The Hunter (Cal Hooper Book 2) by Tana French #AudiobookReview #NetGalley #Mystery #IrishFiction #TuesdayBookBlog

Author: Tana French

Performed by Roger Clark

Published on Audible by Penguin Audio in March 2024

Category: Audiobook Review, Mystery, Irish Fiction, Crime Fiction

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It’s a blazing summer when two men arrive in a small village in the West of Ireland. One of them is coming home. Both of them are coming to get rich. One of them is coming to die.

Cal Hooper took early retirement from Chicago PD and moved to rural Ireland looking for peace. He’s found it, more or less: he’s built a relationship with a local woman, Lena, and he’s gradually turning Trey Reddy from a half-feral teenager into a good kid going good places. But then Trey’s long-absent father reappears, bringing along an English millionaire and a scheme to find gold in the townland, and suddenly everything the three of them have been building is under threat. Cal and Lena are both ready to do whatever it takes to protect Trey, but Trey doesn’t want protecting. What she wants is revenge.

I loved The Searcher, the book that first introduced Cal Hooper, a retired detective from Chicago who relocated to rural Ireland to find peace and quiet. He’d been a serving officer for twenty five years, had been through an emotional divorce and just wanted to build a new life in a spot where nothing much happened. He has developed a deepening relationship with local lady, Lena and thought he was doing a reasonable job providing motivation and support for Trey Reddy, the wild youngster he met soon after he moved to his cottage.

Trey found she had a knack for carpentry and she and Cal work well together, repairing and making furniture. That is until Trey’s good-for-nothing father reappears after a long absence. He wasn’t alone. Accompanied by a friend from London, the two of them are set on a course that will cause trouble in the small community of Ardnakelty and when the underlying and escalating tensions eventually erupt, not helped by the unseasonably hot and humid weather, death, danger and a detective from Dublin will follow.

Cal knows he needs to make nice with Johnny, but his plan is undermined somewhat by his urge to kick the guy’s ass. He’s not going to do it, obviously, but just allowing himself to picture it gives him some satisfaction. Cal is six foot four and built to match, and after spending the last two years fixing up his place and helping out on various neighbours’ farms, he’s in better shape than he’s been since he was twenty, even if he still has a certain amount of belly going on. Johnny, meanwhile, is a weedy little runt who looks like his main fighting skill is convincing other people to do it for him. Cal reckons if he got a running start and angled his toe just right, he could punt this little shit straight over the tomato patch.

Like The Searcher, The Hunter is a compelling multi layered, slow burn, character driven mystery, full of atmosphere, intrigue and well devised, developing characters who are brought to life sympathetically, with subtlety, depth and authentic dialogue. The area is easily visualised by the descriptions of the farmland, the village and the mountain with its trails, pathways and dangers for the unwary.

I’m really enjoying the setting and characters in this series. Trey, now fifteen and smart, she more or less has the measure of her father. But she is blinkered when it comes to her brother’s death and despite the promise she made to Cal, she has her own agenda and believes she can manipulate her father’s scam to her own advantage, and bring about the retribution she feels is deserved. In doing so she avoids Cal and that worries him, given everything that’s going on. Cal is a strong character, anything but stereotypical, he doesn’t take things or people at face value and forms his own opinions. The characters, their developing relationships, the dialogue and scene setting make this book. The plot is almost, but not quite, secondary and I enjoyed the banter between the locals. I love Roger Clark’s narration. It’s spot on and I can just picture him as Cal. I really hope there’ll be another one…or even several more.

Tana French is the New York Times bestselling author of In the Woods, The Likeness, Faithful Place, Broken Harbor, The Secret Place, The Trespasser and The Witch Elm. Her books have won awards including the Edgar, Anthony, Macavity and Barry Awards, the Los Angeles Times Award for Best Mystery/Thriller, and the Irish Book Award for Crime Fiction. She lives in Dublin with her family.