Cal, Trey, Lena, Mart, and the rooks are back for another mystery in The Hunter. It’s summer in Ardnakelty, Ireland, and the unbreakable heat has everyone on edge. To make matters worse, Trey’s dad is back in town after having run off four years prior. He’s got a scheme in mind, and even though no one seems to trust him, half the village gets taken in by his idea. Then the scheme leads to murder. And when the police show up, the villagers turn against each other.
If you read The Searcher, the first Cal Hooper novel, then you will know that The Hunter is no cozy mystery. The author’s description of Ireland is not quaint. Ardnakelty is not a cute, little town. The villagers are not nice. Everyone has secrets. And the mountain and the bog are friends to no one. This is not somewhere I would like to visit.
Despite this, I enjoyed The Hunter. The author really has a gift for setting the scene. A bunch of cute dogs were running around. The rooks were being as bitchy as usual. The summer heat and lack of rain were palpable. The plot and characters were also well-developed. There was a lot of internal dialogue from Cal, Trey, and Lena, which I felt was too extensive at times. Nevertheless, it was interesting to see these three people who didn’t even know each other two years ago becoming a self-chosen family. And the revelation of the murderer both made sense and left a bit of a cliffhanger. If the author decides to write a third book in this series, I’ll read it.
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