Before the Poison by Peter Robinson

This was a really enjoyable read which livened up my lunch breaks, by the author of the DCI Banks crime novels. Before the Poison is a standalone novel so a good place to start if you’ve never tried Robinson before. It tells the tale of an infamous murder case in the 1950s, in which a woman was hanged for her husband’s murder. In the present day, composer Chris moves back to England after the death of his wife, buying the isolated farmhouse in which the murder occurred. Before long he’s obsessed with the story of the scarlet woman Grace Fox, and determined to prove her innocent of the crime. The dead woman is enigmatic and inscrutable, but Chris feels an emotional connection to her, so much so that he can see her in the shadows of the house…. Ghostly undertones aside, as her story is slowly unravelled he will uncover much more than human tragedy, but endurance beyond belief, the shocking capacity for evil that lurks behind the facade of respectability, and corruption that reaches into the present day. The truth behind the events of that fateful night in 1953 is revealed with aplomb, and Robinson creates a convincing and highly readable mystery with characters that engage you. I thoroughly enjoyed this spooky murder mystery and will definitely read more by this author. Rating: ***

Hodder, 2012, ISBN 9781444704853

Broken Harbour by Tana French

Cover reproduced with kind permission of Hodder
Cover reproduced with kind permission of Hodder

“Let’s get one thing straight: I was the perfect man for this case.”

Tana French is fast becoming my favourite crime writer. Her intricately constructed tales are focused on character, and her meticulous exploration of the psychology of human beings is riveting; her novels are not just about the crime of murder but also about the trauma of living.

In Broken Harbour, detective Michael Kennedy has a record number of “solves”. So he’s confident, when he attends the crime scene with rookie Richie Curran, that he’ll soon close the disturbing case of a family butchered in their own home. Statistics say the father is the most likely perpetrator, but the private life of the Spain family is a riddle that Kennedy determines to crack. But nothing is as it seems, and Kennedy’s private life is about to intrude into the investigation in a big way.

I just got lost in this story. Kennedy is perhaps not as strong a character as Rob and Cassie, her previous detectives, but I was soon embroiled in his flawed viewpoint and moral dilemmas. The rest of the cast, with their complex and intriguing motivations, really live and breathe. Her evocation of the dying housing estate is hauntingly moving and the broken harbour of the title takes on a multiplicity of meanings as the story slowly unravels. And I didn’t see the ending coming.

I think what stays with you in all French’s novels is the sense that moral judgement is meaningless. All her protagonists are faced with huge choices between right and wrong, and whatever they do there isn’t actually a right answer; we do what we do, and we have to bear the consequences. Her stories are haunting, disturbing because they have such truth in them, and beautifully wrought. Rating: *****

Hodder, 2012, ISBN 9780340977651