Description

In Broken Harbour, a ghost estate outside Dublin – half-built, half-inhabited, half-abandoned – two children and their father are dead. The mother is on her way to intensive care. Scorcher Kennedy is given the case because he is the Murder squad’s star detective. At first he and his rookie partner, Richie, think this is a simple one: Pat Spain was a casualty of the recession, so he killed his children, tried to kill his wife Jenny, and finished off with himself. But there are too many inexplicable details and the evidence is pointing in two directions at once.

Scorcher’s personal life is tugging for his attention. Seeing the case on the news has sent his sister Dina off the rails again, and she’s resurrecting something that Scorcher thought he had tightly under control: what happened to their family, one summer at Broken Harbour, back when they were children. The neat compartments of his life are breaking down, and the sudden tangle of work and family is putting both at risk . . .

Publisher Review

An emotionally jolting story of love, obsession and madness is played out to incredible effect. Since her first novel, In the Woods, was larded with awards in 2007, French has garnered a huge legion of fans and they will be thrilled with this, her fourth and possibly best novel. * Carla McKay, Daily Mail * A gripping story in an atmospheric setting by an author who knows how to grab a reader's interest and never let it go. * Jessica Mann, Literary Review * A tale about the different facets of obsession and insanity . . . The best yet of French's four excellent thrillers, it leaves its readers "throat-deep in terror" . . . enticing, threatening, atmospheric prose * Observer * A complex, well crafted psychological thriller as well as an exemplary dissection of the plight of the disappointed and desperate human wreckage washed up in post-Celtic Tiger Ireland . . . A hugely impressive and intelligent book . . . It confirms French as the First Lady of Irish Crime. * Irish Independent * Poignant, compelling, beautifully written and wonderfully atmospheric. * Harlan Coben, #1 New York Times bestselling author of STAY CLOSE *