Book review: Murder and mystery in a small town

Final instalment of Tana French's trilogy is an absorbing and believable read

Tana French is masterful at making place a character in her novels. 

• The Keeper
• Tana French
• Penguin Viking €18

This is the final instalment of Tana French’s trilogy featuring retired detective Cal Hooper, who moved from Chicago to live in a remote area in the west of Ireland. You do not need to have read the previous two novels to enjoy this one.

After three years in Ireland, Cal has settled in, made friends with his farmer neighbours, has a fiancée, Lena, and has set up a small business making and repairing furniture with teenager Trey, whom he mentors. He has also begun to understand how the community functions. He enjoys sharing a pint with his neighbours at Seán Ógs, the local pub, where they talk about football, farming and gossip about everyone. He also understands and accepts that he will always be an outsider, but that he is now accepted.

In the earlier novels, The Searcher and The Hunter, Cal reluctantly got drawn into investigating crimes influenced by secrets from the past.

As The Keeper opens Cal seems content, his surroundings peaceful. All that changes when Rachel, a local girl, goes missing one cold night. Her body is discovered by Cal in the river.

The authorities deem her death a suicide. Rachel was meant to marry her boyfriend Eugene, son of arrogant Tommy Moynihan, a wealthy businessman who is friendly with politicians and police. 

So why would Rachel be on a bridge over the river alone on a cold night? Trey is not the only one who believes she was murdered. For Lena, it’s complicated by the fact that Rachel visited her on her final night. She seemed troubled, and Lena worries that she could have saved her life.

In a close-knit small town, there are grudges and power struggles. Tommy Moynihan is responsible for providing jobs for many locals, so some in the community are fiercely loyal to him, while others resent his power.

Rachel’s suspicious death splits the community. Cal’s unease is increased as he feels he owes loyalty to his new friends, while Lena wants to keep herself apart as she has always done from Ardnakelty as much as she can. 

When Tommy Moynihan’s plan for the future is uncovered, it shines a new light on Rachel’s death and threatens the village’s survival.

The Keeper focuses on the characters’ interior lives, highlighting the bonds between Cal, Lena, and Trey as they struggle to cope with vicious gossip, as the novel slowly builds towards its conclusion. Her ancillary characters who Cal drinks with and helps on their farms have wit and charm. While there is an atmosphere of dread for much of the novel, it is relieved with moments of humour.

Ardnakelty may be fictitious, but any Irish reader, particularly those who have lived in rural areas, will recognise the type of characters, the gossiping, and small-town tensions which can build up in a remote area. People rely on each other and their lives are intertwined, whether or not they wish it to be so.

Tana French is masterful at making place a character in her narrative, with her eloquent musings on the Irish landscape, and her depiction of village life. She captures how the Irish treasure land and legacy, without idealising them. Indeed, she shows how malicious gossip and jealousy can poison everywhere, no matter how beautiful your surroundings.

It is an absorbing and enjoyable read, with believable and interesting characters and wonderful descriptions of farming life and beautiful landscapes.