However, his spy turns out to be the determined 13-year-old Trey Reddy.
The close-knit community of locals treat him as a curiosity and attempt to include him by inviting him to the local pub or, in the case of the convenience store owner Noreen, attempting to set him up with her widowed sister Lena.Īt first, when Cal realizes that he is being watched, he tries to ignore the matter. Following his divorce, his estrangement from his daughter Alyssa and his disenchantment with his job as a police officer, Cal decides to seek out an existence of fishing, rabbit hunting and home refurbishment in the rural village of Ardnakelty. Thus, an area that is outside the interest of conventional lawmakers proves the perfect testing ground for a former cop who needs to reconsider his notions of right and wrong.įorty-eight-year-old Cal Hooper moves to the rural West of Ireland from Chicago to undertake early retirement and leave his past behind.
“ I Definitely Write Like an Actor, Everything Comes from Character.” The Irish Independent, 14 Nov. The power-brokers don’t really care, or even know much about them” (McManus, Darragh. French even compares the harsh, partially uncultivated landscape of the West of Ireland with that of the Western United States, stating in an interview that “they’re both harsh country which demand physical and mental toughness if you want to live there, and culturally and geographically they’re far from the centres of power. Contemporary debates on the police force and their powers are interwoven into the protagonist’s inner monologue as well.įrench’s novel has a “western tinge” in being inspired by the American western trope of an outsider coming into a community and changing everything around them. The slower pace of the novel also stems from Cal’s careful reevaluation of right and wrong after a lifetime of following orders. The protagonist, Cal, is an American ex-cop who retires in the West of Ireland and spends ample time refurbishing his home before fate has other plans for him.
It steps back to examine the policing powers she has traditionally taken for granted It’s also slower than some of her other books” (Maslin). The Searcher differs from French’s previous novels in being “unusually contemplative and visual, as if she literally needed this breath of fresh air. “ Tana French’s Irish Western Features a Retired Lawman and a Missing Boy.” The New York Times, 5 Oct.
According to Janet Maslin of The New York Times, French writes “full-bodied novels in which crimes happen to have been committed” (Maslin, Janet.
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