This is the final book in the 'Cal Hooper' trilogy. The book works fine
as a standalone, but the entire series is worth reading.
*****
Fiftyish
Cal Hooper was a Chicago police officer who became disillusioned with
his job and relocated to the Irish town of Ardnakelty.
After
three and a half-years Cal is an accepted member of the community,
where he owns a house, grows vegetables, supports himself as a
carpenter/furniture maker, and is part of an 'old boys club' at Seán
Óg's pub. The group is comprised of Cal and several farmers, including
Cal's rascally old neighbor Mart Lavin - who's always scheming about one
thing or another.
Cal is nominally engaged to a widow named Lena Dunne (though there are no actual wedding plans).....
.....and
Cal and Lena 'look after' 16-year-old Theresa (Trey) Reddy, who was a
troubled, shoplifting, 13-year-old loner when Cal first met her. Trey is
now in high school, has friends, is on a football (soccer) team, and
assists Cal with woodwork - which Trey plans to make a vocation.
Ardnakelty
folks are an insular lot who solve their own problems and avoid
interaction with the Garda, whose police station is only intermittently
open in any case. So when 21-year-old Rachel Holohan goes missing.....
.....and Cal finds Rachel's body in the river, the Garda essentially let the townsfolk deal with the tragedy themselves.
Most
Ardnakelty citizens choose to believe Rachel's death was a tragic
accident, or perhaps a suicide. Rachel had been going with Eugene
Moynihan, scion of the wealthy Moynihan family, for five years, and
there was chatter about possible romantic woes.
Conversely,
Cal's ward Trey - who knows the dark side of Ardnakelty - suspects
Rachel was murdered. To satisfy Trey, Cal and Lena quietly look into
Rachel's death. This infuriates Eugene's father, Tommy Moynihan, who
runs the region's processing plant, and is considered the 'boss man' of
Ardnakelty.
Tommy
expects everyone to dance to his tune, and people usually do because
Tommy has ways of dealing with folks who defy or annoy him. The town's
gossip, Mrs. Duggan, acknowledges this when she says to Lena, "How many
people would you guess have called in to ask me about Rachel
Holohan?....Not a one. You'd think there'd be a queue at my door,
wouldn'tja? You'd think this room would be knee-deep in jars of jam and
boxes of chocolates. Not a one. No one's asking." 
When
Cal and Lena won't 'smooth over' Rachel's death, Tommy resorts to his
usual coercion and revenge, including spreading malicious rumors; using
his police connections; making threats; and more. All this is especially
hard on Lena, when people start whispering about her and Rachel.
More
trouble follows when townsfolk hear Tommy has a secret agenda for
Ardnakelty - plans that will harm farmers but make the Moynihans even
richer. The revelations split the townsfolk into two factions, people
who insist Tommy can do no wrong, and people who think Tommy's a
son-of-a-you know what. This leads to mayhem and murder.
An
espionage operation by Trey and her friends helps unearth the truth
about things in Ardnakelty, but no matter what, change is coming. 
Referring
to the historic stone walls in the town, and the colorful fields, Mart
Lavin says, "In ten or twenty or thirty years, that'll be gone....Mosta
the hedgerows'll haveta go as well - some a them are here since the
stone age...but sure, you can't let sentiment get in the way of
business." 
Cal
prepares most of the meals for himself, Lena, and Trey, having taken up
cooking out of the belief that Trey needed to eat something other than
hamburgers and grilled cheese. So Cal prepares a soufflé for one meal,
and chicken casserole for another.
Tana French creates wonderful characters, like the grocer Noreen, whose store is gossip central;
the shy bachelor Bobby, who's obsessed with UFOs and finally has a girlfriend;
and the teenage couple Aidan and Ciara, whose friends negotiate their first date. 
I
was also drawn in by the town's ambiance, with its cloistered
atmosphere and picturesque landscape of mountains, ravines, forests,
bogs, farms, domestic animals, etc. I could picture all this and feel
for the cowed townsfolk who’re nervous of saying a word wrong. 
To top things off, Cal, Trey, Lena and others have pet dogs and working dogs that add a touch of fun to the novel.
This is a fine series that immerses the reader in (what feels like) a real Irish town. Highly recommended.
Thanks to Netgalley, Tana French, and Vking for an ARC of the book.
Rating: 4 stars
No comments:
Post a Comment