The Hunter

Cal Hooper, a retired Chicago detective, has settled into the village of Ardnakelty in the west of Ireland, looking for quiet. Two years on, he has a cottage and a workshop, a relationship with Lena, and Trey Reddy beside him learning to work wood. This is the second Cal Hooper novel, and it follows The Searcher.

A drought has gripped the summer, leaving the townland parched and irritable. Then Trey's father, Johnny Reddy, returns after years away. He brings an English millionaire and talk of gold hidden in the mountain, and the men of Ardnakelty are ready to believe him.

Trey wants something different, and it concerns her brother. When a man is found dead and a detective arrives from Dublin, Cal and Lena try to stand between a teenager and what she has decided to do.

The book is a crime novel with the shape of a western. Revenge and family drive it, both the families people are born into and the ones they build for themselves. The pace suits a place where everybody watches everybody: unhurried, tense and watchful. The New York Times counted it among the best thrillers of 2024, and in 2025 it made the CWA Gold Dagger shortlist.