Broken Harbour

French has written several books in the Dublin Murder Squad series: In the Woods (2007), The Likeness (2008), Faithful Place (2010), The Secret Place (2014), and The Trespasser (2016). The books are loosely related in that they take place within the same world and in the same general setting, featuring detectives who work out of the Dublin Castle investigations department. However, the novels are not linear or ordered, and all feature different protagonists; instead, French connects them through events and minor characters from one book who become protagonists in another. For example, the protagonist of Faithful Place, Frank Mackey, has a young daughter. The Secret Place features his daughter, several years older, as a protagonist and her school as the setting.

Mick “Scorcher” Kennedy, the protagonist of Broken Harbour, features in Faithful Place as a secondary character. Frank, Faithful Place’s protagonist, is investigating the cold case murder of his childhood sweetheart Rosie Daly, whom he always believed left for England without him. When her body is discovered, he can’t help but insert himself into the investigation, even though it isn’t his case.