If you are looking to immerse yourself in the countryside of Ireland, you will enjoy this book. I imagine the audible version read by an Irish person would be excellent. In terms of action, not much to be had. 95% of the book is people talking about other people. I believe the author aims for atmosphere over action.. Thanks to NetGalley for a complimentary copy of the book in exchange for my honest review.

This book hooked me in from the first chapter. I loved the character development and how the story progressed.

Come for the complex interpersonal dynamics, clockwork plotting, and sharp dialogue, stay for the gorgeous descriptions of place and landscape. Another engrossing and all out enjoyable read from a master of tone.

In a tiny Irish village, things are about to change. Cal, Lena, and Trey have settled in to a pleasant, quiet life, then Trey's father comes back from London along with a "buddy" and they are looking for gold. In this sequel to The Searcher, this quiet village is about to fall apart.

I loved the ambiance of the Irish village, French's descriptions and dialogue places the reader firmly in that town. The action builds so slowly, though, that I was bored at times. I almost stopped reading, but.....then about 1/2 way, things changed drastically. There were still moments that slowed the story down and fell into repetition, but over all this was a well written mystery. I think this will be a book that Tana French fans will love, but others will find slow and plodding.

Tana French has yet to disappoint. I had though Cal Hooper's story in The Searcher was a standalone and I am very glad she chose to revisit Cal and Trey once more. Picking up a few years later when a now 15-year-old Trey's dad has blown back in from London and is causing trouble with what ultimately proves to be a deadly scheme for one man, The Hunter catches us up with how Cal and Trey are perceived by their small village in the West of Ireland. Ultimately, it highlights, once again, how far a village will go to protect their community and who is on the chopping block when it comes down to it. It's another fascinating story of community and vengeance and leaves me hoping we may get to catch with these characters once more.

Even more than its excellent predecessor The Searcher, The Hunter is a tour-de-force of character development. Moving away from her beloved Dublin Squad series, author Tana French, focuses increasingly more on her characters and their setting than on the plot. This is not to say that the plot – featuring the return of Trey’s father Johnny and his “friend” Roushborough, their attempt to scam the inhabitants of Arknakelty, Roushborough’s murder, Cal's acceptance into the community, and a satisfying resolution to the mystery – is not engaging, for it is. However some readers will not appreciate the slow pace with which it unfolds. For me, the slow pace of the prose enhances the book. It’s not a novel to be read quickly nor is it for readers who care more about the number of books they read more than they care about their quality. But for readers who savor good literary craftsmanship as much or more than a fast-paced plot, The Hunter will more than satisfy. Highly recommended.

The Hunter by Tana French is very different than the other of her books I’ve read, although I understand that this is the second featuring this character, Cal. The story focuses on Trey(Theresa), a fifteen year old girl who is being raised by her mother, her father having abandoned the family. This takes place in rural Ireland, where in some ways a situation like this is easier. Cal is a retired police officer from Chicago just looking for a simple life. He and Trey have been refurbishing old furniture and building new for several years. They have become friends, of a sort. They count on one another. Lena is a neighbor who has developed a relationship with Cal and so, with Trey. Trey spends the night at Lena’s sometimes when she can’t go home. Now, all of a sudden, Trey’s recalcitrant father, Johnny, shows up, touting a scheme, as is typical. She is nervous. Cal is nervous. Lena is nervous. This is an emotionally complex story with interesting ramifications.

Trey is a teenager. Enough said. The people in the village have begun to look upon Trey as his. She has built trust with them. It is complicated. Her older brother, Brendan, has been missing for a couple of years. What he got mixed up in she doesn’t know but she knows they killed and buried him. Who exactly she doesn’t know but she plans to extract revenge using Johnny and his scheme. She is clever and devious. A manipulator. Cal can’t keep up with her. She won’t tell him her plan and he can’t guess. It is a cleverly written book, not surprising for Tana French. It’s views of rural Ireland are not to be missed as she picks up the personality of the place subtlety. The characters are excellent, not right out there, though. The reader has to work for it. The story is a good one, repeated the world over in people that would rather scam than work. I highly recommend it. Thanks Tana French for an excellent read!

I was invited to read The Hunter by Penguin Group Viking. All thoughts and opinions are mine. #Netgalley #PenguinGroupViking #TanaFrench #TheHunter

3.5*
French has given us a follow-up to her first Cal Hooper book. In The Searcher we met Cal, a retired Chicago police detective who has moved to the Irish countryside. He’s now settled in and become a surrogate father to Trey, a wild, stubborn, teenage girl. When Trey’s absentee real father Johnny suddenly returns with a scheme to make money, Cal is instantly concerned. He cares for the girl and won’t let her life be turned upside down by Johnny’s machinations.

When a murder occurs, Cal feverishly works to keep Trey out of danger. But the girl has her own plans and often they don’t coincide with Cal’s efforts. She has one goal in mind and it drives her to make poor choices. Cal’s surrogate father role is endearing, though sometimes his actions are a little baffling. One can’t help but be fascinated by him and his desire to make a home in Ireland, amidst an array of colorful neighbors.

French is great at creating interesting, complicated characters. Her plot is complex and will keep readers guessing about what really happened. This sequel isn’t as strong as the first book, but still quite an engaging read.

If you enjoyed reading The Searcher, this is your chance to reconnect with the characters in Ardnakelty, Ireland. Cal is presented with another dilemma when Trey's father, Johnny, returns home with the tale that there is gold on the land of the locals. Cal doesn't trust Johnny, Trey wants Johnny to leave, and the locals begin to believe Johnny's story. But things begin to fall apart and the town looks for a scapegoat and Cal tries to protect Trey. This book was a great read and hard to put down.

Tana French is not Irish, yet she has captured their tone and their language as well as any native speaker. This second in this particular series of hers is her best yet. Although the American former police officer from Chicago may be the main character, all the others, and there are many, are fully fleshed out. When you finish the book, you know everyone in that town, as if you’ve lived there your entire life. Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for this incredible read.

This is a sequel to "The Searcher," a book that introduces ex-Chicago cop Cal Hooper who retired and moved to Ireland to find peace and work on his carpentry skills. "The Hunter" covers some of that background, but those wishing a fuller picture of the relationship between Cal and 15-year old Trey who comes into his life would benefit from reading that book first.

This latest book unfolds in a leisurely pace, which at times seemed a bit too leisurely to me. So much so that I didn't feel guilty about setting it aside periodically and dipping back into it. But when Trey's father returns into her life and brings a mysterious Englishman with him the pace picks up.

As with all of the author's works I've read she develops a real sense of place which is as authentic as the characters that inhabit it. For those who like their mysteries, this one holds true to the end and then breaks the leisurely pace with a headlong rush, which seemingly wraps up this book as well as its predecessor quite satisfactorily.

THE SEARCHER was my least favorite Tana French book -- not bad, by any stretch, but I wondered why her focus had shifted to the quiet countryside after six thrilling Dublin detective novels and the weirder-than-I-remember WITCH ELM. If it was all to get us this book, it was worth it: French dispatches with the sloooow burn of that novel for a steady growing heat, like a hot summer that just won't break. THE HUNTER shows that her nose for moral ambiguity hasn't gone away and I guarantee you'll be shouting at the pages of this one as you also can't put it down.

Tana French is an expert in making the mundane so compelling and has a suspenseful tension that builds throughout. This one was written a little different than her others as it is not in first person alternating characters but so great!

I am a longtime Tana French fan. This latest effort feels incredibly unique, even moreso than its predecessor, The Searcher. As she gets deeper into her career, French is less and less concerned with the caper, and more with the deeper and pressing questions that have always been at the heart of her characters and work. What makes a community? What makes a family? French sinks deeper and deeper into her invented Ardnekelty community in this book, drawing out more and more history of the intersection of class, masculinity, and violence within it. I hope this series continues!

It pains me to say this as someone who once worshipped Tana French, but I’ve really struggled to enjoy her work since she moved away from the Dublin Murder Squad series.

The Cal Hooper books have been an especially tough hang, though I thought the first in the series was at least more well plotted and cleanly edited than this book.

This is a slow read, and not in that anticipatory, simmering way that makes for a good slow burn mystery. Part of the problem is that the book is overlong, dense with petty arguments between the sorts of people most of us don’t ever want to interact with. There’s a lot of insipid small town drama to this, long suffering shrewish women and the drunken scammers they end up marrying. It’s all fairly depressing and not especially interesting.

The actual mystery isn’t terrible, but because the murder takes place more than halfway through the book, I had largely lost interest before it even happened.

French’s novels have always been bleak and I don’t think that’s necessarily a bad thing in and of itself, but it’s harder to find something to root for in these than in her previous books. The fact that Cal is a decent person or that you may feel sorry for Trey just isn’t enough.

Unless you really love small town politics, I’d skip these. Here’s hoping French returns to the intricate procedurals that she is so good at writing before too long.

Book 2 of Cal Hooper series. Very enjoyable. Hooper is a retired Chicago police enjoying and trying to fit in with the folk of a rural village in Ireland. His mentoring of a wild teen and the return of her no good dad starts a hugh scandal in the village resulting in a life lost. Rumors of gold and a missing brother are hilited in the story.

You know that feeling when you want to keep reading because a book is so compelling but you want to stop because you don’t want to run out of book? That’s The Hunter. This completely gripping follow up to The Searcher takes place two years after the events of that book. There is a murder and there is a mystery, but really these are devices to dig deeper into the characters and the world set up in the first book.

Cal Hooper, the Chicago cop who moved to Ardnakelty in rural West Ireland on something of a whim, has settled into the townland, and while he’ll never be fully accepted by those whose blood connects with the land over centuries, his comfortable relationship with local woman Lena Dunne helps. The carpentry work that he and 15 year old Trey Reddy have been doing has made Trey less of an outcast and Trey has agreed with Cal that she won’t pursue revenge for the death of her brother. But maybe there’s a way around that promise?

Then Trey’s shiftless and charming father, Johnny, the very archetype of the silver-tongued Irishman, returns with a “big idea” that is going to make him and all the folks in Ardnakelty rich.

Our three perspectives are outsiders: Cal is still considered suspicious both because he’s a “blow-in” and because of his police background; Trey’s family has always been on the outs, and now with the return of untrustworthy Johnny, the townsfolk’s suspicions return; Lena has roots in the townland which she never wanted and deliberately eschews.

The novel is largely built up of long and often slow conversations, mostly between two people but sometimes between the group of men who make up the inside of Ardnakelty. What is spoken, what is veiled, and what is not spoken moves the novel forward while building a rich and textured picture of the characters and their culture. The land and its people are like a separate state: isolated, self-governed, meting out their own justice, and deeply distrustful of outsiders. The mountains and the fields, and all they hide, loom in the physical and metaphorical background, offering security but also concealing dangers for those who don’t know the terrain.

I was sad when Tana French moved on from the Dublin Murder Squad but have enjoyed her subsequent, less straightforward mysteries. This is easily the best novel I’ve read for quite a while and I highly recommend it if you like long, absorbing, immersive, and atmospheric reads.

Thanks to Viking and Netgalley for the digital review copy.

Another stunner by Tana French. Such a strong sense of place…you could feel the heat and stress. Great return to the world of Cal and Trey.

You know, I heard all the buzz about Tana French's new series before it started, but after seeing goodreads reviews of The Searcher, I decided to pass on it.

Boy, was that a mistake!

I was lucky enough to get a review copy of The Hunter to read, and it is so so quintessentially Tana French! It's well written, the pacing is outstanding, and just like with every other book I've ever read by her all the little details add up over time and when the fireworks start they are insanely intense.

I really like that Tana French decided to set this new series in rural Ireland because she absolutely gets what it's like living in a rural area; how everyone knows your business even if you don't want them to, how everyone is related in very tangled ways, and most importantly, how well rural areas can hold very very dark secrets.

I also enjoyed how Tana French respected every characters' intelligence, i.e. let the teenage girl be smart, but also make mistakes and learn from them. Overall, I can see this novel appealing to both Tana French fans and those new to Tana French. I also think it would be a great read for teens who are looking for a mystery with substance that respects their viewpoint. One of the best novels of 2025, and very highly recommended

In the 2nd installment of the Cal Hooper series Tana French continues the close relationship between Cal and teenager Trey Reddy. Trey's father returns to Ardnakelty, Ireland after a four year absence and his return is not appreciated by his daughter or it seems, his wife. Most of the book is character driven as we delve more into the lives of the townspeople and the Reddy family.

There is a drought in Western Ireland and the weather along with the scenery and culture of the town are as much a part of the plot as the characters in the town. Everyone is hurting with the lack of rain and high temperatures so when a scam is introduced, the hope that times could be better is too much to avoid.

As serious as much of the story is there is also humor, usually brought to us by the various animals in the book. There are the dogs owned by both Cal and Trey along with the ones with Lena, Cal's local girlfriend. Then, there are the rooks who hang out around Cal's home who try to terrorize the dogs and the cops who come to talk.

I truly enjoy a good character driven novel and I think French has created a great sequel to The Searcher, I highly recommend you read the 1st book first to better understand the relationship between Cal and Trey.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.