WCBS 880 Special Series: Beach Reads – 'Broken Harbor'

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) - Today we present the last in our series of summer Beach Reads, and it's a murder-mystery perfect for that last trip to the shore this weekend.

It's called "Broken Harbor" and author Tana French took a break from writing in Dublin to call us and talk about it with anchor Pat Farnack.

LISTEN: Farnack with French

TF: Well, it's set at one of these ghost estates that, unfortunately, are all over Ireland. They're kind of half-built. They abandonned when the property crash came and a lot of famlies, young families, 30-somethings, 20-somethings, are stuck out there. And in one of these houses, a young family has been horrably attacked. The father, the two children are dead, um, the mother is in intensive care. And at first it looks like he had lost his job, the house was going to be repossesed, he snapped under the pressure, but then the detectives start finding out there are holes knocked out in the walls with video cameras pointed at them. The wife had told her sister that she thought someone was breaking in and breaking out, leaving no trace and so the question comes down to - did the danger come from outside the house or inside? Which one's the real wilderness?

PF: A reviewer said that your books are "intelligent with writing to savor" and I think maybe I would use delicious to describe your writing.

TF: Sometimes, some things just do pop up, yeah, instant, but some, you know, it's rewriting about ten, 12, 14 times. I figure readers deserve a little bit of everything. There's no reason why you shouldn't have, kind of, gripping plot and good writing and I don't know how often I succeed and how often I fail, but that's what I'm aiming to give people.

PF: I can see every one of these being a movie. Has there been any talk about this?

TF: Well, Paramount optioned the first two "In the Woods" and "The Likeness," but it would fascinating to see if it actually happened.

PF: Well, thank you so much for calling me long distance from Ireland, the Queen of Irish Fiction, thanks for talking to me.

TF: Thank you so much for having me on.

If you missed any of our Beach Reads pieces, check them all out by clicking here.

What other books would you recommend adding to the beach bag? Share your suggestions in the comments section below.