Genre: Mystery, suspense

Narrator: Roger Clark

I loved The Hunter by Tana French - that’s the clever hook. I love how Roger Clark performs this work. Picking up several years after the end of The Searcher, Trey and Cal have cemented their tenuous friendship and have built a furniture repair business together. They have a system worked out - Cal can keep an eye on Trey. She can retain her own sense of independence. But then Trey’s dad returns to Ardnakelty, and their fragile peace is disrupted. Talk of hidden gold and thoughts of revenge abound, and ultimately a murder; the whole community is involved.

Although I call this mystery and, of course, it is, the novel is very much character driven. I struggle mightily with classification of books - identifying literary vs. not, etc - but French’s development of character and setting is next level. Cal is very complex. I feel like we know less about him than I’d like. I hope this means another book in the series, but maybe this is just life, right? We really only know what people want us to know. I love his relationship with Trey. His willingness to do whatever it takes to protect her is quite powerful. The fact that she ultimately returns that devotion is a relief. I remember in The Searcher struggling to identify the bad guys and the same is true here. I’m just never sure about the “good” people of Ardnakelty. Neither is Trey. She continues to grow and change and work with the anger she feels toward them. Her reaction to her father, the hurt - and the growth in her relationship with her mom were beautifully shown. The murder mystery, while for me, more of a vehicle to let these characters grow, is complex and well written. The world of Ardnakelty is a bit different than the norm for me. These folks are mysterious and quite willing to engage in shenanigans, sometimes of the dangerous kind. They are a wide variety of con men and shysters who connive together and then farm and go home to their wives. I hope to get to see much more of Cal and Trey and the people of Ardnakelty.

For me this book worked excellently on two levels. I do enjoy a good mystery and French delivers. I also am drawn to books that are character driven, and this novel is. I love that I’ve come to know these characters and also that so much mystery about them remains. French shows us that some people will never change while others will grow and mature. She forces us to be satisfied with what is but gives us a hope that cannot be denied. I wish you would find the time to read The Hunter by Tana French.