The Hunter

Locations
Call Number: Mystery / French, Tana, Adult Book / Fiction / Mystery / General / French, Tana
On Shelf At: Downtown Library, Malletts Creek Branch, Traverwood Branch

"It's a blazing summer when two men arrive in a small village in the West of Ireland. One of them is coming home. Both of them are coming to get rich. One of them is coming to die. Cal Hooper took early retirement from Chicago PD and moved to rural Ireland looking for peace. He's found it, more or less: he's built a relationship with a local woman, Lena, and he's gradually turning Trey Reddy from a half-feral teenager into a good kid going good places. But then Trey's long-absent father reappears, bringing along an English millionaire and a scheme to find gold in the townland, and suddenly everything the three of them have been building is under threat. Cal and Lena are both ready to do whatever it takes to protect Trey, but Trey doesn't want protecting. What she wants is revenge. From the writer who is "in a class by herself," (The New York Times), a nuanced, atmospheric tale that explores what we'll do for our loved ones, what we'll do for revenge, and what we sacrifice when the two collide"-- Provided by publisher.

REVIEWS & SUMMARIES

COMMUNITY REVIEWS

Character Driven Mystery submitted by grimest on June 21, 2024, 4:33pm Excellent read

It's the journey, not the destination submitted by mecunningham on June 11, 2025, 1:36pm In The Hunter, Tana French takes us back to Ardnakelty—back to the Irish countryside, to tall tales and nights at the pub, to murmured rumors and open secrets. Readers absolutely have to have read The Searcher first, as this book is a direct follow-up to the first one, and French doesn’t spend time recapping previous events. You either know what’s going on, or you don’t.

That’s also the attitude of the Ardnakelty townspeople, who have begrudgingly accepted retired American cop Cal Hooper into their fold—but only to an extent. As local n’er-do-well Johnny Reddy unspools an elaborate scam, Cal realizes that he will always, at the end of the day, be an outsider in this place. But when a dead body turns up (not until 275 pages into the book!), Cal is just as tangled up in the case as everyone else in Ardnakelty.

French’s skill as a writer is more in the journey than the destination. Her prose vividly captures the feeling of a hot summer in an uneasy small town, and her dialogue rises and falls with Irish colloquialisms and sometimes-convoluted speech patterns. The book’s conclusion focuses less on a clear resolution than on justice being served. On its own terms and in its own manner, Ardnakelty will carry on.