A retired cop takes one last case in this stand-alone novel from the creator of the Dublin Murder Squad. Originally from North Carolina, Cal Hooper has spent the last 30 years in Chicago. "A small place. A small town in a small country": That's what he's searching for when he moves to the West of Ireland. His daughter is grown, his wife has left him, so Cal is on his own--until a kid named Trey starts hanging around. Trey's brother is missing. Everyone believes that Brendan has run off just like his father did, but Trey thinks there's more to the story than just another young man leaving his family behind in search of money and excitement in the city. Trey wants the police detective who just emigrated from America to find out what's really happened to Brendan. French is deploying a well-worn trope here--in fact, she's deploying a few. Cal is a new arrival to an insular community, and he's about to discover that he didn't leave crime and violence behind when he left the big city. Cal is a complex enough character, though, and it turns out that the mystery he's trying to solve is less shocking than what he ultimately discovers. French's latest is neither fast-paced nor action-packed, and it has as much to do with Cal's inner life as it does with finding Brendan. Much of what mystery readers are looking for in terms of action is squeezed into the last third of the novel, and the morally ambiguous ending may be unsatisfying for some. But French's fans have surely come to expect imperfect allegiance to genre conventions, and the author does, ultimately, deliver plenty of twists, shocking revelations, and truly chilling moments. Slow moving and richly layered. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

After 25 years as a Chicago cop, Cal Hooper, the protagonist of this superb standalone from Edgar winner French (The Witch Elm), decided he needed a change. So he moved to a village in the West of Ireland, "no bigger than the little end of nothing," where people leave their doors unlocked. After three months, his prosaic new life ends when he's sought out by 12-year-old Trey Reddy, who has learned of Hooper's former profession. Trey fears something bad has happened to his 19-year-old brother, Brendan, who hasn't been seen in about six months. Because their mother, Sheila, is convinced Brendan took off on his own, Trey hasn't gone to the police, though the boy's certain his brother wouldn't have done that. Despite Hooper's cynicism ("Anyone could do anything," he thinks), he agrees to look into the matter, starting with questioning Sheila. The more Hooper digs, the more he finds that his new community conceals dark secrets. Insightful characterizations, even of minor figures, and a devastating reveal help make this a standout. Crime fiction fans won't want to miss this one. Agent, Darley Anderson, Darley Anderson Literary, TV and Film Agency. (Oct.)

In another stand-alone (following The Witch Elm, 2018), French again displays impressive versatility. After the procedurally rich Dublin Murder Squad mysteries, she jumped to crime from the victim's and suspect's points of view in the highly introspective The Witch Elm. Now she goes in another new direction: a variation on country noir, set in a remote village in Ireland's West Country. Wearing the scars of both a painful divorce and 25 years with the Chicago Police Department, Cal Hooper buys a fixer-upper in Ireland, looking to decompress while reclaiming his dormant DIY skills. Naturally, it doesn't work out that way, especially the decompressing part. An encounter with the sullen and mostly silent Trey, who becomes an able assistant on the remodeling project, leads to Cal agreeing to help search for the gender-fluid teen's brother, who has disappeared. Soon Cal is bumping heads with the tight-lipped locals and with a gang of thugs, the "boyos from Dublin." French skillfully builds suspense, as the search reveals great turmoil beneath the village's bucolic facade. This is a fine thriller, but it's also a moving story of an unlikely friendship that grows from refinishing a ramshackle desk to rebuilding two nearly broken lives. Trey evokes both the vulnerability and inner strength of Ree Dolly in Daniel Woodrell's Winter's Bone, a country noir that, like The Searcher, finds tenderness in the troubled hearts of its recalcitrant characters.

Still recovering from a dispiriting divorce, family trauma, and a quarter of a decade in law enforcement with the Chicago police force, Cal Hooper needs to make a serious change. On a whim he purchases a ramshackle house in the middle of the Irish moors. Between learning the geographical and social lay of the land, working diligently to rejuvenate his crumbling home, and meeting a host of neighbors, Cal quickly finds that the quiet lifestyle he envisioned may not be on the horizon. When local teen Trey Reddy corners Cal into finding a missing sibling, Cal begins to see another, seedier side to this idyllic landscape. Roger Clark's masterful narration brings to life the gruff, seasoned detective whose experiences and personality are juxtaposed with the bucolic setting, the quirky characters, and the slowly revealing plotline. Clark's voice, discordant with this locale, perfectly mirrors Cal's appearance as almost an interloper in a place where everyone knows everybody else. Though neither the expected crime novel nor a quaint mystery, this work brilliantly meshes the two as it touches on belonging, morality, and the jarring way criminality seeps into almost all crevices of society. A thought-provoking ending provides opportunities for reflection on self and community. VERDICT This will make a valued addition to audiobook collections of most sizes and target audiences.--Lisa Youngblood, Harker Heights P.L., TX