THE SEARCHER by Tana French

Former Chicago PD officer Cal Hooper has moved to a small Irish town to decompress.  Fat chance.  No sooner has he started working on his fixer-upper than a 13-year-old named Trey is hounding him to do some detective work.  The kid’s beloved 19-year-old brother disappeared suddenly a few months ago, and although Cal at first resists getting involved, he soon starts asking questions around town just to get the kid off his back.  The townspeople are a tight-lipped bunch, especially when an outsider becomes a little too curious about their personal business, and Cal finds that he has crossed a line.  There’s also the matter of some sheep being savagely butchered in the dead of night.  I personally was more interested in Cal’s future, particularly with regard to his love life and whether he chooses to stay put or return to the U.S., after all the mysteries have been put to rest.  Certainly there are enough dirty secrets among his skittish neighbors to send him packing.  One minute they’re offering him moonshine, and the next minute they’re regaling him with the story of an Englishman whom they apparently forced out of town after he ratted them out for baiting badgers.  About halfway through the book, Cal’s neighbor reveals an important nugget regarding Trey that somewhat complicates Cal’s and Trey’s relationship, and I did not see this twist coming.  It’s not all that central to the plot, but it does reward us with more interaction between Cal and Lena, whose role thus far has been just to tempt Cal into adopting one of her dog’s puppies.  This book may fit squarely into the mystery genre, but the character development is superb, as is the ambience of the Irish countryside that the author so hauntingly creates.  One thing that particularly struck me is how the town is gradually disintegrating, according to Lena.  Many of Cal’s neighbors are bachelors, because the women, who are unlikely to inherit the land, generally move away.  The ones who stay, like Trey’s mother, often find themselves abandoned in poverty with a house full of children.  Trey, Lena, and Cal are bright spots in an otherwise dreary landscape, but they are more than enough to make this book a standout.