Broken Harbour

Richie Curran is Scorcher’s partner on the case. A new detective, he is inexperienced but promising. He is from a rough area, and Scorcher describes his appearance as reflecting his background: “[I]t’s all there: that too-short no-color hair, those sharp features, that springy, restless walk like he’s got one eye out for trouble and the other one out for anything unlocked” (8). He is thin, short, and dresses very casually before Scorcher instructs him to dress more professionally. He is aware that his background is different from most of his colleagues and notes, “I know the Murder lads aren’t usually from where I’m from […] I’m not what anyone expects” (12). Throughout the novel, Richie is largely characterized by his actions, especially through Scorcher’s perspective on his potential as a murder detective.

He is shown to be compassionate through his actions: He sorted socks and boxers carefully back into the drawers of the Spains’ bedroom rather than leaving them disorganized. Scorcher observes that he “was thinking of Jenny having to come home to this place” and thinks Richie’s “empathy was something he was going to have to watch” (88). Ultimately, Scorcher’s thought proves to be prescient: Richie’s empathy ends his brief career as a murder detective as he prioritizes his sympathy for Jenny over ensuring that the evidence necessary to convict her is safe and logged.

Before his ultimate error, Scorcher begins to believe that Richie is in fact cut out for the career. Richie has a knack for making suspects feel comfortable and like they are having a casual conversation. He also seems genuinely invested in Scorcher’s well-being, and they connect on a personal level. Scorcher recognizes that Richie is on his side and notes that “If I had been in the market for a long-term partner, we would have been perfect for each other” (175).

Dina is Scorcher’s youngest sister. She is important to the plot and Scorcher’s characterization throughout the novel. On a practical level, Scorcher’s need to take care of Dina during the investigation is a factor that increases his tiredness and distraction, potentially affecting his actions in the case. She takes the crucial piece of evidence—Jenny’s nail with fibers from the pillow used to suffocate Emma—from Richie’s apartment, driving the plot with her actions and derailing both the investigation and the relationship between Richie and Scorcher.

She is also important to the plot and Scorcher on a symbolic level. Her unpredictability and dangerous behavior are juxtaposed with Scorcher’s focus on appearance and control. Dina’s mental illness impacts Scorcher’s personal life, but it also draws comparisons to his mother and to Jenny, whose own mental illness appears to be the result of the enormous pressure that she is under. Scorcher also sees his own mental health struggles in his sister, though he is reluctant to admit it. Dina describes her episodes as beginning with auditory sensitivities and hallucinations, and when Scorcher is under intense pressure while interviewing Jenny Spain toward the end of the novel, he experiences the same thing.

Scorcher introduces Dina as “the kind of beautiful that makes people […] forget what they were talking about when she came in” and “like one of those old pen-and-ink sketches of fairies” (125). He also notes that she is “crazy as a bag of cats” and “no good at life” (125), but that “a big part of what looks like madness is actually just tension” (128). The novel never includes a diagnosis, reflecting Scorcher’s first-person point of view and his refusal to accept Dina’s official diagnosis.

Conor Brennan is the prime murder suspect for much of the novel. Though his connection to the Spains is not revealed immediately, he is Emma’s godfather and a long-time friend of Pat and Jenny. He was a freelance web designer before the recession but is out of work during the novel, offering another example of how people’s lives were deeply affected by the recession. He is characterized gradually through the information Scorcher and Richie discover about him and the information he and other characters reveal during interviews. He is thin, with “short-cropped brown hair, high cheekbones, a jutting chin with a couple of days’ worth of reddish stubble” (202). His voice is “low and even, good to listen to” (207). Fiona describes Conor as being “intense” and notes that “he never had any time for trendy stuff; he said that was letting other people make your decisions for you, and he was old enough to make his own” (308). His belief that one shouldn’t follow the crowd is part of why he and the Spains argue when they buy the Ocean View house because they “should” buy it, not necessarily because they want to buy it.

Conor is portrayed as the antagonist throughout much of the novel. From his capture until the reveal of the real killer, French builds suspense as to his motivation for the killings as parts of his background are gradually revealed. One of the complexities of his character is that he obviously loves the Spains. While the investigators assume he is the murderer, that love is more complicated; they attempt to discern why he killed them in spite of it. His love for the Spains is a defining feature of his character and informs his actions, reflected by the fact that even after their falling out, he wants to be close to the Spains. As he becomes more isolated and his inhibitions decrease, his love for the Spains manifests as a desire to be close to them and to break into their home. Finally, he sees Jenny’s pain and places the JoJo’s pin in the kitchen to show her she isn’t alone. Ironically, that decision is a catalyst that leads to the murders on the day they occur because Jenny believes that she either did it herself and doesn’t remember, or she has a stalker, both of which increase her distress.

Jenny Spain is an important and complex character in the novel, initially eliciting sympathy from Scorcher and Richie but eventually revealed to be the murderer. The slow reveal of what she did and why deepens the complexity of her character rather than simplifying it, challenging Scorcher’s simplistic view of crime. The novel details her personality, circumstance, and mental state and how all of those contributed to what she did.

Conor describes Jenny as kind, telling Scorcher and Richie about a time when she danced with a boy who had just been rejected by another girl to make him feel better. Fiona notes that “she likes doing stuff right. So when she quit work, she got really serious about being a stay-at-home mum […] the place was spotless, she fed the kids on organic stuff that she made from scratch” (56). Fiona’s description is important because it highlights the importance Jenny placed on appearance. In this way, French connects Jenny to Scorcher, as both characters believe that appearance is part of what defines reality. The focus on appearances goes awry, however, as she describes becoming obsessed with keeping the house clean as a coping mechanism when things began to decline. It is also part of the cause of her isolation. She reflects that she and Pat stopped having people over because they didn’t have money to entertain in the way she wanted and in a way that maintained appearances.

Ultimately, Jenny’s character draws parallels to Scorcher’s mother, acting as a foil. Scorcher’s mother’s suicide note indicates that she intended to take Dina with her into the water. Scorcher and Geri never learn whether she ultimately changed her mind and decided to let Dina live, or if Dina just got away, but their reluctance to ask highlights their reluctance to potentially hear a truth that will further damage their relationships with their mother.

Pat is characterized as someone who tries hard and does everything right. Fiona suggests that he was instrumental in holding the group together and seemed to be proud of the fact that he had maintained friends from his youth. Conor describes his friend as popular but kind, suggesting, “A lot of popular blokes are wankers, when you’re that age, but I never saw Pat be a bastard to anyone” (390).

Having been killed before the novel begins, Pat is characterized exclusively through people’s memories of him and the material unearthed during the murder investigation, particularly the wildlife discussion board posts. The posts show his devolving mental state as he begins to hallucinate the animal in the walls and become increasingly obsessed with catching it. Scorcher identifies desperation and a commitment to protecting his family, and a growing reckless panic about being unable to do so. Through Pat and his conflict with the imaginary, the novel explores the pressures that he was under and how he externalized them to attempt to confront a real, specific adversary.

Jenny’s sister, Fiona Rafferty, is a photographer and lives with roommates in Dublin. She describes herself as not being into money or appearances and suggests that she is committed to being an artist. While she expresses childhood jealousy of Jenny and the memory of wishing Jenny would do something wrong, Fiona expresses love for her sister despite Jenny’s actions. She ultimately agrees to help Scorcher fabricate evidence to get Jenny charged with the murders because she wants to protect her sister; she knows that Jenny plans to die by suicide and agrees with Scorcher that jail and psychological intervention is the best way they can attempt to prevent her from harming herself.