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The easy reading hack that completely changed my day

The Hunter

'A richly told tale of tangled loyalties. French ratchets up the tension in increments . . . By the end, these characters have taken on such solidity that, long after finishing it, I often catch myself wondering how they’re doing – a testament to the author’s mastery of her craft' GUARDIAN 
 
Return to the dark underbelly of Ardnakelty in the thrilling new sequel to The Searcher. 
 
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It’s a blazing summer when two men arrive in the village. They’re coming for gold. What they bring is trouble. 
 
Two years have passed since retired Police Detective Cal Hooper moved from Chicago to the West of Ireland looking for peace. He’s found it, more or less – in his relationship with local woman Lena, and the bond he’s formed with half-wild teenager Trey. So when two men turn up with a money-making scheme to find gold in the townland, Cal gets ready to do whatever it takes to protect Trey. Because one of the men is no stranger: he’s Trey’s father. 
 
But Trey doesn’t want protecting. What she wants is revenge. 
 
Crackling with tension and slow-burn suspense, The Hunter explores what we’ll do for our loved ones, what we’ll do for revenge, and what we sacrifice when the two collide, from the Sunday Times and New York Times bestseller Tana French. 
 
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Nobody writes tension like Tana French: 
'Terrific - terrifying, amazing' STEPHEN KING 
'One of the greats of contemporary crime fiction' IAN RANKIN 
‘A truly great writer’ GILLIAN FLYNN 
'Crime fiction's biggest contemporary star' GUARDIAN 
‘If you haven’t read Tana French yet, I really highly recommend that you do’ HARLAN COBEN 
 
 
Irish Times bestseller, March 2024

'Among the first rank of great literary novelists

Comes closer to perfection than anything I’ve read in the last decade

As with all of French's books, something is awry – and the fun is in the unravelling

A master of novels filled with creeping unease, slow-rolling tension and great atmosphere

The Hunter defies the rules of suspense writing

French spins a taut tale of retribution, sacrifice, and family

Spectacular. Beautifully crafted characters and full of tension... I was on edge from page one

Tana French is the Sunday Times and New York Times-bestselling author of In the Woods, The Likeness, Faithful Place, Broken Harbour, The Secret Place, The Trespasser and The Wych Elm. Her books have won awards including the Edgar, Anthony, Barry and Macavity awards, the LA Times Book Prize for Best Mystery/Thriller and the Irish Book Award for Best Crime Fiction. She grew up in Ireland, Italy, the US and Malawi, and trained as an actor at Trinity College Dublin. She lives in Dublin with her family.

It’s a blazing summer when two men arrive in the village. They’re coming for gold. What they bring is trouble. 
 
Cal Hooper was a Chicago detective, till he moved to the West of Ireland looking for peace. He’s found it, more or less – in his relationship with local woman Lena, and the bond he’s formed with half-wild teenager Trey. So when two men turn up with a money-making scheme to find gold in the townland, Cal gets ready to do whatever it takes to protect Trey. Because one of the men is no stranger: he’s Trey’s father. 
 
But Trey doesn’t want protecting. What she wants is revenge.

The Searcher

'Terrific - terrifying, amazing' STEPHEN KING 
 'Completely, indescribably magnificent' MARIAN KEYES 
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 A DISAPPEARANCE. A SMALL TOWN. A QUESTION THAT NEEDS ANSWERING... 
 
 Cal Hooper thought a fixer-upper in a remote Irish village would be the perfect escape. After twenty-five years in the Chicago police force, and a bruising divorce, he just wants to build a new life in a pretty spot with a good pub where nothing much happens. 
 
 But then a local kid comes looking for his help. His brother has gone missing, and no one, least of all the police, seems to care. Cal wants nothing to do with any kind of investigation, but somehow he can't make himself walk away. 
 
 Soon Cal will discover that even in the most idyllic small town, secrets lie hidden, people aren't always what they seem, and trouble can come calling at his door. 
 
 A gripping tale of breath-taking beauty and suspense that asks how we decide what's right and wrong in a world where neither is simple, and what we risk if we fail. 
 
 WINTER RICHARD AND JUDY BOOKCLUB PICK 
 THE SUNDAY TIMES PAPERBACK OF THE YEAR 2021 
 THE TIMES PAPERBACK OF THE YEAR 2021 
 FT BEST BOOK OF 2020 
 THE GUARDIAN BEST CRIME AND THRILLER BOOK OF 2020 
 THE TIMES THRILLER OF THE YEAR 2020 
 
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 'I'm a big fan of Tana French' IAN RANKIN 
 
 'I didn't want it to end' HARRIET TYCE 
 
 'To say Tana French is one of the great thriller writers is really too limiting. Rather she's simply this: a truly great writer' GILLIAN FLYNN 
 
 'Immersive and atmospheric ... Cal and Trey could very well be the new sort of heroes we need in this strange world' ARAMINTA HALL 
 
 'This is a tour de force of suspense and storytelling. Comes closer to perfection than anything I've read in the last decade' SARAH HILARY 
 
 'The Searcher is its own kind of masterpiece' WASHINGTON POST 
 
 'One of the most compulsive psychological mysteries since Donna Tartt's The Secret History' THE TIMES 
 
 'French offers a masterclass in unreliability' SUNDAY TIMES 
 
 '[Crime fiction's] biggest contemporary star' GUARDIAN 
 
 'One of the finest writers of contemporary crime fiction' THE DAILY MAIL 
 
 'An audacious departure for this immensely talented author . . . not to be missed' THE NEW YORK TIMES 
 
 'Nuanced and compelling' THE NEW YORKER

This is a tour de force of suspense and storytelling. Comes closer to perfection than anything I've read in the last decade

French offers a masterclass in unreliability

A story of redemption and friendship, love and betrayal, it is a work of great strength and beauty

This is a tour de force of suspense and storytelling. Comes closer to perfection than anything I've read in the last decade

French offers a masterclass in unreliability

This is completely, indescribably magnificent. Tana French is a pure genius

A story of redemption and friendship, love and betrayal, it is a work of great strength and beauty

Cal Hooper thought a fixer-upper in a remote Irish village would be the perfect escape. After twenty-five years in the Chicago police force, and a bruising divorce, he just wants to build a new life in a pretty spot with a good pub where nothing much happens. 
 
 But then a local kid comes looking for his help. His brother has gone missing, and no one, least of all the police, seems to care. Cal wants nothing to do with any kind of investigation, but somehow he can't make himself walk away. 
 
 Soon Cal will discover that even in the most idyllic small town, secrets lie hidden, people aren't always what they seem, and trouble can come calling at his door. 
 
 Our greatest living mystery writer weaves a masterful tale of breath-taking beauty and suspense, asking how we decide what's right and wrong in a world where neither is simple, and what we risk if we fail.

The Sunday Times bestseller

The Wych Elm

From the writer whose novels inspired the BBC's Dublin Murders TV series... 
 
 'One of the most compulsive psychological mysteries since Donna Tartt's The Secret History' THE TIMES 
 
'An engrossing, unpredictable, beautifully written mystery' SOPHIE HANNAH 
 
'Dark and twisty' SUNDAY TIMES 
 
'Mesmerising' GILLIAN FLYNN 
 
'I'm a big fan of Tana French' IAN RANKIN 
________________________________________ 
 
WHAT DO WE HIDE INSIDE OURSELVES? 
 
One night changes everything for Toby. He's always led a charmed life - until a brutal attack leaves him damaged and traumatised, unsure even of the person he used to be. He seeks refuge at his family's ancestral home, the Ivy House, filled with memories of wild-strawberry summers and teenage parties with his cousins. 
 
But not long after Toby's arrival, a discovery is made: a skull, tucked neatly inside the old wych elm in the garden. 
 
As detectives begin to close in, Toby is forced to examine everything he thought he knew about his family, his past, and himself. 
 
A spellbinding book from a novelist who takes crime writing and turns it inside out, The Wych Elm asks what we become, and what we're capable of, if we no longer know who we are. 
________________________________________ 
 
'This book confirms Tana French as [crime fiction's] biggest contemporary star' Guardian 
 
'Lyrical, suspenseful, unpredictable' Harlan Coben 
 
'French offers a masterclass in unreliability' Sunday Times 
 
'Terrific - terrifying, amazing, and the prose is incandescent' Stephen King 
 
'Another one of her rich psychological thrillers that will work its way under your skin' Lucy Mangan, Stylist 
 
'To say Tana French is one of the great thriller writers is really too limiting. Rather she's simply this: a truly great writer' Gillian Flynn 
 
'This mystery about family, memory and the cracks in both will haunt you for a long, long time' Erin Kelly 
 
'The Wych Elm should cement French's place in the first rank of great literary novelists 'Observer

The Wych Elm is her best novel yet

Lyrical, suspenseful, unpredictable

Terrific - terrifying, amazing, and the prose is incandescent

The finest crime writer around right now

One of the most compulsive psychological mysteries since Donna Tartt's The Secret History...impossible to put down

The Wych Elm should cement French's place in the first rank of great literary novelists

Her storytelling skills are incredible

Gripping and suspenseful, with more twists than a rollercoaster, The Wych Elm is a magnificent novel

French offers a masterclass in unreliability . . . dissolving the boundaries between genre and literary fiction

Her best book. Really, it is not a crime novel: as ever, Tana's scope is so much broader than that. It's a book about identity, childhood, luck and family...I absolutely loved it.

Inspires cultic devotion in readers...most crime fiction is diverting; French's is consuming

A brilliant examination of male privilege and family secrets

What to Look Forward to in the World of Books 2019

A darkly addictive story of family secrets

Tana French's writing is lyrical but sharp, her eye for detail exquisite, her storytelling skills incredible - I need to read her backlist right away!

Another one of her rich psychological thrillers that will work its way under your skin

French is a poet of mood and a master builder of plots

Louise O'Neill, author of 'Asking for It'

Tana French is one of those rare writers whose publication date you put in your diary. Her effortless verve, insight and black wit still glimmer from every page.

Kate Riordan, author of 'The Girl in the Photograph'

A hugely satisfying door-stopper of a novel, full of ambiguity, nuance and building menace. To read French is to experience that sense of utter disorientation that comes from the ground shifting constantly beneath your feet. Totally absorbing

Tana French's best and most intricately nuanced novel yet. . . Get ready for the whiplash brought on by its final twists and turns

A beautifully written, highly intelligent meditation on family relationships, the human mind, social politics and much more, often leavened with good jokes

One night changes everything for Toby. He's always led a charmed life - until a brutal attack leaves him damaged and traumatised, unsure even of the person he used to be. He seeks refuge at his family's ancestral home, the Ivy House, filled with memories of wild-strawberry summers and teenage parties with his cousins. 
 
But not long after Toby's arrival, a discovery is made: a skull, tucked neatly inside the old wych elm in the garden. 
 
As detectives begin to close in, Toby is forced to examine everything he thought he knew about his family, his past, and himself.

Tana French

A tremendously rich and satisfying conclusion to one of the very best trilogies in crime fiction

Crime fiction's biggest contemporary star

Among the first rank of great literary novelists

If you haven’t read Tana French yet, I really highly recommend that you do

The Keeper is a masterpiece . . . French’s sense of place and characterisation is so authentic that I feel like I know these people and that I live among them. Above all, it reads like an elegy for a way of life that we may lose, if we don’t take care of it

On a cold night in a remote Irish village, a girl goes missing. Sweet, loving Rachel Holohan was about to be engaged to the son of the local big shot. Instead, she’s dead in the river. 
 
In a place like this, her death isn’t simple. It comes wrapped in generations-old grudges and power struggles, and it splits the townland in two. Retired Chicago detective Cal Hooper has friends here now and he owes them loyalty, but his fiancée Lena wants nothing to do with Ardnakelty’s tangles. 
 
As the feud becomes more vicious, their settled peace starts to crack apart. And when they uncover a scheme that casts a new light on Rachel’s death and threatens the whole village, they find themselves in the firing line . . .

Tana French

Praise for The Keeper

A tremendously rich and satisfying conclusion to one of the very best trilogies in crime fiction

Crime fiction's biggest contemporary star

Among the first rank of great literary novelists

A tremendously rich and satisfying conclusion to one of the very best trilogies in crime fiction

Crime fiction's biggest contemporary star

Among the first rank of great literary novelists

A tremendously rich and satisfying conclusion to one of the very best trilogies in crime fiction

Crime fiction's biggest contemporary star

Among the first rank of great literary novelists

Books by Tana French

Articles featuring Tana French

The easy reading hack that completely changed my day

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Praise for The Keeper

A tremendously rich and satisfying conclusion to one of the very best trilogies in crime fiction

Crime fiction's biggest contemporary star

Among the first rank of great literary novelists

A tremendously rich and satisfying conclusion to one of the very best trilogies in crime fiction

Crime fiction's biggest contemporary star

Among the first rank of great literary novelists

A tremendously rich and satisfying conclusion to one of the very best trilogies in crime fiction

Crime fiction's biggest contemporary star

Among the first rank of great literary novelists

Books by Tana French

Sign up to the Tana French newsletter

Articles featuring Tana French

The easy reading hack that completely changed my day

Sign up to the Penguin newsletter