Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

I want to go to the Irish countryside now, but ONLY to visit

The Searcher by Tana French

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BINGO – REC’D I enjoyed author Tana French’s novel In the Woods and then msvreadsbooks’ review sold me on picking up another French novel The Searcher. Cal Hooper is a retired detective from Chicago who recently bought and moved into a run-down house in a small rural Irish town. He’s determined to keep his head low, not make any enemies of the locals, and enjoy some peace and quiet away from it all. What a boring book that would have been if that’s all that happened. Soon after […]

The Searcher by Tana French

The Searcher by Tana French

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Reading Tana French makes me want to go to Ireland. Her Ireland feels like a much more complex and textured place than I’ve seen represented in more romantic representations.  However, after reading The Searcher, it strikes me as not the wisest choice for an American to up and move to the Irish countryside.  That’s precisely what Cal Hooper has done. Cal is a retired Chicago police detective, and he takes his nest egg to Ireland to buy a run-down old home in a small, quiet […]

“Cal feels like he ought to stand on a street corner handing out warnings, little pieces of paper that just say: Anyone could do anything.”

The Searcher by Tana French

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TANA FRENCH TANA FRENCH TANA FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEENCH. I LOVE TANA FREEEEEENCH. Since I learned of Tana French, the Dublin murder series has been one of my number one recommended book series to anyone who asks (or ya know, stands nearby too long quietly, and thus gets accosted by my recommendation). I typically sum it up with “If you like Law and Order SVU you’ll like her and her books” but am not sure that is fair to French, more so that’s me casting a wide net […]

The future, the present and the past are all scary places

The name of the rose by Umberto Eco

The searcher by Tana French

The push by Ashley Audrain

The hunting party by Lucy Foley

Snow crash by Neal Stephenson

Ready player two by Ernest Cline

Tender is the flesh by Agustina Bazterrica

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My final review dump and then I’ll be all caught up! Woohoo! These books are about the past, the present and the future. The name of the rose by Umberto Eco Eco is my dad’s favourite author. He’s read all of his books, some of them probably several times. I, on the other hand, had never read anything by Eco before. I had seen bits of the film years ago that had intrigued me enough to want to read the book but for some reason […]

If the rest of the series is like this one, I just might turn into a mystery fan

In the Woods by Tana French

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Detective Rob Ryan and his partner, detective Cassie Maddox, have picked up a case of solving the seemingly ritualistic murder of a young girl in the woods of a small community. The site of the murder is a much-argued-over piece of land. Some in the community wish to preserve the land as a historical site including the team of archeologists currently completing an excavation. Others want to use the land to build a freeway. Complicating things even further is the fact that Detective Rob Ryan […]

‘Cause I’m right here, right here, right here at home

The Searcher by Tana French

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Retired Chicago police detective Cal Hooper looks back on his life – divorced, stuck in a job that makes him increasingly uncomfortable – and decides to buy a fixer-upper in the small town of Artnakelty, Ireland. As he’s working on his house he’s approached by Trey, a twelve year old from a family widely regarded as no good by the villagers. Trey asks Cal to look into the disappearance of his older brother and Cal, reluctantly, starts to to investigate. But he’s an outsider in […]



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