I enjoy Tana French’s books and The Searcher was no different. Cal Hooper is a recently retired Chicago cop who relocates to a small Irish town and buys an old fixer-upper house. Hooper can’t quite escape detective work, however. A local kid with a missing brother that no one seems to care is gone shows up at Hooper's house and relentlessly harasses Hooper for help. Hooper gets drawn in and can’t leave it alone, even though everyone in town is telling him to do exactly that. This is a book that I’m still thinking about after I’ve finished. I would recommend it to French fans and those who like a detective story, especially one that deviates from all the cop-story cliches. This would also make a great bookclub pick.

This is a slow burn of a mystery that goes back to the feel of French’s Irish Detective series. I couldn’t finish last year’s Witch Elm, but this was the type of read that makes me love Tana French. The feel of the Irish country side is a leading character, along with retired detective Cal who recently moved from Chicago. A teen named Trey shows up at his cabin with a request for help, leading to a missing teen and hidden secrets.
Highly recommend to fans of French’s early novels.

Tana French scores again with this standalone mystery. Although the mystery itself is not terribly complicated, French's beautiful prose, her ability to paint vivid pictures of the setting and to make it another character, one that is as important as the human ones, and, perhaps most importantly, her talent for making the characters real people, people the reader comes to know intimately, make this an outstanding novel. I would classify it as literary fiction rather than a mystery novel and I recommend it highly.

For fans of Tana French her newest, <i>The Searcher</i>, is a bit of a departure from her previous work. The protagonist Cal is an American who has retired to a rural village in Ireland looking for peace and simplicity. Unfortunately, he gets neither when he becomes embroiled in the case of a local missing teen.

It has a lot more in common with <i>The Witch Elm</i> than the Dublin Murder Squad novels, but I'm not complaining. I really liked <i>The Searcher<i/> and the plot definitely kept the pages turning. The best part, in my opinion, of French's novels is always the dialogue and she does not disappoint. Lots of great characters and local color here too.

I would recommend this book to mystery fans (obvs), and folks who found the DMS a bit too dark might find an avenue into French's books here. There is some somewhat uncharacteristic heartstring tugging in this book.

Tana French brings her mastery of character and place to this richly woven tale of a retired American cop who transplants himself to Ireland to heal...and finds himself doing so through a relationship he builds with a troubled teenager. The suspense element here is a little low-key--it's clearly not the author's primary interest--but the fabric of country life and the individuals who dwell there is wondrously evoked and wise.

Perhaps not the most compelling of French's novels, but a haunting and rewarding read nonetheless.

This was not what I was expecting from a Tana French book. The mystery was pretty 'basic', but I kept reading to see when the excitement would start. I liked the main characters including the twist. I would not want to live in a little Irish village. ARC provided by NetGalley in exchange for a fair review.

Tana French's new novel is a standalone mystery, and it's engaging from the very beginning. An American ex-cop finds himself starting over in Ireland, and soon gets tangled up in a mystery where nothing is quite as it seems. Cal years for an understanding of his past, his present situation, and how he ended up where he is. French navigates his psyche with skill, and touches on social issues that haunt the U.S., but also the social structure in place in so many communities across the globe.

This was a thrill to read - captivating, engaging, a who-dun-it (and what have they done, exactly?) that will keep readers up to finish it.

Tana French at her absolute best! I was hoping her next book would be a return to the Dublin Murder Squad series I know and love. The Witch Elm was good, but didn't quite scratch the itch I needed. This did all that and more. I read a lot, a lot of crime novels too. But no one does crime quite like French. Books like this remind me why I became a librarian in the first place. I can't wait to shove this one down the throats of everyone who walks into the library.

Another outstanding, moving example of Tana French’s epic writing! With her remarkable skills she can create intense, realistic, dark, raw, rash portray of rural western Irish and let you have a memorable, breathtaking, journey!

This small town is the real protagonist of the story. As you start your reading, you learn to listen its own people’s struggles, sadness, demanding, hard life choices and accept the dynamics between the relationships. The town was like living, breathing, functioning organism with its own rules and patterns.

Everything starts with retired detective Cal Hooper’s moving to the small remote Irish who buys an old wreckage, dilapidated house by giving higher bid to beat a local man. Of course town’s people are reluctant to accept an outsider into their lives or welcome him with open arms.

The loner ex detective accepts his faith and focus on rebuilding his new nest, feeling someone’s scrutinizing eyes over him: Trey, a local boy watches him behind prying eyes, coming from dysfunctional family. He needs urgent help of Cal to find his missing brother.
Cal cannot find the peace in his new place and he reluctantly accepts to help the boy even though it means attracting more hostile threats of town’s people because he was about to open so many cans of worms and disturb the town’s people’s peaceful lives.

The depictions and detailed composition of rural Ireland was captivating. The pacing and creative storytelling were satisfying as always. The characters were not easy to empathize with but throughout your reading you get used to their rough parts of their characteristics and accept them as they are.

I’m giving four dark, mysterious, pastoral, impressive, meticulous depiction stars!

It is always pleasure to read French’s books.

Special thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Group/ Viking for sharing this remarkable ARC with me in exchange my honest opinions.

I have been a fan of Tana French's work for several years now, and have read (or listened to) and enjoyed everything else she's written. For this reason, I was really excited to get my hands on this book. I enjoyed it overall, though not quite as much as her previous standalone novel (The Witch Elm). The characters and their relationships, especially Cal's relationship with Trey, were intriguing and heartfelt (although, I had complicated feelings about the "gender reveal" of Trey being a girl--what I did appreciate about this is that Cal learns she's a girl, is a little problematic about it, and then settles down and seems to be good about gender again. I don't know.). The descriptions of the Irish countryside were likewise atmospheric and beautiful, which is always a strength of French's that I really appreciate. I was not as drawn in to the mystery in this book, although I did find Cal's ex-Chicago PD identity crisis to both give his character dimension and be a bit out-of-touch. Although it's a very small part of the book, the historical moment we are currently in gives it additional consequence. I am particularly thinking here of the scene in which Cal recalls why he decided to retire early from Chicago PD: he and his partner were chasing a Black teenager (Jeremiah), and his partner shot at Jeremiah and missed him entirely. Cal recalls the horror in Jeremiah's face, as he thought he was going to be killed by police. Cal left the police department as a result of this, but did not mention it to his superior officers because he didn't want to be laughed out of the room for leaving because of a situation where nobody got hurt. (why wouldn't he tell the police chief he's leaving because of the racist system he works for? Seems like a missed opportunity) He then goes on to say that he realized his moral compass was completely messed up by police work. I honestly just don't know how to feel about this. I imagine police work messes up a lot of people's moral compasses, but the fact that Cal is the main character gives the scene a very specific "not all cops" feeling. Again, I don't know how I feel about it--but I do want my favorite mystery writers to consider what it might be like to write a mystery without police, even ex-officer still collecting a pension, at the center of it.

4.5 stars
Cal Hooper retires from his job as a policeman and moves to a quiet, rural town in Ireland where he thinks nothing much ever happens in search of a more peaceful life. Enter Trey, a local kid from a "bad" family who initially seems to be spying on Cal, but eventually begins to talk to him. Trey wants Cal to find his missing brother. Of course, Cal eventually agrees, French's description of the town is so vivid the town almost appears to be a character in its own right. Definitely recommend.

Cal Hooper has had enough excitement in his twenty five years as a cop in Chicago. The end of his career and a brutal divorce sent Cal to Ireland for a new start. A small village, and old house and a nearby pub typify the quiet life he’s looking for. But it’s not what he gets. A local boy whose brother has disappears leans on Cal to uncover the truth and find his brother. And as Cal soon discovers, every town, no matter how small, has it’s ugly secrets. French takes a break from her Dublin Murder Squad series is this mystery that’s heavy on atmosphere and character development