By the time Cal Hooper retired from his job with the Chicago PD to spend quality time with his wife, it was too late. Donna had found someone else to share her interests and her life, and Cal’s daughter was grown and had her own life, so he bought a fixer-upper on some land near fishing and moved to beautiful, green, rural Ireland.
The fixer-upper had been empty for years, so there was quite a bit of work needed to get it habitable, but Cal had some skills, and he definitely had the time, and he found satisfaction in bringing his new home back to life. He met his new neighbors right away and developed friendly, yet reserved, relationships with most but asked and depended on their advice and guidance on getting his place set up and settling into his new community. And things seemed to be going well; he’d been welcomed, somewhat, into the life of the village due in part to the efforts of his elderly neighbor, Mart, who’d taken Cal under his wing and introduced him to the boyos down at the pub as well as the local shop owner, Noreen, who had a sister she wanted him to meet. But still, every evening at the house, he could feel the eyes on his back: someone was watching him.
Eventually, he discovered the "watcher" was Trey, a local 13-year-old from a poor, fatherless home up the mountain. Cal slowly coaxed the youngster out into the open with sandwiches and working out in the yard restoring an old desk found in the old house, cautiously trying to find out what the child wanted with him.
Since coming to the village, Cal had been careful not to let out that he was a retired police detective, but somehow the word had gotten out in the small, close-knit community. Trey wanted Cal’s professional assistance finding his much-loved, older brother, Brendan, who had left the family home one afternoon the previous March and was never heard from or seen again. Because of the family’s standing and reputation in the community, local law enforcement was no help, and his overwhelmed mother wasn’t up to pressing the matter, everyone believing Brendan was a runaway and would return home when he got ready. But Trey was certain Brendan would never have just walked away, not willingly. It was his firm belief Brendan had been abducted by some person or persons unknown and was being held against his will. And while in his mind, Cal was permanently retired from life, he could not turn his back on Trey’s pain and suffering.
THE SEARCHER is the latest standalone novel from author Tana French and not part of her popular Dublin Murder Squad series. It is an engrossing story of Cal’s look into the months-old disappearance of 18-year-old Brendan Reddy, and while an excellent mystery, it is also about Cal, the outsider, learning about his new home, community, culture, and neighbors, recovering from his blindside divorce, and accepting his daughter as an adult doing fine on her own. I experienced this story as an audiobook, and the narrator, Roger Clark, was perfect. He performs with a variety of different and distinct voices and wonderful accents to portray men, women, Americans, and Irish to great effect. I was enthralled from start to finish.
THE SEARCHER, while a fish out of water tale, was an absorbing story of mystery and compassion. I recommend this book to mystery readers that like a gritty, dark story with lots of twists, turns, and surprises, those that enjoy mysteries set in rural Ireland or closed communities or villages, and especially those that have enjoyed Tana French’s work in the past.
Cal Hooper thought a fixer-upper in a bucolic Irish village would be the perfect escape. After twenty-five years in the Chicago police force and a bruising divorce, he just wants to build a new life in a pretty spot with a good pub where nothing much happens. But when a local kid whose brother has gone missing arm-twists him into investigating, Cal uncovers layers of darkness beneath his picturesque retreat, and starts to realize that even small towns shelter dangerous secrets.
"One of the greatest crime novelists writing today" (Vox) weaves a masterful, atmospheric tale of suspense, asking what we sacrifice in our search for truth and justice, and what we risk if we don't.
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