The Keeper by Tana French

In her third and final installment in the Cal Hooper series, French unspools the ways of being that create community ties, identity threads, and the fabric of life in a place. The result is the antithesis of the oft-overused and too-hip idea of “placemaking;” French shows how the community bends us to it, and all the ways that bending around a community is what makes it real, and how we, in turn, are made real by the effort. This is a picture of co-constructed reality. It’s an anthem against fast-anything, corporate profit-grabbing, and the idea that a place can be for sale. 

I’ll miss Trey and Lena even more than I’ll miss Cal. 

The Hunter by Tana French

Published by Viking, 2024

I’ve loved Tana French’s writing since I first read Into the Woods in 2010. The Hunter is the second in her Cal Hooper series, which I like just as much as any of the Dublin Murder Squad. 

I was so engrossed in the characters she created that I was 300 pages in before I remembered that this was supposed to be a murder mystery and wondered when the body would show up. 

I’m very much looking forward to the next installment. Cal Hooper and crew have taken up space in my personal canon.

In the Woods by Tana French