but ultimately serve as an unobtrusive way to flesh out Kennedy's character. There's paperwork, bureaucracy, coordination between forensic techs and loaner detectives, etc. Handled poorly, that could make for tedious reading. In French's hands, it's insight that adds another dimension to solving the case.

Interestingly enough, I didn't like Kennedy when I first saw him through Frank's eyes in Faithful Place, but here I found myself relating to him on multiple levels (I'm pretty sure there've been people who disliked me for being a rather straight arrow, too, but like Kennedy, my family history and past don't allow me to be any other way).

Kennedy's sister in this novel is severely mentally ill and I've read some reviews that criticize French's handling of this character because her mental illness is her solely defining trait. I disagree with this critique, largely because I've had people with untreated mental illness in my own life.  French's portrayal of what it is to live that experience may not be pretty or kind, but reality rarely is.  I found it to be a pretty spot-on portrayal. The fact is, when a person is that mentally ill and completely untreated -- and Kennedy's sister is -- quite frankly that does become the person's defining trait. Especially when their mental illness is what makes associating with that person or having them in your life so difficult. When it's a family member especially the mental illness can become a thing unto itself, absolutely subsuming the person and their relationships. As far as I'm concerned, French wrote this with a brutal honesty so raw I had to put down the book and take a break several times.

Perhaps at this point, I'm simply biased. I love Tana French's writing. As a writer, I appreciate the unseen research and technique that goes into crafting her stories and I find the settings, characters and plots compelling. Every time I sit down to review one of her books, I try to find something to critique. I simply don't, and that's just fine with me. Besides, I'm sure the two people in the world who actually read this blog don't mind, either.