A spellbinding, propulsive new novel from the bestselling mystery writer who "is in a class by herself." (The New York Times) Cal Hooper thought a fixer-upper in a bucolic Irish village would be the perfect escape. After twenty-five years in the ...

A lot of NUBClub had read other novels by French, and were expecting an intricatedly plotted mystery rollercoaster. In case you have that expectation as well, be warned that is not what The Searcher is. French retains her power as an author to create a compelling character out of the setting. Ireland is a deep and well detailed place, and French's command of atmosphere remains strong. There is a palpable feel of the small town and its secrets that permeate the novel. The main issue though is that it's not really a mystery story -- it's a story of how a small town works. The small town is well-rendered, and French's choice to make the main character an outsider is compelling. The protagonist is the best character, and in a departure for French, much of this story about a retired cop moving to small town Ireland is a condemnation of the police mythology. Cal's informal search for Trey's missing brother is not rewarded or praised, and Cal's work as a police officer in Chicago is almost directly denigrated by the characters, who argue almost with one voice that taking care of the hurt living (in this case, Trey, whose relationship with Cal is deftly and lovingly sketched) is more important than finding justice. All of these elements are strong, but the novel is just so slow. We spend so much time with Cal as he fixes his house and learn far more about desk repair and dry wall than we need to. We recognized that this was a way of showing the pace of the town, but it just dragged in places and really added nothing to the story. Other details seem extraneous as well -- there's a long subplot about Trey's gender being hidden that adds basically nothing to the story. We had to wonder why French included it at all. Also, many of the secondary characters in the small town pretty much exist exclusively for the purpose of making you feel like you were in a town, and we felt almost all of that could have been cut. Ultimately, The Searcher isn't a bad novel -- it's well-written and does a wonderful job of depicting an American as an outsider in a small, secretive rural part of Ireland. We just wished there was a more compelling plot to keep us interested in all of this.