The Searcher by Tana French

Ireland, a broken down house, a broken marriage, a restless ex-cop....and a missing teenager. 

Sign me UP.

This book had so much more too!  I have a love-like relationship with Tana French.  Some of her books I love, some of them not so much.  This one?  Definitely a LOVE.  I even used Book Darts to mark passages and places.  Other reviewers have said this is a departure in tone for French; I hope it becomes her direction instead!!!

French does an amazing job setting the stage here.  A remote village in Ireland definitely becomes one of the characters in this story, just as much as the nosy neighbor (a man), the meddling store owner in town (a woman), and even the rooks that laugh their asses off on this American trying to fit into centuries of, well, Irish.

Cal Hooper moves to Ireland to start over and take a break.  He is jaded from his years on the Chicago force, his wife has left him for reasons that baffle him, and his daughter is grown and living her own life now.  So he moves to Ireland to get away and sets to work making his purchased-on-a-whim cabin livable.  He learns about permanent misty rain, bogs, walking, and what the men down the pub are really saying to him and warning him about. And one day, the Kid shows up from the family trailer a few miles up the mountain, totally skittish but obviously wanting something.  Trey is about 12-13, has a missing older brother, and wants Cal to find him.  Simple, right?

Nope.

The story takes a while to build; be patient.  It is atmospheric and a little bit eerie in tone. The relationship between Cal and Trey is precious and at first tenuous, almost fraught with tension.  Cal does NOT want to get involved.  Cal is restless.  Cal is curious. Cal has a strong moral core.  Sigh, of COURSE he wants to help Trey!!!  But how much trouble will it get him into?  What is he actually dealing with here?

I just thoroughly enjoyed this story.  It is about so much more that what happened to Brendan.  It is about finding yourself instead of escaping your life. I liked that we don't know what happened with Cal's marriage right away.  Pieces come together about his awkward but loving relationship with his daughter. And I love it when the setting is a character too.  All the people in this story are fully fleshed out, although I kept reading the nosy neighbor's name as Matt (it is Mart, see my visual issue??). There's a twist that I never saw coming that delighted me once I got it (well done, Tana!!).  The descriptions of the farmlands and Ireland itself are done with gorgeous prose. The rooks are hilarious.  I laughed out loud at their treatment of Cal (insert rueful eye roll here).  And Cal eventually figures out that sometimes the best way to help is to sit down and do nothing. Sometimes.

 I am only sorry I did not also listen to this one to get that amazing Irish lilt!  This book makes me want to be a Tana French completist.  I am half-way there!!!