Dear readers, I have to imagine there’s a bat signal to alert fans whenever Tana French releases a new book. After publishing a string of best-selling, moody novels, French has acquired a devoted following unlike any other contemporary crime writer I’ve seen. So even if this is redundant for her loyal readers, it’s certainly worth noting: There’s a new Tana French novel out today! “The Keeper” concludes her trilogy of books about Cal Hooper, a retired American cop who leaves Chicago for the tiny, fictional Irish town of Ardnakelty. Initially seeking peace and retreat, he quickly grows intrigued by the village’s baffling social codes; with each mystery there, he becomes embedded more deeply in the community, despite the locals’ reflexive distrust of outsiders. The new novel centers on the drowning of a vibrant young woman, Rachel, who is romantically linked to the son of one of the town’s power brokers. “The Keeper” was the first book by French I’d ever picked up, and I can attest that you don’t need to have read the previous installments in the series to enjoy it. I love the ambiguity in French’s characters; it’s no surprise that she is inspired by westerns and their outlaw senses of justice. And she astonishes on the sentence level, both with dialogue and with descriptions. Here for instance is how she introduces the glamorous but ill-fated Rachel: “She looks like she popped out of Instagram by mistake and somebody should put her back in before she gets smudged.” Yeah, I get the hype. I’m now tempted by the audiobook versions of French’s previous books, if only to treat myself to a chorus of regionally specific Irish voices. They’re cheaper than a plane ticket. See you on Friday. In other news
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