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4.06k reviews for:
The Searcher: The mesmerising new mystery from the Sunday Times bestselling author
Tana French
3.72 AVERAGE
4.06k reviews for:
The Searcher: The mesmerising new mystery from the Sunday Times bestselling author
Tana French
3.72 AVERAGE
I was excited to read both this book and the sequel, and borrowed both from the library. I'll finish a good book that sucks me in in a day, but I've been working on this one for a week now and I keep finding reasons not to read. I finally just decided - on p 489 of around 530 - that it's not worth it anymore. I just don't care enough about the central mystery to keep it up. I would describe this story as the opposite of compelling.
Essentially, a teenager goes missing, and his little sibling asks our protagonist Cal (a former cop) to look into it. But honestly, the plot draaaags. I mean, I spent 400 pages watching Cal finding out very little, and the rest of the town seemingly trying to warn him off of the search (subtly at first and I wouldn't have seen the incidents as "warnings" if Cal didn't say they were, until he gets beat up one night). But nothing else really happened in those 400 pages. By the time I put this down, all I know is that drugs are maybe involved. There's also a random sub-mystery of sheep being killed that had a weak answer (to the point that when Cal solves it I shook my head like, what was the point of this??). I debated just skimming the last 40 or so pages, but it just didn't seem worth it. Cal will figure out what happened to the kid. Maybe it involves drugs, maybe not; maybe he'll be alive, maybe not. I just don't care either way.
Absolutely not worth it for me. I'm not going to bother with the second one.
Essentially, a teenager goes missing, and his little sibling asks our protagonist Cal (a former cop) to look into it. But honestly, the plot draaaags. I mean, I spent 400 pages watching Cal finding out very little, and the rest of the town seemingly trying to warn him off of the search (subtly at first and I wouldn't have seen the incidents as "warnings" if Cal didn't say they were, until he gets beat up one night). But nothing else really happened in those 400 pages. By the time I put this down, all I know is that drugs are maybe involved. There's also a random sub-mystery of sheep being killed that had a weak answer (to the point that when Cal solves it I shook my head like, what was the point of this??). I debated just skimming the last 40 or so pages, but it just didn't seem worth it. Cal will figure out what happened to the kid. Maybe it involves drugs, maybe not; maybe he'll be alive, maybe not. I just don't care either way.
Absolutely not worth it for me. I'm not going to bother with the second one.
Slow burn. Excellent character development where the local town and Ireland itself is one of those characters.
challenging
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
lighthearted
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
The Searcher is a slow-burn missing person thriller with a strong emotional core. After retiring from the American police force, a man relocates to a quiet village in Ireland, hoping for peace and solitude. That calm is disrupted when a young boy clearly in need of connection enters his life. The boy isn’t just looking for friendship; he wants help. His brother has gone missing, and no one in the town seems to care. The boy comes from a troubled home and a family barely scraping by—looked down on by the rest of the town and largely ignored In exchange for doing odd jobs, the child asks the retired cop to look into the disappearance. What unfolds is not just a search for a missing person, but a quiet, powerful exploration of community and what it means to stand up for someone when no one else will.
mysterious
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
dark
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I love Tana French's Dublin Murder Squad series and couldn’t wait to dive into this book, but it is so slow. I usually enjoy slow-burn narratives, but this one took it to another level. The pages are packed with Irish banter which was fun for the first hundred pages, but it soon became exhausting.
What confused me most was the lack of clear thematic direction. French often writes protagonists with morally ambiguous traits - something I usually love - but here, there isn’t enough backstory or emotional depth to support that ambiguity. Cal Hooper is just too bland. His inner monologues become monotonous, and I struggled to stay interested.
Also, the tone at times feels oddly dismissive of younger generations, as if it's critiquing their values without really attempting to understand them. It’s especially surprising given how Faithful Place and Broken Harbour showed such empathy toward working-class struggles and the post-2009 crisis. This book, in contrast, feels like it's veering into (for lack of a better word) boomer territory.
I’m unsure whether I’ll continue with this series, as neither the characters nor the setting held my interest.
What confused me most was the lack of clear thematic direction. French often writes protagonists with morally ambiguous traits - something I usually love - but here, there isn’t enough backstory or emotional depth to support that ambiguity. Cal Hooper is just too bland. His inner monologues become monotonous, and I struggled to stay interested.
Also, the tone at times feels oddly dismissive of younger generations, as if it's critiquing their values without really attempting to understand them. It’s especially surprising given how Faithful Place and Broken Harbour showed such empathy toward working-class struggles and the post-2009 crisis. This book, in contrast, feels like it's veering into (for lack of a better word) boomer territory.
I’m unsure whether I’ll continue with this series, as neither the characters nor the setting held my interest.
dark
reflective
slow-paced
challenging
dark
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated