Tana French - The Searcher - A Novel

“Here,” Cal says. He points at the cans of wood stain. “You try these out on some scrap wood, see which one’s the best match. You might have to do some mixing to get it right.”

“Need a plate or something,” Trey says. “For mixing.”

“Get that old tin one.”

Trey lopes off to the house and comes back with the plate and a mug of water. She arranges herself cross-legged on the drop sheet, lays out her equipment around her and sets to work.

In their tree the rooks are peaceful, tossing scraps of conversation back and forth, occasionally soaring across to a neighboring nest to pay a visit. One skinny young one is hanging upside down from a branch to see what the world looks like that way. Trey mixes stain colors on the plate, paints a neat square of each mixture onto a stray piece of two-by-four and labels it in pencil, in some code of her own. Cal coaxes splinters of wood into place and clamps them there. After a while he opens the cake, and they break off a chunk each and sit on the grass to eat it, listening to the rooks exchange views and watching the shadows of clouds drift across the mountainsides.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I owe huge thanks to Darley Anderson, the most magnificent agent I can imagine, and everyone at the agency, especially Rosanna, Georgia, Mary, Kristina, and Rebeka; my amazing editors, Andrea Schulz and Katy Loftus, who in the middle of a pandemic somehow found the time, focus, and patience to make this book so much better; the wonderful Ben Petrone, Nidhi Pugalia, and everyone at Viking US; the extremely skillful and extremely sound Olivia Mead, Anna Ridley, Georgia Taylor, Ellie Hudson, and everyone at Viking UK; Susanne Halbleib and everyone at Fischer Verlage; Steve Fisher of APA; Jessica Ryan, for being my North Carolina dictionary (any mistakes are mine); Bairbre Ní Chaoimh, for filling in the gaps in my rusty Irish (ditto); Fearghas Ó Cochláin, for making sure I kill people off accurately; Ciara Considine, Clare Ferraro, and Sue Fletcher, who set all this in motion; Kristina Johansen, Alex French, Susan Collins, Noni Stapleton, Paul and Anna Nugent, Oonagh Montague, and Karen Gillece, for the usual priceless combination of laughs, talks, support, creativity, and all the other essentials; David Ryan, clinically proven to cure gout, improve broadband speed, reduce hangovers, and eliminate aphids; my mother, Elena Lombardi; my father, David French; and, as always, the finest man I know and the one I’d pick to be stuck in lockdown with any day, my husband, Anthony Breatnach.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Tana French is the author of seven previous books, including In the Woods , The Likeness , and The Witch Elm . Her novels have sold over three million copies and won numerous awards, including the Edgar, Anthony, Macavity, and Barry awards, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Best Mystery/Thriller, and the Irish Book Award for Crime Fiction. She lives in Dublin with her family.

What’s next on

your reading list?

Discover your next

great read!

Get personalized book picks and up-to-date news about this author.

Sign up now.