lisa taylor

I am a great fan of Tara French. I have read all her books and couldn't wait to buy this new one. I finished it, however, feeling mildly disappointed. I didn't much like our folksy retired detective hero, who knowss how to fish and gut rabbits and take apart an old desk - and mend a troubled teen who enters his life. It all seemed rather pat. I found our hero boring and his little lectures (to himself, and to the youngster) about finding your "code" so as to know right from wrong to be pretty basic advice. The best parts of the book, for me, were the author's descriptions of the landscape (esp rain!) and the ratty underpinnings of a small Irish town, which operates by nudges and sly looks and not so innocent teasing when the farmers feel threatened by Cal's unwanted investigation into why a 19 yr old boy suddenly disappears.