Books by Tana French
Tana French is an award-winning Dublin-based mystery writer.
The Hunter
by Tana French
☆ Shortlisted for the 2025 CWA KAA Gold Dagger
The Hunter by Tana French is the second book featuring Cal Hooper, a Chicago cop who has retired to the Irish countryside (the first book was The Searcher, which you will need to read first). This is an extremely slow-burn mystery, as much about the relationships between various characters in a small Irish village as it is about the crime that gets committed. The audiobook, narrated by Roger Clarke, is superb. The plot of The Hunter revolves around an Englishman who comes to the village, apparently on a quest for gold he heard about from an elderly relation.
“Among my favourite crime novels this year was The Hunter by Tana French, a sequel to her book The Searcher (which it’s probably best to read first). The main protagonist, Cal Hooper, is a retired Chicago police detective who ends up living in the Irish countryside” Read more...
Sophie Roell, Journalist
“The Searcher takes us to a village in Ireland and a retired Chicago cop who has just moved there and is doing up a rundown old house. His character is completely credible, and I can see him in front of his house, sanding down a piece of wood, as I write this. The book is slow-moving but absolutely absorbing.” Read more...
Sophie Roell, Journalist
“A family has been found dead—well, the husband and two children are dead and the wife is in a coma—in a ghost housing estate called Brianstown, which was once known as Broken Harbour, just outside Dublin. This housing estate was one of the casualties of the Irish property crash” Read more...
The Best Psychological Thrillers
Tammy Cohen, Novelist
Interviews where books by Tana French were recommended
The Best Psychological Thrillers, recommended by Tammy Cohen
Psychological thrillers play on our fears that those closest to us can’t be trusted and that even our homes aren’t safe, explains Tammy Cohen, author of Stop at Nothing and They All Fall Down. She recommends five psychological thrillers and explains what it is that makes them so deeply unsettling and utterly gripping.
The Best Mystery Books of 2020
If you like mysteries, 2020 was an outstanding year, particularly in the domestic noir genre, with standouts like The Stranger Diaries by Elly Griffiths and Magpie Lane by Lucy Atkins. There were also excellent installments in existing series, whether featuring police or non-police detectives. 2020 also saw the publication of The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman, a publishing sensation that demonstrates the continuing demand for humorous, cozy mysteries.
Best Crime Fiction of 2020, recommended by Sophie Roell
If you’re looking for escapism, crime novels can be a good way to go. Which is strange, given that nearly all of them revolve around murder. Sophie Roell, editor of Five Books and an avid consumer of the genre, picks her personal favourites published in 2020.
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1
Vesper Flights
by Helen Macdonald (author and narrator) -
2
The Sandman
by Dirk Maggs (audiobook adaptation), Full Cast & Neil Gaiman -
3
The Pull of the Stars: A Novel
by Emma Donoghue & Emma Lowe (narrator) -
4
The Searcher: A Novel
by Roger Clark (narrator) & Tana French -
5
A Most Beautiful Thing: The True Story of America's First All-Black High School Rowing Team
by Adam Lazarre-White (narrator) & Arshay Cooper
The Best Audiobooks of 2020, recommended by Robin Whitten
The Best Audiobooks of 2020, recommended by Robin Whitten
With most people carrying smartphones these days, entering the world of audiobooks has never been easier. Some are straightforward narrations of a book, but when an audiobook is done well, it can be an extraordinary, all-encompassing experience. Here Robin Whitten, editor of AudioFile magazine—the best resource for finding good quality audiobooks on the web, in our view—talks us through her picks for the best audiobooks of 2020, chosen from the hundreds they’ve reviewed over the course of the year.
The Best Mystery Books of 2025
Welcome to our running list of the best mystery books of 2025, which we’ll be updating throughout the year. Our definition of mystery is broad, and can include any novel that has a crime at its heart with (ideally) an unexpected plot twist. Throughout the year, we’ll be looking out for new mystery books as they’re published and adding them whenever we think they’re worth reading.
The Best Crime Novels of 2024, recommended by Sophie Roell
From the latest detective novels and cozy crime to unsettling psychological thrillers, Five Books editor Sophie Roell does a round-up of some of her favourite crime novels of the past year.
The Best Mystery Books of 2024
2024 was a solid year for mystery books, with books out from some of the best contemporary writers in the genre, including Tana French, S.A. Cosby, and Ruth Ware. The range of mood was also broad, with some wistful and nostalgic tales, and other books that are laugh-out-loud funny. Our best mystery books of 2025 list is now up and running.
