Library Journal
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Retired Chicago detective Cal Hooper has now spent three years in the Irish village of Ardnakelty. His work with young Trey is going well, and his relationship with his fiancée Lena is progressing nicely. He's also close with a group of local men who have accepted him into their complex social circle. But Lena wants nothing to do with their rumor mill and petty squabbles. When Rachel Holohan, girlfriend of the son of the town big shot, is found dead, she is not just mourned; her death stirs up generations of old grudges, power struggles, and stifling anger. As tensions mount and actions become more vicious, an exposed plan to upend the entire fabric of the town sheds new light on Rachel's death, demanding vengeance and casting suspicions everywhere. VERDICT French is an expert at writing suspense and depicting the stifling tensions of small towns, and her final book in the Cal Hooper trilogy (following The Searcher and The Hunter) brings Cal's story to a pulse-pounding conclusion. His legions of fans will mourn the end of this exceptional series.—Susan Clifford Braun

Publishers Weekly
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The apparent suicide of a young woman with a bright future tears apart the bucolic Irish village of Ardnakelty—as well as the painstakingly constructed new life of Chicago transplant Cal Hooper—in French’s atmospheric but sluggish final suspense novel featuring the ex-policeman (after The Hunter). Still regarded as an outsider despite living in Ardnakelty for three years and being engaged to local widow Lena Dunne, Cal has little desire to dust off his detective skills. However, with Lena feeling guilty about missing any warning signs when Rachel Holohan dropped by hours before her death, and Cal’s teenage foster daughter, Trey Reddy, convinced there was foul play, he gets sucked in anyway. He’s stunned when his discreet inquiries into Rachel’s life,­ beyond the well-known details of her imminent engagement to wealthy Ardnakelty heir Eugene Moynihan, ignite a dangerous firestorm. As dense with detail as the November drizzle that shrouds the Irish landscape, French’s plot doesn’t rev up until the halfway point. Though the serpentine final 100 pages are nail-biting, this will be best enjoyed by readers already familiar with Ardnakelty and its quirky cast of characters. Agent: Darley Anderson, Darley Anderson Literary. (Mar.)

Kirkus
Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

An apparent suicide threatens to destroy an Irish farm town in the final volume of French’s Cal Hooper trilogy. In the fictional western Ireland townland of Ardnakelty, “there’s a girl going after missing.” Soon young Rachel Holohan is found dead in the river. Shortly before, she had stopped at Lena Dunne’s home, and nothing had seemed amiss. The medical examiner determines she’d swallowed antifreeze, and he presumes she then fell from a bridge into the water. The medical examiner and the town agree she’d died by suicide. But there is far more to the plot: 16-year-old Trey Reddy thinks Tommy Moynihan murdered Rachel. Moynihan doles out favors and punishments to the local townsfolk, who know it’s best not to cross him. Now rumors spread that Moynihan wants land and has a secret plan to forcibly buy up parcels from the locals. A factory will be built, or a great big data center, or who knows what. If Tommy’s son, Eugene, can get elected to the local council, then compulsory purchase orders for land will follow, and the farms will disappear. Eugene, who’d been romantically involved with Rachel, is wonderfully described as “on the weedy edge of good-looking” and just fine as long as you “don’t have high expectations in the way of chins.” Lena is engaged to the American Cal Hooper, an ex-cop turned woodworker. They are “more or less raising” Trey, and these three core characters are drawn into the mystery of Rachel’s death and may have to face the looming clouds of civilizational change for Ardnakelty. Lena is chastised for “asking your wee questions all round the townland,” and Trey wants to quit school, against Cal’s advice. Finally, the story’s best line: “You can’t go killing people just because they deserve it.” Great crime fiction. Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.