Review of Broadchurch by Erin Kelly

Broadchurch by Erin Kelly, based on the story by series creator Chris Chibnall

Back a couple of years ago, I read about a psychology study claiming that people who had been "spoiled"––meaning that they'd learned major plot points in advance––actually enjoyed a book or movie more than those who hadn't. I think that knowing a story in advance can add another layer to the experience; if you know what's going to happen, you may have a more nuanced experience when you see a movie or read a book.

That's why I was interested in reading Broadchurch (Minotaur Books, September 2, 2014), even though I'd watched the Broadchurch series already, on BBC America. (I wrote about the series at length here.) I had David Tennant, Olivia Coleman and Jodie Whittaker in my head whenever Alec Hardy, Ellie Miller and Beth Latimer appeared in the book, and that brought them even more vividly to life. And the novelization allows the reader to know the characters' thoughts (to some extent) and provides a closer look at why some characters do what they do.

West Bay beach, Dorset, filming scene for the Broadchurch series

Author Erin Kelly has written five novels, psychological thrillers, including the recent The Burning Air (see review here) and The Ties that Bind. She has a lean writing style, but with a richness and skill at conveying emotions that works very well in adapting the story written for the screen by Chris Chibnall. The murder of 11-year-old Danny Latimer in the small Dorset beach town of Broadchurch makes friends and neighbors begin suspecting each other and questioning whether they could have prevented Danny's death. This is an excellent setup for the kind of psychological drama that is Kelly's specialty.

Chloe, Mark and Beth Latimer, grandmother Liz

Danny's murder is devastating to his young parents, Beth and Mark, who married when they were teenagers; his older sister, Chloe; and his grandmother. They don't know what to do with the rage that boils inside them, the grief that follows them from room to room and crowds them when they sit on the sofa. Beth, an avid runner, particularly feels the claustrophobia of feeling penned inside the house, but when she rushes to the grocery story to escape, the reactions of the other shoppers make her want to run them down with her cart.

Mark has a secret about where he was when Danny was killed, and the way life works in a small town, he hangs onto it even when it means he falls under suspicion, not just from the police, but even Beth.

DI Alec Hardy (David Tennant), DS Ellie Miller (Olivia Coleman)

And there is more drama with the investigators and journalists. Detective Sergeant Ellie Miller is not only longtime friends with the Latimers, with her son having been best friends with Danny, but Ellie is forced to partner with new-to-town Detective Inspector Alec Hardy, who has been slotted into the job that she'd been assured was going to be given to her. Alec Hardy is terse, seems to think everybody in Broadchurch is an idiot, and is battling personal demons. Hardy and Miller begin as nothing but rough edges to each other, but the friction begins to rub away the edges as they desperately work to keep the investigation on track, despite an increasingly fractious local population and the jackals of the press.

Maggie, Olly and Karen

Olly Stevens, Ellie's young nephew, is a fledgling journalist with the local paper, run by the tough-but-tender veteran, Maggie. Olly hopes to break into the big time, like Karen White, a brash reporter for a big national daily paper, who finds it difficult to reconcile the demands of her editor for tabloid-style stories with the sympathies she increasingly has for the Broadchurch locals. Karen knows Hardy from an earlier case in another town, and they are bitterly at odds.

Along with being an excellent psychological thriller and whodunnit, the story is a rich portrait of small-town life in this beach community on the Dorset coast. You don't often come across crime fiction that takes so seriously the effect of murder on a community. The story races along, with plenty of action, tension and emotion. If you prefer fairly short books, don't be put off by the book's 433 pages. It's a fast read, both because of its pace and the fairly large type.

Anna Gunn will play Ellie Miller in Gracepoint

You might have heard that Fox will be broadcasting a 10-part remake of Broadchurch, called Gracepoint, starting October 2. Despite what I said earlier about having no problem watching/reading after being spoiled, I'm not so sure about Gracepoint. I just watched all the videos on Fox's site and it looks like a pale imitation of Broadchurch. So many scenes have almost exactly the same direction and dialog, but the actors (except for David Tennant, who reprises his role––I guess he's that anxious to become better known in the US) have that buffed and homogenized look that American producers think we want, rather than the very real-looking actors that the British readily cast. From the videos, it appears that looks have been elevated over acting skills, compared to the British cast, at least in some cases. (I'm not talking about Anna Gunn's acting, but just look at some of the other actors' videos.)

I would strongly recommend watching Broadchurch (available on Amazon Instant Video and Netflix)––and reading this book––and then deciding whether you want to see Gracepoint. And look for the second season of Broadchurch, which is being filmed now in the UK and will air on BBC America sometime early in 2015.

Note: Thanks to the publisher for providing a copy of the book for review. Versions of this review may appear on Amazon, Goodreads, BookLikes and other reviewing sites under my usernames there.