The Hunter: A Novel
"Extraordinary."--Maureen Corrigan, The Washington Post
"Hailed as the queen of Irish crime fiction, French spins a taut tale of retribution, sacrifice, and family." --TIME
From the New York Times bestselling author of The Searcher and "one of the greatest crime novelists writing today" (Vox), a spellbinding new novel set in the Irish countryside.
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.
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Readers say *The Hunter* by Tana French offers a richly detailed small-town Irish setting with fully realized characters, especially Cal, Lena, and Tr...
What’s it about?
This is the second novel in a series by Tana French featuring Cal Hooper, a retired Chicago cop. Hooper has moved to a small town in Ireland, where he has begun to make a life. He has a romantic relationship with Lena and has become a mentor to a local 15-year-old girl named Trey. But when Trey’s long-absent father comes back into town touting a get-rich-quick scheme, he suddenly feels the need to protect Trey. Trey does not need a protector. What she is out for is old-fashioned revenge…
What did it make me think about?
Tana French can write an Irish crime novel!
Should I read it?
I have read every Tana French novel since I picked up In The Woods years ago. Her books always have great characters and intriguing mysteries, and they are all set in Ireland. This book was a little on the long side but I enjoyed it nonetheless.
Quote-
“The main talent Cal has discovered in himself, since coming to Ardnakelty, is a broad and restful capacity for letting things be. At first this sat uneasily alongside his ingrained instinct to fix things, but over time they’ve fallen into balance: he keeps the fixing instinct mainly turned towards solid objects, like his house and people’s furniture, and leaves other things the room to fix themselves. The Johnny Reddy situation isn’t something that he can leave be. It doesn’t feel like something that needs fixing, though, either. It feels both more delicate and more volatile than that: something that needs watching, in case it catches and runs wild.”
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