The
Searcher, by Tana French.
It’s
always a pleasure to look forward to a
new book by acclaimed Irish Novelist Tana French, and with ‘The Searcher’, as
always, she lives up to her stellar reputation, combining mystery, suspense and
starkly realistic characterisations to produce yet another story that leaves us
regretful we have come to the end.
American ex-detective Cal Hooper has come to Ireland for
a new start after a failed marriage and early retirement made him long for a
release from his problems. He bought
acreage sight unseen (off the Internet – where else!) in Ardnakelty, about as
far as one could get from Chicago, scene of all that he felt is wrong with his
life: now, he is employing building and
carpentering skills that he thought he’d long forgotten, and he’s enjoying the
novelty of village living – which involves searching questions about his
origins from absolutely everybody. No
stone is left unturned in the quest for Knowledge Of Cal, and he finds that
it’s useless to be offended by everyone’s nosiness – no offense is
intended; they all just want the craic
because he’s a stranger who may stay on, or disappear after his first winter.
Fair enough, Cal thinks, and all is peaceful and
predictable until a child turns up on his doorstep (after spying on him for a
week) and announces that he wants to hire him to find the child’s 19 year-old
brother Brendan. Because Cal is an
ex-cop and should know how to find him. Because the child knows that Brendan would never have left his family, a family that is
regarded in the village as occupying the lowest rung of life socially and
economically. Something bad has happened
to Brendan, and will Cal take on the job?
And for various reasons, Cal does decide to investigate,
not least because there seems to be a strange reluctance by the locals to
freely proffer information. He finds he
has to ask about Brendan in a very roundabout way, as though he were trying to
find out about other people entirely, and as he proceeds deeper into his
enquiries he finds that far from being a peaceful Sleepy Hollow where crime is
barely awake, Ardnakelty has grim and violent undercurrents that reveal
themselves all too readily if disturbed.
Ms French, once again, has introduced us to characters
whom we are loath to leave; they are
completely convincing and their problems are instantly familiar, whether they
live in a big city or a tiny dot of a village.
We know these people, and it would be great to meet them again. SIX STARS.
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