Wanted to kick-start 2026 with an easy read for our monthly book club. My experience with Tana French has been positive; she is, after all, a great atmospheric writer with the ability to build a character-based thriller. If you haven’t read the Dublin Murder series, check it out.
However, The Hunter is just not it.
I am going to say it outright–this was the most tedious book I have read in a long time. Nothing literally happens chapter after chapter. The first major plot point appears at maybe 100 page mark and the first dead body at the 400 page mark. In a slow-moving drama, you must rely on the strength of your characters and an impeccable build-up. And the main characters and their lives are just not interesting enough or deep enough to hook one in. Yes, I admit I might have been at a disadvantage as I have not read the first book of the Cal Hooper series, but typically thrillers or thriller-adjacent books don’t require sequential reading.
I don’t know why I should care about Cal Hooper’s relationship with teenage Trey. I don’t find Trey a particularly interesting character, and I think a lot of her character motivations probably come from the incidents of the previous book. The cast of characters doesn’t seem real, but seems like caricatures of inbred, petty, country bumpkins without the endearing innocence. When Trey’s errant dad shows up in town and tries to con his neighbors into finding a treasure, I literally don’t have any sympathy or care for their fate.
Trey’s twisted plan of revenge is childish, laughable, and plain stupid. Cal’s protection of Trey is admirable, but he also shows poor judgement for an ex-cop. Cal and Lena have the chemistry of a damp squib, and their relationship adds nothing to the plot.
And the lying–oh my god, the constant lying. Everyone is blatantly holding back stuff or outright making it up. Not one character is likeable or redeemable.
The one thing that French aims for and gets right is the atmosphere. Ardnakelty comes across as a claustrophobic little place where everyone is in everyone’s business and covering for them–right or wrong. The oppressive heat adds another layer of suffocation. Everyone is distraught; the farmers without the rains, the kids sweating through the days, and the mountainside drying up into a tinderbox.
But nothing else works. I literally raced through the last 100 pages to get it over with. I do not care about this book about a town of murderers, liars and thieves.
