The story of murder in a small Maine town (why is everything so spooky and murdery in Maine?), Granite Harbor is a novel led by British ex-pat writer turned American detective Alex Brangwen who is faced with an entirely new sort of crime when one of his teenage daughter’s classmates turns up dead in the creepiest of ways (there’s a frog involved). The dead teenage boy’s small circle of friends, mostly the ‘unschooled’ son of Alex’s ex and a staff member at a living history site and another boy (who is never introduced particularly well), seem to the town to be the likely targets if the killer strikes again. So the typical air of a proverbial ticking clock hangs over the story throughout.
That the victim(s) and target(s) are teenagers is largely what makes them characters to care about – lives cut short too soon.
The town of Granite Harbor is unique because of its connection to the settling of America and the living history site that has become a tourist attraction near an archaeological site. It provides a cast of quirky, unique characters who are bound by the connections of smalltown life. And a large part of the story is spent giving a handful of the characters at the site backstory, personality, and motivation.
As is typical in mystery thriller novels, it quickly becomes clear that there are a handful of potential suspects. Detective Brangwen, an FBI agent, a local cop, and a couple other law enforcement officials chase down the leads and investigate the suspects. They go through moments of obviously getting it wrong and moments of obviously moving close to solving it all. Brangwen has some ethical issues that are never really addressed, given his relationship with one of the target’s sons and his daughter’s role in it all. But otherwise, or maybe anyway, things proceed just as a reader would expect.
Given that the reveal of the killer is not made until very late in the story and it’s very hard to guess before then, that aspect of this sort of book is very well done. Even more so through the use of flashbacks sprinkled throughout the novel which lay out in stunningly good detail the progression from tortured and tormented young person to adult killer. The killer’s name is never mentioned in the flashbacks, but it’s easy to know him and, in a sense, understand why.
There are two small flaws in the story, neither of which make it a novel not worth reading – it is worth reading if creepy New England murder mysteries are your thing.
The first is the heavy reliance on a sometimes awkward balance of the potential for witchcraft and/or the use of traditional Native lore and legend. Neither is done disrespectfully but both, though grounded in culture, are used as tools without a lot of explanation other than ‘because s/he is quirky’ in a general sense. And maybe that’s good, in the end, because it kept things from getting too bogged down or disrespectful.
The second is that the person who is the focus of a good half of the novel is not the killer, he’s just kind of creepy, and when the killer is revealed, even with all the backstory from the flashbacks, it’s easy to think “wait… who is that?” because his/her character is so rarely mentioned or developed before then.
All in all, it’s a good mystery thriller.
N/B: I received an advance copy of Granite Harbor through BookishFirst and Celadon Books in exchange only for an honest and original review. All thoughts are my own.
That the victim(s) and target(s) are teenagers is largely what makes them characters to care about – lives cut short too soon.
The town of Granite Harbor is unique because of its connection to the settling of America and the living history site that has become a tourist attraction near an archaeological site. It provides a cast of quirky, unique characters who are bound by the connections of smalltown life. And a large part of the story is spent giving a handful of the characters at the site backstory, personality, and motivation.
As is typical in mystery thriller novels, it quickly becomes clear that there are a handful of potential suspects. Detective Brangwen, an FBI agent, a local cop, and a couple other law enforcement officials chase down the leads and investigate the suspects. They go through moments of obviously getting it wrong and moments of obviously moving close to solving it all. Brangwen has some ethical issues that are never really addressed, given his relationship with one of the target’s sons and his daughter’s role in it all. But otherwise, or maybe anyway, things proceed just as a reader would expect.
Given that the reveal of the killer is not made until very late in the story and it’s very hard to guess before then, that aspect of this sort of book is very well done. Even more so through the use of flashbacks sprinkled throughout the novel which lay out in stunningly good detail the progression from tortured and tormented young person to adult killer. The killer’s name is never mentioned in the flashbacks, but it’s easy to know him and, in a sense, understand why.
There are two small flaws in the story, neither of which make it a novel not worth reading – it is worth reading if creepy New England murder mysteries are your thing.
The first is the heavy reliance on a sometimes awkward balance of the potential for witchcraft and/or the use of traditional Native lore and legend. Neither is done disrespectfully but both, though grounded in culture, are used as tools without a lot of explanation other than ‘because s/he is quirky’ in a general sense. And maybe that’s good, in the end, because it kept things from getting too bogged down or disrespectful.
The second is that the person who is the focus of a good half of the novel is not the killer, he’s just kind of creepy, and when the killer is revealed, even with all the backstory from the flashbacks, it’s easy to think “wait… who is that?” because his/her character is so rarely mentioned or developed before then.
All in all, it’s a good mystery thriller.
N/B: I received an advance copy of Granite Harbor through BookishFirst and Celadon Books in exchange only for an honest and original review. All thoughts are my own.