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Broken Harbour

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Broken Harbour

By: Tana French
Narrated by: Hugh Lee
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About this listen

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.

©2012 Tana French (P)2012 Hodder & Stoughton Modern Detectives Mystery Fiction Suspense Exciting Scary

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Critic reviews

"I've been enthusiastically telling everyone who will listen to read Tana French. Her novels are poignant, compelling, beautifully written and wonderfully atmospheric. Just start reading the first page. You'll see what I mean." (Harlan Coben)
"Every holiday needs a good crime novel and French's skilful thrillers are tailor-made to terrify." ( The Guardian)
"The queen of Irish fiction ... This is a writer working at the height of her powers. As always with Tana French, you can expect humour, pathos and well-observed social commentary, but above all, a cracking story that keeps you guessing until the end." ( The Sunday Independant)
"Establishing atmosphere is one of French's many strengths. Gradually, 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." ( Daily Mail)
"The first thing that Ms. French does so well in Faithful Place is to inhabit fully a scrappy, shrewd, privately heartbroken middle-aged man. The second is to capture the Mackey family's long-brewing resentments in a way that's utterly realistic on many levels. Sibling rivalries, class conflicts, old grudges, adolescent flirtations and memories of childhood violence are all deftly embedded in this novel, as is the richly idiomatic Dublinese." ( New York Times)
"Nothing short of a masterpiece. French's first three thrillers were all brilliant but this is by far her best and reaches a level of spine-chilling, gripping moreishness that will leave readers open-mouthed with admiration. If I encounter a better novel than Broken Harbour before French publishes her fifth, I'll eat a milliner's shop full of hats." ( Sophie Hannah, Daily Express)
All stars
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Fascinating and frightening insights into some of the awful impacts of the 2007/8 'Credit Crunch', using the so-called 'Celtic Tiger' backdrop, and with some delightful insights into 'how life used to be' before the EU, the financial recklessness of the '90s and early Noughties. Quite a convoluted plot, built around the human impacts on life, 'post crunch', and the challenges that can result for those responsible for everyday policing and crime-solving, but well narrated by Hugh Lee and Associates. Well worth a Listen!

Excellent insights into many things broken

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If it had not been for the Halloween offer I would not have spotted this book, never mind bought it. What a treat I would have missed. It was an unforgettable plot, so unusual.

I enjoyed the narration, it was really gripping.

It was beautifully written on a par and similar to the style of David Peace and just as intriguing. It draws you in and it is difficult to leave it, just kept pulling me back and I had to finish it. Will be looking for this author in future.

A gripping and unusual plot

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Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

could not get the point of this book, i will admit i did not listen to the end, was afraid i might slit my wrists, one word...........boring.

Would you ever listen to anything by Tana French again?

NO'

What did you like about the performance? What did you dislike?

JUST BORING

Did Broken Harbour inspire you to do anything?

yes'.....stop listining and go cut the grass.

Any additional comments?

nope

ahhh

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This was my second Tana French book and I have to say it was a big improvement on the other. It's not that the other was bad, it was just so so as far as detective stories go. This is in a whole other league, far more polished, with more depth to it and, ultimately, more mystery. I really enjoyed it.

A great read

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Any additional comments?

This was so slow . I found it very hard going and almost gave up part way through then I found out I could speed it up by listening twice as fast so I did eventually get through it but only because I played it on double speed.I hated the strong Irish accent that half the time sounded like the worst Scouse accent and the story wasn't strong enough for me to stay interested. Not for me at all I'm afraid and I wouldn't buy another from this author again.

Tedious

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I almost didn't get past the 10th chapter as I was finding the narrator's feeble attempt at a Dublin accent excruciatingly painful. His Ritchie and Dina were so bad I sometimes forwarded through their bits. I'm glad I stuck with it though as it was a really good story and he did some of the other characters quite well, especially the country accents. I would recommend, particularly if you aren't from Dublin!

good story

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What did you like most about Broken Harbour?

It's not like your average murder story, it's set almost exclusively in the house where the murders were committed, so it's quite claustrophobic and it's very emotionally intense. There are some very odd things going on and there's lots of possibilities about what could have happened.

What other book might you compare Broken Harbour to, and why?

The rest of the Dublin Murder Squad series.

Which scene did you most enjoy?

The scene where Scorcher comforts Curran outside the hospital where they're doing the autopsy.

Did you have an emotional reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

It's an emotionally intense book, so I'd say it made me quite tense but in a good way! I often listen to audiobooks as I go to sleep but I definitely couldn't drift off to this one!

Any additional comments?

The narration for this one is particularly good. Most audiobook narration is good these days I think (with a few exceptions) but the narrator for this one particularly stands out from the crowd.

Fantastic story read by a brilliant narrator

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I've only got to chapter 4 so far and the book has got me suitably gripped with a strong and developing story line. But I wanted to say that Hugh Lee must be the best narrator I have yet heard on Audible and I've heard quite a few now. His vocal skills and ability to portray the myriad of characters, including the female ones, with such aplomb must be heard to be believed. His portrayal of the female characters was so good that I had to check several times to ensure he was the only narrator of the book. Fantastically well read, a job well done. I'll certainly be voting for him when the time comes for the years best narrator and I'll be certainly looking for other books read by him.

HUGH LEE - THE BEST NARRATOR, EVER!

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Couldn't stop listening. The house has never been so clean. Enhanced by the brilliant reader who added an extra dimension to the already brilliantly drawn characters.

Totally compelling.

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Amazing performance, but not my favourite book by Tana French. I liked the first and third one more.

Amazing performance

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