Guys, it has taken me years to get on the Tana French bandwagon. Now that I am on it, I will hold on for dear life because she can write a great thriller! I'm looking forward to all that has passed and all that is yet to come.
Judging by the mixed reviews the best is yet to come for me, especially her Dublin Murder Squad series has been received with a lot of praise. For what it's worth, I'm a newbie to her writing and I really enjoyed The Searcher.
Sure, the most common remark from negative reviews is the pacing and the fact that it's slow to start. I found that to be the case as well, but I didn't mind it. It takes time to build a character from the ground up, especially if the setting is small.
The story is set in a small town in Ireland. The kind of place where everyone knows everyone and one day our protagonist walks in and he's the talk of the town. Cal is an ex-police office from Chicago of all places and he's looking for peace and quiet after a painful divorce. The novel starts with a lot of talk about home renovations, because that's what Cal is focused on when the story kicks off.
However, he doesn't have time to complete it before a local child, Trey, finds him and appeals to him for help. His brother has disappeared and he's hoping Cal can find him. Cal reluctantly agrees, because he feels a restless itch. The fact that something iffy seems to be going on in this small community is impossible for him to ignore.
What I loved most about this novel is that Cal's situation felt really realistic. He's a retired policeman from another country, he doesn't have the means to do investigations the way he did them back in the States. How he deals with this is the strength of the story and the reason why I think the slow build up is OK. I found myself completely absorbed into the story and its setting in rural Ireland. I really wanted to find out what happened to Trey's brother.
I give this book 4.5 stars and I can't wait to read more books by Tana French.
Many thanks to the publisher Penguin General and Netgalley for providing me with a review copy!
Statistics:
Date read: October 15, 2020
Date published: November 5, 2020
Publisher: Penguin UK
Format: eBook
Pages: 320
Genre: Mystery/Thriller/Horror
My Number of Books Read by this Author: 1
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