I enjoyed The Searcher very much. It perhaps doesn’t have quite the depth of some of Tana French’s finest books, but it’s still very good indeed.
It is the story of Cal, a retired, divorced, disillusioned Chicago cop who buys a derelict house near a small village in the West of Ireland to have some peace of mind. He begins to form a relationship with Trey, a local 13-year-old whose brother has disappeared; Cal reluctantly agrees to look into it and complexities and dark undercurrents begin to emerge.
Like all of Tana French’s books, this is a novel of place and character, driven by a suspenseful crime story. The story itself here is slow and measured in pace – which I liked very much. It fits in well with the pace of life of the community and the careful, steady work which Cal outs in on his house and which he begins to teach to Trey. I see some reviewers found this tedious, but I liked it very much, along with the excellent depiction of the life and characters of a small rural community. The characterisation and dialogue are, as always, brilliant. French also has important things to say about masculinity, fatherhood, moral behaviour and other things. There was enough tension to keep me hooked and the whole thing was a pleasure for me.
This may not be one of Tana French’s very best but it’s still extremely good and I can recommend it very warmly.
(My thanks to Penguin Books for an ARC via NetGalley.)
No comments:
Post a Comment