rationalizations which will ring true for most readers, and which don’t place Cal in a particularly good light. WhileThe Searcher is more of a “standard” mystery thanThe Witch Elm, it maintains that novel’s close focus on the darker heart of humanity, the lengths to which events can shape, change or end a character’s life. I wrote, back in 2018, that The Witch Elmwas one of the strongest books I had read that year; The Searcher was one of my strongest reading experiences of 2020. And that’s why a new Tana French is always worth paying attention to. Book Review by Robert Wiersema The Searcher by Tana French Generally speaking, I try to avoid reviewing back-to-back releases from the same writer. There are a few reasons for this: first, there are so many releases every year − every week! − that focusing my attention on a writer whom I have “just” reviewed means missing out on something else. Second, with so many books published each week, review space is at a premium, and it’s good to spread that attention around. And third, most of the time, there’s not a lot new to say about a writer from book to book. Every so often, though, there’s an author, and a book, that calls for an exception. Tana French is one of those writers. One of the keys to French’s success − and the reason you’re reading about her latest novel here − is that readers never know what to expect with her new books. Even when she was writing the novels in theDublin Murder Squad series, she was unpredictable; every book would have a different main character (with main characters from previous books showing up in the background) and a different approach. Although the books were all rooted in the titular investigative unit, you never knew what French was going to come up with. This unpredictability escalated with the 2018 release of her first non-series novel, The Witch Elm(which I reviewed forCSANews). The book was a shift away from the police procedural and into an intricate psychological drama, featuring human remains found in an oak stump and an unreliable main character whose brain damage leaves him uncertain as to what is real and what is fantasy. While it had elements of mystery, The Witch Elm was, at heart, something different, something deeper, something fundamentally human. With all of that in mind, it likely won’t come as a surprise to learn that, with her new novel, French shifts gears once again. Cal Hooper, the main character of The Searcher, is a retired Chicago police officer who has fled the United States (and the ashes of his failed marriage), buying a house in a remote village in the west of Ireland. Cal has come for the quiet; he wants to work on his house, drink in the local pub and not have to put his life − and his soul − on the line. As a result, he’s a bit reluctant to commit himself when Trey Reddy, a local teen, implores him to investigate the disappearance of Trey’s older brother. He soon discovers that no one in the town cares much about the young man’s disappearance and, before he is even aware of it, he’s on the trail again. It turns out, shockingly, that the seemingly idyllic village is actually a hotbed of secrets and lies, of crimes both small and large. It’s a veritable minefield into which Cal, completely out of his element, stumbles. If this setup seems a bit familiar, there’s a good reason: from its title down, French has created a contemporary western with The Searcher, with Cal as the aging gunslinger who just wants to hang up his guns, called out of his rest for one last ride. It’s a wonderful twist on the material, and it gives a timeless sense to the novel, even as French stays focused on the specific and the particular. French is a keen-eyed observer of the human character, unflinching in the face both of evil and of banality. Cal’s reluctance to help Trey, for example, is a series of excuses and CSANews | SPRING 2021 | 53
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MzMzNzMx