I always look forward to Tana French’s latest novel, and when it arrives, it jumps to the top of my pile. This one follows up on her last novel, The Searcher.
And really, it’s necessary to spoil the ending of The Searcher to explain this novel, although readers who haven’t read it may be able to get along without reading it. The main character of both novels is Cal Hooper, a retired detective from Chicago who moved to the countryside outside the Irish village of Ardnakelty because he liked the look and feel of it. In the previous novel, Trey, a girl from a no-hope family, asked Cal to find out what happened to her older brother, Brendan, who disappeared. Cal did, and here’s the spoiler for that book—he had to make her promise not to take revenge against her brother’s murderers, who are all men of Ardnakelty, although she doesn’t know which ones.
Now Trey is a teenager. Cal has been teaching her to do woodworking, and they have been buying furniture, fixing it up, and selling it and even occasionally making custom furniture. Trey’s family has been considered trash, but Trey herself is starting to earn some respect despite rough edges.
Then Trey’s father, Johnny Reddy, who abandoned his family years ago, returns. Cal dislikes and distrusts him on sight. Soon, the villagers find out that Johnny has a big plan for getting rich.
He has befriended a British man named Cillian Rushborough, a rich man whose people came from Ardnakelty. Rushborough is full of his grandmother’s story that gold used to be found on the mountain, and that it will have been swept down to the river. Johnny has convinced the villagers who own land along the river to go in together and salt the river with gold so that Rushborough will pay them to look for gold on their land. Cal isn’t invited to take part in this scheme, but he pushes his way in to keep an eye on Reddy. Once he meets Rushborough, he knows something else is going on.
Unfortunately, Trey sees her father’s scheme as a way to get back at the men who killed her brother. So, although she wants her father to leave, she starts helping him with it. Then, a body is found.
French usually pulls me right into her books, but for some reason, the setup of the scam kept losing my attention. Finally, though, things got moving and, as usual, French does not fail to fascinate.
What? Me Read? 