I was about a third of the way through Tana French’s latest novel “The Hunter” when I had the sense that I was reading a book by a modern master.
I’ve been a dedicated reader of French’s novels since the start of her Dublin Murder Squad series, kicked off by “In the Woods” (2007), and moving through her non-series work “The Witch Elm” (2018), and 2020’s “The Searcher,” which is a prequel to “The Hunter.” But reading “The Hunter” made me realize that French is up to something entirely her own, inimitable and thrilling.
The Dublin Murder Squad novels are top-notch crime novels of dead bodies and dedicated professional sleuths following the trail toward justice (or something close to it). French has always excelled at atmosphere, the way the landscape shapes the people and vice versa, giving her more straightforward genre work significant depth.
With “The Searcher” and now “The Hunter,” French is taking the elements of crime novels and showing us how the stories unfurl from the perspectives not of the investigators, but those affected. The atmosphere and tension are still well in evidence, but without the anchors of the detective’s chase for the truth guiding the story, the reader is left unmoored in fascinating ways that French uses to excellent effect.
“The Searcher” is the story of Cal Hooper, an ex-Chicago cop who has decamped to the rural town of Ardnakelty, Ireland, and moved into a house on the mountain intending to keep to himself, having had enough of humanity. Pretty soon, though, he gets wrapped up with young Theresa, who goes by Trey, and wants to know what happened to her missing brother Brandon. Cal has been mentoring Trey on carpentry, and Trey has turned from feral to semi-civilized. Cal wants to keep that process going and agrees to help, despite his wishes to remain outside the fray.
The plot of “The Searcher” revolves around Cal’s discovery of Brandon’s fate, a discovery that comes without justice for Trey. It’s a non-resolution that hangs over the start of “The Hunter,” which finds Trey’s reprobate father Johnny returning to town after a years-long absence that coincided with Brandon going missing.
Johnny comes with a Mr. Rushborough from London in tow, supposedly a distant cousin of some of the townsfolk, and whose grandmother once told him of bounties of gold embedded in the Ardnakelty hills. It’s clear some kind of scam is involved, but we don’t know what. Trey wants her father gone before he can mess up the lives of her mother and younger siblings. Cal wants to protect Trey, who has started to show significant signs of promise.
There is a drought and a summer heat that’s more like Spain than Ireland. An apparent rich man has come promising everyone fortunes. It’s all very combustible. When events take an unexpected turn for a crime novel, Trey sees an opportunity for revenge on those who killed her brother and intends to take it.
Yes, there’s action and intrigue in “The Hunter,” but the pleasure is in being fully immersed in a world that French brings to life through the eyes of Trey, Cal and Lena, a widowed townswoman who has taken up with Cal, and sees much of her younger self in Trey. Unlike a crime novel where the plot wants to keep you guessing, in French’s hands you’re happy to just let the events unfurl, carried on her rich, evocative prose.
“The Hunter” is one of those books I read past my bedtime and when I was supposed to be doing something else.
Start with “The Searcher” for full effect.
John Warner is the author of “Why They Can’t Write: Killing the Five-Paragraph Essay and Other Necessities.”
Book recommendations from the Biblioracle
John Warner tells you what to read based on the last five books you’ve read.
1. “Kafka on the Shore” by Haruki Murakami
2. “The Candy House” by Jennifer Egan
3. “Clark and Division” by Naomi Hirahara
4. “Why We Love Baseball” by Joe Posnanski
5. “Real Tigers” by Mick Herron
— Don Macica, Chicago
Anybody who has read a book on why we love baseball has to read “Shoeless Joe” by W.P. Kinsella. Most folks will know it from its film adaptation, “Field of Dreams,” but this is a case where the book is as good or better than the movie.
1. “Enter Ghost” by Isabella Hammad
2. “This Other Eden” by Paul Harding
3. “The Trees” by Percival Everett
4. “Absolution” by Alice McDermott
5. “The End of Drum-Time” by Hanna Pylväinen
— Brian P., Buffalo Grove
For Brian, I’m recommending a book I read four years ago now, but I find it still sticks with me, and I think it will get underneath Brian’s skin as well, “Infinite Country” by Patricia Engel.
1. “Demon Copperhead” by Barbara Kingsolver
2. “Disgrace” by J.M. Coetzee
3. “My Search for Warren Harding” by Robert Plunket
4. “Berlin Game” by Len Deighton
5. “Rental Person Who Does Nothing, A Memoir” by Shoji Morimoto
— Keith G., Glenview
This looks like a list that points to Paul Beatty’s “The Sellout,” one of the sharpest comedies of the millennium.
Get a reading from the Biblioracle
Send a list of the last five books you’ve read and your hometown to biblioracle@gmail.com.
