BEWARE OF THINGS THAT GO BUMP IN THE NIGHT - TANA FRENCH'S BROKEN HARBOR

Broken Harbor is Tana French’s fourth novel in the Dublin detective squad series.  The narrator and main character is Sargent Mick “Scorcher” Kennedy who previously appeared in a secondary role in French’s third detective procedural, Faithful Place.  Broken Harbor is set in modern Ireland.  No longer the “Celtic tiger”, there are many ghost estates in Dublin and its suburbs.  The building of these housing developments was begun during Ireland’s boom years.  When the worldwide recession hit in 2008, thousands of these properties were abandoned, left empty or semi-inhabited. 

One of these home owners was Patrick and Jenny Spain.  During the good years the Spains bought a house in Brianstown, a seaside area formerly known as Broken Harbor.  Patrick had a great job and Jenny stayed home to take care of their two small children, Emma and Jack.  The Spains are a golden couple who first fell in love when they were sixteen years old.  Unfortunately, like too many people around the world, Patrick lost his job.  As the months go by and he can’t find a new job, the family is in danger of losing their dream home.

When Jenny’s sister, Fiona, doesn’t hear from the Spains, she contacts the Dublin police.  Patrick is found stabbed to death and Jenny, also a stabbing victim, is clinging to life.  Emma and Jack are also dead but they have been suffocated.  The case is given to the already mentioned Mick Kennedy and his rookie partner, Richie Curran.  Years earlier Mick and his family spent summers in Brianstown.  Back then it was called Broken Harbor.  During Mick’s fifteenth summer his mother killed herself.  Mick’s father and his younger sister, Dina, have never gotten over this traumatic event. Mick and his older sister, Geri, spend much of their time looking after the deeply troubled Dina.  Mick’s marriage ended in large part because of Dina’s unhealthy dependence on her brother.

As Mick begins to investigate the case, he discovers that nothing is as it seems.  Upon reading the Spain’s computer e-mails, it turns out Patrick gave up his search for a new job months earlier.  Instead the young husband and father spent all his time trying to catch an animal that Patrick feared was hiding in their attic.  His obsession with capturing this beast had a very negative effect on his wife and children.  The Spains did everything right and yet their lives were destroyed by economic forces beyond their control.

With Broken Harbor, Tana French has written another brilliant psychological thriller with rich characters and enough twists and turns to keep her readers awake at night.  I can’t wait for the next Dublin detective squad mystery.

SULLIVAN'S ISLAND HELPS A FAMILY HEAL - PORCH LIGHTS BY DOROTHEA BENTON FRAK

With her thirteenth novel, Porch Lights, Dorothea Benton Frank returns to familiar ground.  The novel is set on Sullivan’s Island, an idyllic resort area near Charleston, South Carolina.  Jackie McMullan is an army nurse stationed in Afghanistan.  Her husband Jimmy, a New York City firefighter, dies in the line of duty.  Jackie decides to take herself and her desperately unhappy ten year old son, Charlie, to Sullivan’s Island for the summer.  Even though Jackie couldn’t wait to leave South Carolina when she became an adult, she knows that the healing powers of the beach, sun and especially Charlies’s grandparents, Annie and Buster, are just what she and her son need.

Porch Lights is written from the points of view of both Jackie and her mother Annie Britt.  Annie and Jackie’s father, Buster, have been separated for eleven years, but they have never gotten a divorce.  Both Jackie and Buster feel that Annie has a tendency to be a “fuss budget”.  Eleven years earlier, on the day after Jackie and Jimmy’s wedding, Buster got tired of Annie’s interfering ways and went on what he called an extended “fishing trip”.  For her part, it upsets Annie that Buster is often sarcastic and rude and never seems to listen to a word she says.

The needs of their daughter and especially their grandson eventually bring Annie and Buster back together.  In the warm and friendly environment of Sullivan’s Island Jackie and Charlie finally start to mend.  Charlie is so happy on Sullivan’s Island that he never wants to leave.  He is also afraid that if he and his mother return to Brooklyn he will be surrounded by memories of his dead father.  Jackie feels that she and her son must return to where Jimmy is buried (Brooklyn), so that they can honor his memory.

Jackie does begin to fall under the spell of Sullivan’s Island, especially when she meets the “boy” next door Steve Plofker.  Steve is a 43 year old dermatologist (Jackie is 35) who lost his wife several years earlier. Dr. Steve is also the proud owner of two adorable boykin spaniels.  Charlie is hired to walk and babysit the dogs for the grand sum of $5.00 a day.  Taking care of these animals plays a very important part in Charlie’s healing process.  Jackie and Charlie also bond more with Annie and Buster following the death of Miss Deb’s husband Vernon.  Miss Deb has been Annie’s best friend since they were both children on Sullivan’s Island.  As well she has served as a second mother to Jackie and a second grandmother to Charlie.

 Porch Lights is a very warm and touching novel.  Frank’s characters are well developed and true to life.  The only question I have is about Annie and Buster careers, well actually their lack of careers.  Both seem to be retired.  Annie even reflects on how much she misses teaching American history.  But Annie is only 58, not 68 or 78.  Shouldn’t she still be teaching?  And why is Buster at the age of 62 free to fish and hang out with Charlie all day?  Frank mentions nothing about how the Britts finance their lavish Sullivan’s Island lifestyle.  Are they independently wealthy?  I think the characters of Annie and Buster would be even richer if Frank had addressed these questions.

That being said, Porch Lights is a wonderful read.  Frank is an expert of interweaving the plot with the rich cultural heritage of South Carolina.  I am already looking forward to Dorothea Benton Frank’s next Lowcountry novel. 

LISA GARDNER'S CATCH ME

Catch Me is Lisa Garner’s sixth thriller featuring Boston homicide detective D.D. Warren.  (It is Gardner’s seventh Warren mystery if you count the enovella The 7^th Month.)  Sargent Warren has just returned from maternity leave and is made lead detective in a case involving the murder of pedophiles.  Even though D.D. and her team think the murderer is doing Boston a favor by getting rid of child molesters, they know the police cannot allow this vigilante justice to continue.

While at the scene of the second murdered pedophile, D. D. encounters a woman who wants the detective Sargent to solve her own murder.  Her name is Charlene Grant and she tells D. D. that her two closest childhood friends, Randi Menke and Jackie Knowles, were both strangled on January 21^st in the past two years.  Their murders, each a year apart from the other, have not been solved.  Charlene is afraid that, as the last surviving member of the childhood trio, she will be killed this January 21^st.  That date is only four days away.

D. D. discovers that Charlene is not making up what happened to her friends.  The detective, however, does not know what to make of the strange young woman.  Is Charlene a potential murder victim or could she be the murderer?  A young detective on D. D.’s team thinks that Charlene may have killed the pedophiles as well as her two close friends.  As January 21^st draws nearer, D. D. tries to discover if her colleague is right about who the real murderer is and if the deaths of Charlene’s friends are related to the killings of the child molesters.

In Catch Me, Lisa Gardner again proves what a master she is at writing truly terrifying thrillers.  She is also very adept at weaving together several subplots into a coherent and suspenseful whole.  As well, Gardner makes the reader aware of issues relevant to just about every American.  Through the words of D. D. and her detective team, we learn how pedophiles target young boys on kiddy internet gaming sites.  Sargent Warren may eventually solve the murders, but Gardner leaves the detectives and the readers with many unanswered questions.  Can parents really know what their children are doing online? Can laws and the police truly protect young people from child predators? 

Lisa Gardner’s latest thriller is so terrifying real that it will keep many of her readers up all night.  Her mastery of the suspense novel genre increases with every mystery she writes.