The following version of the novel was used to create this study guide: French, Tana. The Searcher. Viking, October 6, 2020. Kindle.

In the suspense novel The Searcher by Tana French, Calvin “Cal” Hooper believes that moving to a small town in Western Ireland will lead to a simpler life. He is wrong. Cal does his best to fit in with the local farmers and townspeople, but he cannot say no when a teenager comes to him asking for help finding her runaway brother, Brendan. Unaware of what he is getting into, Cal uncovers a drug operation, an accidental murder, and a vigilante attempt to cover up everything that happened.

Fresh from a divorce and an unsettling shooting incident, Cal has retired from his job as a police officer in Chicago. He hopes to find peace fixing up the farm cottage he has bought in the remote village of Ardnakelty. His dreams of peace are destroyed when he realizes one day that he is being watched. Trey, a shy teenager who Cal believes is a boy based on clothing and haircut, approaches Cal one day when Cal is outside restoring an antique desk. Cal notices the boy is poor and appears underfed. He initiates a relationship by teaching the boy about woodworking, fishing, and hunting. Trey tells Cal one day that his older brother, Brendan, is missing. Trey has heard that Cal is a police officer and wants him to look for Brendan. He fears that something bad has happened to his brother.

Despite the relationship Cal has been forging with the boy, Cal tells Trey that he cannot help him. He says that he is not a police officer in Ireland and does not have access to the tools and resources he needs for that sort of investigation. In his anger and disappointment, Trey slams a paint-soaked shirt on the desk which he and Cal have been restoring. Later, Trey lets the air out of Cal’s tires. On another day, he eggs Cal’s cottage. Knowing that Trey is not going to leave him alone, Cal agrees to ask around about Brendan.

Cal first talks to Brendan’s mother and some of his friends, acting as if he is looking for someone to do some electrical work for him. He says that he has heard that Brendan could do the work. He is unable to get any solid information, but he is invited to the local pub by his neighbor and friend Mart. During the evening, Mart suggests to Cal that he needs to get a hobby. Cal feels as if he is being warned, but he is not sure if the warning is connected to the questions he has been asking about Brendan.

Cal realizes the seriousness of the situation only when he and Trey visit an abandoned cottage where Brendan had gone from time to time. Inside, they find a propane cooking stove, lab glasses, coffee filters, and a battery. Cal had learned from the police that a farmer had reported anhydrous ammonia, a chemical needed to make meth, had been stolen. At this point, Cal is no longer worried about what happened to Brendan because of the implications of what Brendan was trying to do. During another conversation with Mart, Mart informs Cal that Trey is a girl, not a boy. The name is short for Theresa. Mart warns Cal that he will soon be the subject of dirty rumors if he does not stop allowing her to visit him. Cal makes up a story about what might have happened to Brendan, hoping to make Trey leave him alone.

A few weeks later, Trey comes to Cal’s house again. She has been beaten up by her mother and needs medical attention. Among her injuries are a busted lip, a black eye, and a badly bruised hand. When Trey is able, she explains that her mother would not have beaten her, but she was told to do it. Trey admits she had continued to ask questions about Brendan because she did not believe the story that Cal told her. Cal is deeply disturbed about the sort of people who would hurt a little girl to keep a crime quiet. He begins asking about Brendan with a renewed interest. He learns from Donie, a local drug runner, that Brendan had been planning to make pure meth for drug dealers in Dublin, but his ingredients were stolen. Donie did not hear from Brendan again after he met with drug dealers to tell them about the theft.

When Cal returned to his home, where Trey was staying while she recovered, he was jumped by three men who beat him. He was warned to stop asking questions. Trey broke up the fight by shooting off Cal’s rifle. She hit one of the men in the arm. The next day, Cal went to visit Mart. He told Mart a story about falling off his roof to explain his injuries. When Cal saw a towel covered in dried blood, Cal realized Mart had been involved in what happened from the beginning. Cal tells Mart that Trey will not be satisfied until she knows what happened to her brother. He also explains that Trey has a code of morality. He believes that if Trey says she will stop asking questions once she finds out the truth, she will do that.

Mart admits that he and some other farmers had discovered that Brendan was going to be making pure meth when the anhydrous ammonia was stolen. They met him at the cottage where he was going to be cooking. They hoped to scare him into not going through with his plan. Instead, Brendan got hateful with them and a fight broke out. One of the men punched Brendan in the jaw. Brendan fell backward, hitting his head on one of the propane tanks. Mart said he died instantly.

Mart takes Cal to the spot where Mart and his friends buried Brendan. Cal recovered Brendan’s watch from his body as proof to Trey that her brother really was dead. Cal tells Mart that he intends to continue allowing Trey to visit him whenever she likes. He does not want to get any grief about it from the community. He also says he plans to help Trey’s mother, a single mother with six children, by making needed repairs to her cottage. Mart agrees that he and his friends could help with that, implying that he understands recompense needs to be paid. The novel ends with Cal and Trey working together on the desk.