48 pages • 1 hour read
Tana FrenchThe Hunter
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2024A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Character Analysis
Cal Hooper
Cal Hooper is the protagonist of the narrative. He is a retired police officer from Chicago. Cal moved to Ardnakelty, Ireland after his retirement because he liked the idea of living in the country. Cal develops a paternal relationship with Trey in The Searcher, which stems from Johnny not being present in his daughter’s life. Cal acts as a mentor figure for Trey. He teaches her carpentry, which he does by himself to pass the time in his retirement. They develop a small carpentry business for the Ardnakelty townspeople out of Cal’s workshop in his house. He enjoys carpentry because it allows him to fix the basic, tangible problems in front of him. Cal’s relationship with Lena Dunne prevents Ardnakelty from viewing him as a complete outsider, even though they do not treat him as their equal.
Cal’s main internal conflict stems from his desire to stay out of the criminal investigation. Cal wants to forget about his past and focus on his retirement. However, when Johnny returns to Ardnakelty, he feels pulled into everything because he wants to protect Trey from whatever scam Johnny concocts. Even though he used to be a police detective, Cal does not feel a strong sense of duty to enforce the law. He threatens Johnny and has every intention of hurting him if he does not keep Trey out of his schemes. Cal’s past as a police detective makes it easy for him to judge people’s true characters or to tell when people are lying. Yet, Cal’s relationship with Trey challenges him because he cannot easily predict how she feels or how she will act. Cal’s decision to allow Trey to lie to Nealon shows that he trusts her, even if he does not understand what she does. Cal displays his love for Trey when he runs through the fire to find her after she injures herself. He acts as a stand-in father for her because he cares for her like Johnny should. Cal’s love for her is unconditional; meanwhile, Johnny only pays attention to Trey when he sees what she can offer him. Even though Cal knows that Trey started the fire, he chooses to let Johnny take the blame for Rushborough’s murder. Despite his past, Cal does not adhere to a strict code of law and justice. Instead, he understands the complexity of why people choose to murder other people. This fuels his desire to protect Trey, rather than allowing her to suffer because of Johnny’s actions.
Trey Reddy
Theresa Reddy, or “Trey,” is a 15-year-old girl from the mountains of Ardnakelty, Ireland. Trey desperately wants people to treat her like an adult, especially because she feels like her life circumstances forced her to grow up quickly. Trey defies the traditional gender norms of the town because she focuses on sports and carpentry, rather than the cleaning and cooking that the Ardnakelty men expect from her. Trey enjoys carpentry with Cal because it allows her to prove her worth to Ardnakelty in a physical way. She feels strongly committed to Cal because of how he respects her and cares for her. Although Johnny’s reappearance threatens to upset her connection with Cal, Trey never lets herself forget Johnny’s abuse of herself and the rest of her family.
Trey’s internal conflict comes from her anger and grief over Brendan’s death. Although Trey promised Cal that she would not investigate Brendan’s murder, she finds a way to get around this promise by first trying to blackmail the Ardnakelty men and then trying to frame them for Rushborough’s murder. Trey’s major character flaw is that she believes that she is more mature than she is. She does not know how to predict adult’s actions because she focuses on her grief over her brother. For this reason, Rushborough and the Ardnakelty men are always one step ahead of her. Trey does not realize how much her desire for revenge consumes her until Lena points out that her lie to Nealon may force Cal to confess to protect her from the Ardnakelty men’s wrath. This realization makes Trey come to her senses and realize that her relationship with Cal is more important than getting revenge. Trey reveals her deep-seated loyalty over her adherence to the law when she decides to cover up Sheila’s crimes. Once she understands that Sheila murdered Rushborough to protect Trey, she knows that she cannot let Sheila go to prison for her selfless act. In the end, protecting Sheila and Cal forces Trey to let go of her desire for revenge and the hope of ever finding out what happened to Brendan. Trey takes a final step toward maturity when she realizes that she will need to grieve for Brendan in a way that is not destructive or focused on revenge.
Johnny Reddy
Johnny Reddy is Trey’s father and has been absent for the past few years. Johnny has a reputation in Ardnakelty for being a swindler. He is a charismatic man who knows how to get people to believe what he says. Johnny acts as a foil to Cal, particularly in how they are both father figures to Trey. While Cal accepts Trey unconditionally, Johnny uses Trey as a pawn in his schemes to get ahead. Johnny only seems pleased with Trey when she agrees to help him with his con, especially when she pretends to find gold in the mountain. Although Johnny does love Trey, he does not know how to relate to her, which is why he always ends up leaving.
Johnny’s bad dealings in London catch up with him through his debt to Rushborough. Rather than paying off his debt, Johnny brings Rushborough to his home, hoping that they will be able to trick Ardnakelty and pay off Johnny’s debt. Cal’s frustration with Johnny stems from his inability to see how his actions will affect the future. He focuses only on what is ahead of him in the moment. However, Cal understands that Johnny’s actions will have a great effect on Trey and her family after he leaves. If his plan worked, Johnny would have left his family to deal with the consequences of his actions after stealing Ardnakelty’s money.
Johnny knows how to manipulate people into doing what he wants. Although his scheme to swindle the Ardnakelty men seems far-fetched to Trey at first, she sees how Johnny easily utilizes Ardnakelty’s greed for his own purposes. Trey learns how to manipulate people by observing Johnny, which is why she tricks Cal and Lena about her desire for revenge for so long. Since he knows how to control people, Johnny learns how to escape the anger and revenge from the people he swindles. Even though the Ardnakelty men want to punish him, Johnny uses the distraction of Trey’s fire to leave Ardnakelty for good. Whether intentional or not, Johnny becomes a scapegoat for the murder investigation, and his escape takes the focus off Sheila. Johnny’s escape allows Trey to return to her close relationship with Cal and experience a relationship that is built on love and commitment, rather than greed and manipulation.
Cillian Rushborough
Cillian Rushborough is an Englishman who comes to Ardnakelty to discover its gold. Rushborough is a liar and a criminal. He is the main antagonist of the novel. After his murder, Nealon reveals that Rushborough’s real name is Terence Blake. The people of Ardnakelty call him “a Paddy Englishman” because they believe that he is just another person who wants to pretend to be Irish for the sake of a good story (100). Johnny brings Rushborough to Ardnakelty to scam the townspeople and pay off his debt. Rushborough is a dangerous and violent man whom Johnny fears will hurt him or his family if he does not pay him off. Rushborough slaps Trey when she asks too many questions, and Sheila knows that the only way to get him to leave is to pay him or kill him.
Rushborough pretends to have family from Ardnakelty to help sell his story about the gold buried in the mountain. Cal realizes that Rushborough is an excellent liar when he hears him go on about the importance of the land to the Ardnakelty people. He describes the way his grandmother used to tell him about Ardnakelty and even shows them a gold ring that he says she gave him to verify his tale. The men are more inclined to believe him after this speech because they feel the same way about their land. However, the Ardnakelty men talk themselves into swindling Rushborough with Johnny because Rushborough is an outsider. The men’s belief about outsiders almost leads to their downfall because they focus on Rushborough instead of Johnny, who begins his con as soon as he comes home. Johnny fears Rushborough’s violence if he does not comply with him because he remembers how he tortured a child to make a man pay back his debt to him. Rushborough’s greed and misogyny eventually lead to his downfall because he comes to the Reddy’s shed in the middle of the night when Sheila promises to pay him off. Despite Rushborough’s experience with criminal behavior, he lets his guard down around Sheila because he does not expect a woman to hurt him. Sheila kills Rushborough as he leans down to open the toolbox that she says the money is in, which symbolically shows how Rushborough’s greed directly led to his murder. With Rushborough dead and Johnny taking the blame for it, Sheila and her family can return to the way things were before Rushborough’s greed disrupted their way of life.
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By Tana French
