Tana French has written a complex exploration of human nature in her novel, The Searchers, in a very subtle way. Set in a seemingly idyllic village in Ireland, we are invited to look at a wide array stereotypes. We see the haves and the have nots, the do-goodness and the head in the sand types, and the old who cling to the past and the young who are determined to make it to a better life. We also see that each of these sets has their own moral code by which they live. Enter into this mix the new comer (the outsider) and the mysterious disappearance of a young man, and the tension mounts. The mystery is intense and well designed and the reader is drawn along toward the climax. The protagonist, Cal, is a former detective who retired from service because he felt he could not work in an environment where the “rules” were so blurry that no one was really sure what was right or wrong anymore. He is drawn reluctantly into solving the case of the missing young man and is once again forced to deal with the realization that there are no good answers to all situations. There is no totally right answer in all things. There are no completely innocent people. French allows the reader to look at this moral dilemma from the safe distance of a mystery, yet we are forced to decide whether we accept the decisions made by the good people of this small town and the detective, Cal. This was really a deceivingly complex examination of humanity made to look like a mystery. Our club gave this book 5 stars. Very good read.
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