A retired policeman moves from Chicago to a small town in Ireland to try to find peace and escape from his past. As he meets the residents of his new hometown, he realizes that there are some secrets that he can't ignore.

The Searcher showcases Tana French's talent to write a beautiful and atmospheric story. This was a big change from the Dublin Murder Squad series; I had a hard time putting those books down whereas The Searcher's plot moved so slowly that I lost interest a few times. I wasn't particularly attached to the main character, Cal, but I grew attached to Trey and Lena.

Even though I didn't enjoy this as much as French's other books, I'd still recommend this to mystery fans. Overall it was a well-written, slow-burning story.

Tana French is in a category of her own. Her books are to be savored - lived in - for as long as it takes to get through them. This may make some readers call them "boring" or "slow," but there are readers for whom these books are a journey. The Searcher, like French's previous standalone The Witch Elm, is a slow burn of a mystery novel. It's not fast-paced by any sense of the word, but it is compelling and fascinating. French's writing is so good that I find myself smiling at some passages just because of how well-written they are. In The Searcher, we follow a retired Chicago policeman named Cal Hooper, who has recently moved to an Irish village where all is not as it seems. Despite his reluctance to get involved in local crime, Cal is unwillingly drawn into the disappearance of a young boy's brother. Cal and the young boy, Trey, are trying to discover the whereabouts of Brendan, Trey's brother, and unwind the web of deception in the Irish countryside. Because this is Tana French, expect well-fleshed-out characters and intriguing mysteries, with just enough tension to keep readers going for the 450+ pages of this one. Tana French has done it again.

Though set in Ireland, the main character is American. Cal is looking for a peaceful place to retire after years on the Chicago police force as a detective. He buys a cottage that need much repair, and for awhile he concentrates on fixing it and getting to know his neighbors in the pub.

Then twelve-year-old Trey, who lives nearby, learns that he was a detective and wants him to find out what happened to her brother, who's missing. Her mother doesn't want to go to the police because she thinks he just took off on his own. Trey doesn't believe that.

Reluctantly, Cal agrees to look into it. He discovers that his peaceful village holds dark secrets, and the ending is unexpected.

Not as fast-moving as her other books, but the characters are well drawn, and the description of country Ireland are amazing.

Thank you NetGalley and Penguin Group Viking for the eARC. I jumped up and down with excitement when my request was granted; finally a new Tana French book!
Cal Hooper, an ex-detective from Chicago, has moved into a dilapidated cottage in several acres of land in rural Ireland. He was tired of being a cop in a world he no longer understands and is enjoying doing up his cottage, taking walks in the countryside and developing a new set of muscles. His neighbor comes by every so often with his dog, mooching his favorite cookies and talking him into going to the pub. There are some scenes that take place in the pub that really made me laugh, but under it all I felt a creeping sense of dread. Cal is being watched by a young boy, Trey, who finally persuades him to look into the disappearance of his older brother. Nobody else seems to care, not even the police. That's when the trouble starts...
This seemingly friendly community is not at all what Cal was expecting: they are a tribe he's not familiar with, with its own set of rules, regulations and moral compass. He's a stranger, with no backup, no legal right to do a police job or interview locals and finds himself flailing.
I absolutely loved this book. It has a great sense of place, the claustrophobic atmosphere of being a stranger in a strange land is spot on and Cal is very likeable. Even Trey grew on me in the end.
Tana French is one of my favorite authors and this standalone again proves what a terrific storyteller she is.

I’m a big Tana French fan and was excited to receive this as an ARC from netgalleycom.

This book is definitely different than the Dublin Murder Squad books but just as great. It’s a slow paced mystery that takes its time building. It also has a strong sense of place on the remote Irish countryside in a small town with its cast of characters. But the landscape is also a character in its own right.

There were a few surprises but overall it was a story you just wanted to take your time with and not rush.

I really enjoyed this book and think old and new fans will enjoy it!

I hadn't heard anything about this book before starting it, but now I'm seeing reviewers say that it's French's take on a western. I'll go a bit further. It's Winter's Bone but set in Ireland and if Ree Dolly had procured the help of a retired cop.

So, there isn't a ton of plot. Cal Hooper is asked by a kid from the "trashy" family up the mountain to find what happened to the oldest brother in the family. The brother has gone missing and it seems likely that things did not end well for him. Cal, a retired cop from Chicago, somehow has to get people in an insular Irish village to give him information, and he doesn't have great success. He also avoids an obvious source of information that would have greatly changed the outcome of the story.

As a mystery, it's okay. As a book, I rated it highly because of the sense of place and atmosphere. It's a rural noir story, and Cal sometimes really enjoys living in his isolated cottage but sometimes it's pretty spooky. The villagers are sometimes friendly and sometimes it seems that Cal will never truly know these people, who show the only parts of themselves that an outsider is fit to see. There's history in this village that Cal can't understand, and the relationship undercurrents that go along with that. I liked Cal and I was interested in his mission. All of the characters were well drawn, but that's no surprise in a book by this author. I'd rate this as one of her better books.

I've been reading Tana French for over a decade. Her novels may be slow burns but they always deliver. Her characters have depth, her descriptions are vivid. Her writing transports me every time and her mysteries always keep me on the edge of my seat.

"The Searcher" was a GORGEOUS piece of writing. Tana French describes the landscape and the breeze in such a way that you feel right there in the field, smelling the crisp morning air, listening to the birds in their trees. I mention this first because the book utterly absorbed me into its pages for this very reason. When I read a book, I want to feel it as if I've walked through a doorway to the book's world. The second reason this book was wonderful, is Cal. Cal is such an endearing character - an ex-cop; large man; in a foreign land looking for a fresh start; introspective, just enough; able to hobnob with the locals; expertly cautious and deliberate in all of his interactions; strong yet cautious; deeply caring; respectful of nature. I've not felt so endeared to a literary detective since Armand Gamache of Louise Penny's Three Pines. I found myself caring deeply about him and his happiness.

Combining Cal and the beautiful Irish landscape, then putting us into a small town with small town gossip, secrets, protectiveness, creates a wonderful starter for anything. The anything, in this case, is the missing older brother of a young kid, who comes from an outcast family in this town, who doesn't really get all they deserve from their struggling single mom, who finds Cal and bully-begs him into helping.

I would put this in the vein of a literary mystery, as it follows no formula, is beautifully written, isn't so focused on a mystery with twists and turns that it loses sight of the world in which it exists, and builds out character and place with the honed skill of a seasoned, caring author.

I've read many of Tana French's books, and have enjoyed some, struggled with others, but this floats to the top of her canon, for me, as one of her best works.

A slow-burning, tense, character-driven thriller
from one of the most brilliant writers of our time. French is fantastic at setting the claustrophobic, surveillant atmosphere of the rural Ireland, where everyone knows one another and seemingly nothing ever happens, as seen through the eyes of a retired cop Cal, who immigrated from Chicago to look for peace, only to find trouble knocking on the door of his dilapidated cottage. Or rather, lurking around in the dark. The trouble's name is Trey, a 13 year old whose brother went missing. Thus, an unusual friendship begins.

A must-read for lovers of literary mysteries and small town secrets. The pacing is slow and contemplative but it's oh so worth it!

French’s new novel is a slow burn crime thriller, reminiscent of Broken Harbor. This novel focus is not centered on a family falling apart, but what happens to families after they fall apart. The main character Cal, an ex-CPD detective who moves to Ireland after a divorce and burnout, seems a stranger to the reader and to himself. The character of the small farming village represented by secondary characters, smartly written and idiosyncratic, flesh out the lands history and getting to know their complicated relationships as neighbors is a fulfilling read. The ending of the novel is unforgettable in its bittersweet brutality. Endings are French’s specialty and she exceeds at in satisfying the reader in surprising and unconventional ways. A complicated resolution and realities of being poor in a dying farming community in Ireland, all on the shoulders of a tenacious and resilient young girl whose desperation to find her older brother who has disappeared brings crime, danger and a chance at a redemption of character into Cal’s retirement.

This book revels in the beauty and the horror of small town life, showing both the idyll and the filth existing side by side. An ex-cop, far away from his old beat in Chicago, makes it his retirement mission to spruce up an old house that has been languishing in an Irish field for decades. In between stripping wallpaper and fixing the plumbing, he befriends the locals, who seem cautiously optimistic about the blow-in. When a young kid comes to him, looking for the expertise he earned from a career spent tracking people down, he discovers that grievances in small towns run deep, and some will do anything to protect their home from outside influence. Fans of Tana French’s Dublin Murder Squad will also enjoy this semi-procedural.

5+ out of 5.
This is Tana French's strongest book yet. This, her second standalone, does what folks wanted to believe THE WYTCH ELM did -- I liked that book, but did not think it anywhere near her best -- in that it proves she can write anything and make it compelling. Much of this book is housework, small conversations, missed cues and solitudinal thought.
Don't worry, there's also a missing kid and some strangely slaughtered sheep. And drugs. And small towns fading into obscurity.
I fucking loved every word of this and would read it all again in a heartbeat. While it doesn't capture the top spot in my personal French rankings (THE LIKENESS still takes the cake for me; that book...), it is absolutely phenomenal and if you aren't reading Tana French, now is a good time to start. This one, this one will hook you good.

If I could only read one author for the rest of my life, it would be Tana French. Think about that for a moment - I read upwards of 100 books a year. She doesn't need gimmicks--multiple timelines, cheap plot manipulations, unreliable narrators, fancy locales. She creates riveting, believable characters, sets them in arresting but realistic plots, and tells a damn fine story. The Searcher is no different. The story follows an ex-Chicago cop who retires to a small Irish village and becomes embroiled in a missing person case--a case no one in the village wants solved except the missing man's young sibling. As usual, French creates a compelling story out of a minimum of components, largely because her characters are so expertly rendered and immediately believable. She places the reader in a fully realized world , the story unfolds effortlessly and the pages turn.

Unfortunately, this was not my favorite of Tana French's work. Her writing is, as usual, stellar, but the story itself just didn't cut it for me. The lead character, Cal, was appealing as was Trey, the child who shows up and asks Cal to investigate a family member that has disappeared. But I got to the end of the book and asked myself what was it all for? I'm not sure what French was going for with this one but sadly, it was a miss for me. It felt rather inconsequential after all was said and done.

Retired detective Cal Hooper moves to a remote village in rural Ireland. His plans are to fix up the dilapidated cottage he's bought, to walk the mountains, to put his old police instincts to bed forever. Then a local boy appeals to him for help. His brother is missing, and no one in the village, least of all the police, seems to care. And once again, Cal feels that restless itch. Something is wrong in this community, and he must find out what, even if it brings trouble to his door.
The publisher and Net Galley provided this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

After his marriage fell apart and he lost faith in his job as a cop, Cal moved across the ocean to Ireland. He hoped to find clarity in wandering the beautiful countryside and fixing up a dilapidated cottage. Most of the village is just thrilled by the novelty of a new human, but semi-feral thirteen-year-old Trey sees Cal as a godsend: his outsider status and law enforcement experience make him the only one willing and able to track down Trey's beloved big brother Brendan since the locals wrote him off. Vivid descriptions of the landscape intercut Cal's investigation into the increasingly claustrophobic village. Thanks, Netgalley.

Retired Chicago police officer Cal Hooper decides to settle down in a remote Irish town but a plea from a young boy shatters his peaceful retreat. The boy's brother is missing and no one in the town seems to care. Now Hooper must use all his instincts to discover what's amiss in his supposed paradise.

Gratefully, The Searcher is much better than her disappointing novel, The Witch Elm. Don't expect an edge of your seat thriller. The idyllic Irish setting lulls you into this slow-burn mystery that will reward those who love a good character study.

I wanted to like this more than I did but it was not as thrilling or mysterious as it should be. Such a shame because anything written about Chicago nonfiction or otherwise always peaks my interest. This was predictable too. Too bad. Maybe someone will like it more, but predictability is my #1 peeve when reading anything. Still readable even if I figured out everything too early.

Thanks to Netgalley, Tana French, and Penguin Group Viking for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Available: 10/6/20

I was thrilled to be able to review an advanced copy of The Searcher since I've been a fan of Tana French's previous novels. I was completely transported to Ireland again with this new book, drawn in by the slowly emerging story of the missing young man in a village that doesn't seem very concerned about his whereabouts. Underneath the plot lie questions of community and family obligations and relationships, moral codes and justice within and outside of the legal/police system, and what responsibilities we have to each other.

Took a bit to get going and set the scene, establish the cast of characters, and even show there was a crime to be investigated. But then the search seemed pretty low-key. I did like the small Irish village setting and the quirky characters, but the end is one I was able to see coming. So if you’re looking for lots of twists or thrills or menace, you’ll be disappointed.