Cal Hooper is a retired Chicago police detective whose personal life has come unmoored; his solution is to leave America for the west of Ireland, purchasing a run-down cottage in the town of Ardnakelty, and in rehabilitating the cottage, also repairing himself. Cal mostly keeps himself to himself, but is friendly to his farmer neighbors, grocer, and others in the small village. He hopes to keep his past private, but the village folk are more efficient at spreading information than any technological means. When 13-year-old Trey Reddy stalks him, judges him to be safe, and finally shares her burden, Cal gets pulled into Trey’s problem: her older brother Brendan has gone missing for months now, and no one will help. The Reddys are a poor family of five children, the oldest has moved away, and Trey, in the middle and closest to Brendan, in convinced that something very bad has happened to him. She hopes abduction; she fears murder.

Cal is a good and decent man, yet he mightily resists getting drawn into an investigation. He is no longer a law enforcement officer, is in a foreign country, and wishes to escape the obvious moral dilemmas that in part led to his retirement. He is at sea himself, and needs this time in Ireland to find his moral grounding again, and heal. Yet, if he denies assistance to this adolescent, how is that a principled choice that he can live with? Against all common sense, Cal agrees step by step to assist Trey, and in so doing, uncovers more than he imagined and nearly loses his life. The enigma French creates, the character of Cal, is the magnet that draws you in the book. He fits the archetype of the classic American Western hero, a man of moral integrity and mystery, one who has clearly suffered, needs to heal, yet is drawn into solving the unsolvable for one more vulnerable than he. I was reminded of the novel Shane, by Jack Schaefer; while the movie is great, I highly recommend the excellent novel.

The other irresistible factor compelling you to read this book is French’s writing, especially her rendering of rural western Ireland. I will not supply quotes here, but suffice to say her portrait of this place will stay with you in the best way possible, and will likely inspire Americans to yearn to explore the region. We all wish to own and care for our own acre of nature, and enjoy its natural rhythms as Cal does, sitting on our back stoop with a meal and a beer, and watching the sun set. French juxtaposes the moral code of the wild, animals seeking their next meal, the wordless hierarchy of rooks, badgers, and rabbits; with the village hierarchy, wordlessly imposed and respected by all, with all complicit in its preservation, even allowing some to be culled for the safety of the collective.

I can see why this novel is considered by some reviewers to be her best. French is clearly getting better and better. I highly recommend this complex, beautifully written mystery.