The Hunter

I went through an absolute Tana French binge when I first discovered her a couple of years ago, and The Hunter is her latest. It's another book about American police officer, Cal Hooper, who has retired to a remote village in Ireland and becomes entangled in local secrets, and taciturn, stubborn teenager, Trey, for whom he gradually becomes a kind of unofficial guardian.

In The Searcher, the story centred on the mystery of what happened to Trey's older brother, Brendan. In The Hunter, it's Trey's no-good father Johnny who wreaks havoc on the community when he returns, with an associate and a scam up his sleeve. Soon the whole village is drawn into Johnny's schemes, but Trey has her own agenda for revenge.

It was very enjoyable to be back in the company of Cal, Trey, Lena and the rest of Ardnakelty, though there is so much unspoken and sinister swirling beneath the banter. Weirdly, the story is set in the midst of an unnaturally (climate change) baking summer, and as a good Australian, I couldn't approve of plot resolution by means of a deliberately lighted fire, however necessary for a dramatic climax. There is less of a supernatural flavour to this French volume, which is an element that I generally enjoy, but for this story, the strangeness of human beings was probably enough.