In the process of searching for Brendan, Cal ferrets out a bog’s worth of secrets and sins festering beneath this quaint patch of the Auld Sod. So it is that Cal, despite his reluctance, gets drawn into the case - as we readers know he will - because that’s what makes these quiet men who preside over Westerns and detective novels the flawed heroes they are. The main characters are Cal Hooper and thirteen-year old Trey Reddy living in Ardnakelty, a remote Irish village. It certainly isn’t a book to rush through, rather it’s one to savour. The local police have been useless, prejudiced, as they are, against the entire Reddy family as a pack of lazy troublemakers. For the most part this standalone mystery novel moves quite slowly, but it held my attention right from the beginning. (Everyone in the nearest village has sussed out by Celtic telepathy that the American who bought the cottage is an ex-cop.) Eventually, Trey confesses the real reason he’s been hanging around: He wants Cal to find out what happened to his beloved 19-year-old brother, Brendan, who vanished from the family cottage months ago.

One thing Trey doesn’t need to learn is that Cal is an ex-cop. Tana Frenchs 'The Searcher' is a masterfully crafted novel that delves into the complex themes of trauma, redemption, and the consequences of past actions. Cal Hooper, the protagonist of this edgy tale, is a fish. Following 2018’s THE WITCH ELM, THE SEARCHER is a character-driven work that moves quietly and purposefully toward a haunting conclusion. Before long, Trey is coming around regularly to help Cal and to learn carpentry. Tana French is primarily known for her Dublin Murder Squad mysteries, but her stand-alone novels are just as memorable. When Cal corners the voyeur, he turns out to be a wayward adolescent named Trey Reddy, who lives on a nearby mountain with his single mother and siblings. The Searcher follows Cal Hooper, a recently divorced, recently retired policeman from Chicago. The back of his neck - “trained over twenty-five years in the Chicago PD” - registers a watcher, someone who’s been creeping around the cottage and disturbing the nesting rooks. But, as the mists of autumn close in, Cal realizes that he’s not as alone as he thought.

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