Every now and then, the truth and the rules turn into the two halves of a vice grip, squashing the detective and the case between them—and some part of the detective is inevitably going to get crushed. Your characters in Broken Harbor deal with madness—and suspicions of madness—in radically different ways, with different results. Q. There’s a lot of thoughtful material in Broken Harbor dealing with male friendship, both between Scorcher and Richie and between Pat and Conor. Welcome back. It’s a little like the beast in Lord of the Flies. If too short, what would you add? What case is he referencing? More than once, the tragic center of your detective plot has fallen upon a question of inadmissible evidence. If Tana French could write and publish a new book every month, all would be right with the world. That’s actually where the whole book began! Madness is the opposite journey—order fragmenting into chaos, the laws of cause and effect breaking down. Or did Pat cut off its head during a hallucination in order to create evidence of "the predator"? This is one of the things I enjoy about writing linked books with a different narrator each time: you get to explore that subjectivity that I was talking about earlier, how two people can see the same person or event in two completely different lights. Just pick and choose the discussion questions that work best for you and your book group, and get the conversation going! Did they remind you of anyone? Broken Harbor...questions? 15. BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us. What are some examples of this kind of characterization in Broken Harbor, and how do they act as a commentary on human nature? Two years seems like a terribly long wait, but it’s worth every second. You’re writing about murder, the biggest fear of all—and the way that fear expresses itself is obviously going to be shaped by its time and place. Frank’s daughter, Holly, now sixteen, shows up at Stephen’s work with a postcard she found on the noticeboard where girls in her school can post their secrets anonymously —a postcard with a photo of a murdered teenage boy, and the caption “I KNOW WHO KILLED HIM.”, By clicking Subscribe to the Newsletter, I acknowledge that I have read and agree to Penguin Random House's. What did you already know about this book’s subject before you read this book? 11. The relationship between Scorcher and Richie evolves rapidly, beginning as one between an all–wise mentor and his trainee but transforming into a much more contentious one. Because of that, we absolutely need safeguards, to protect innocent people and to protect justice; but inevitably, those very safeguards sometimes go wrong and end up jeopardizing the exact things they’re meant to protect—releasing a killer to kill again, for example. Are there lessons to be learned here? However, her books often contain more than a hint of lament for the country’s recent decline. Contains spoilers. I really thought that they would discover that it was something chemical/environmental causing Pat's decent into madness as well as Jenny's and eventually their children. It seems like the whole family was going nuts? And I think it would be ludicrous to say that the people who urged them on are guiltless. Q. For reasons made up of a hellish brew of stupidity, cronyism, and corruption, they were right in there with the property developers and the banks, frantically urging my generation to spend ten times our income on unbuilt houses in the middle of nowhere. Scorcher is partnered with Richie Curran, a rookie detective with a lot to learn. The Spains were so fastidious that they lined up their shampoo bottles, yet the police discover gaping holes bashed in the interior walls of their house. But things do not work out all right. If you’re ready to start a book club , here’s 40 of the best book club questions, for fiction and nonfiction alike. French fills this character with all the mental health diagnoses she can cram into one person, wi. "As with FAITHFUL PLACE, BROKEN HARBOR undoubtedly will be found on countless best-of lists at the end of the year, even for those who otherwise would never read genre fiction. Scorcher believes that post–modern society has begun to turn “feral” and that “everything that stops us being animals is eroding, washing away like sand” (p. 85). What songs does this book make you think of? This case broke Scorcher down and made him doubt all the progress he'd made with the decades of therapy that allowed him to live in a messy, complicated, adult world - control, perfection, cause/effect, all out the window. What feelings did this book evoke for you? I honestly thought after Jenny described her mental fog/dreamlike trance state(s) that we would find out there was something wrong with the house. Just in Pat's head. Thanks!. What ideas was he or she trying to get across? Is that considered "fruit of the poisoned tree" or whatever? Welcome back. It is really easy to feel isolated in that situation, because there are only so many times you can admit to people that you're still out of work and your life really sucks. Either he has to stand by and bite his tongue while justice gets thrown out the window, or he has to break the rules that are there for excellent and crucial reasons—and either way, a part of his integrity is sacrificed. For him, the return to Broken Harbor in a professional capacity conjures up memories that he rather would remain submerged. But one thing that’s true of every childhood, happy or unhappy, is that it’s incredibly intense. Reader Reviews. Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub on July 27, 2012, Broken Harbor Do you think any of the stories could be expanded into a full-length book? Jenny, of course, was in an even worse state. But Broken Harbor holds memories for Scorcher, and working this case could resurrect something he thought he had tightly under control. Was it easy to see where the author got his or her information? is that just a coincidence? I’ve found that the best book club discussion questions are ones that are open-ended and that get people to share their personal opinions. But what about Jenny? What do you all think? Now a solid proportion of our generation are stuck on half–built, half–occupied, abandoned estates with open sewage pits and no street lighting, miles from any friends or family, and many of their houses are falling to pieces. Why or why not? Reading them in order gi …more The author tends to feature a supporting character of the first book as the main character in the next, and so on, and so on.