Spending your retirement in Ireland is happiness. At least that’s what Cal Hooper, a former Chicago PD cop who finds himself there, almost on a whim, at the time of a badly (di)managed divorce coupled with a fed up with crimes violent. And here he is in a lost corner of the Irish moor, near the small village of Ardnakelty: alone, at the end of the world.
Hooper slowly settles in and bonds with his few neighbors, including the enigmatic Mart, an astonishing character who knows everything about everyone…him included. He gets used to the habits of the area — pubs, Irish music, local wines — while restoring, one room at a time, the abandoned house he has just bought. Cal stuffs himself with the landscape too, as bucolic as one could wish, wild even… but his cop instinct tells him he’s being watched.
In fact, we will discover that it is doubly so. By just about everyone, we suspected it since we are wary of strangers everywhere, but also by a local kid, Trey. They will take a little time to trust each other and then Trey will ask the retired policeman outright to find his older brother, Brendan, who has been missing without a trace for a few months.
A very strong bond is quickly established between the two victims; the former policeman will soon begin to inquire discreetly and will discover a lot of unclear things. With him, we learn that Trey and his brother are part of a family of outcasts rejected by the locals. But “we” don’t like to see him ask too many questions and get involved in things that don’t concern him; “we” make it clear to him in so many ways that Hooper quickly realizes that Brendan’s disappearance hides something important. Trouble is, the only person he can really trust is Trey…
The newcomer will therefore be even more discreet while forging a new bond with Léna, a local girl. He will dig all the leads he finds and, when Trey makes him discover one of the secret lairs of his older brother, the ex-Chicago PD investigator finally understands what it is all about from the beginning. But of course, we won’t tell you here…
This eighth novel in just over ten years is one of the most successful of Tana French, herself an American living in Ireland for several decades. It is this intimate knowledge of the people, the country and its deep habits that shines through in his lively, precise and dense writing at the same time.
Add to that a unique way of describing this harsh and endearing landscape, in which lives an impressive gallery of characters, sometimes all in halftones and other times, raw. As a bonus, this climate is very well rendered by a solid translation… and here you are, therefore, with the perfect thriller to put in your luggage for the holidays. Chin.