Indians and Irish

This episode, Andrea reads one of her favorite Stephen Graham Jones novels, The Only Good Indians. Elizabeth reads an Irish mystery, The Searcher by Tana French. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:00

Welcome to Bookshop Bombshells.

SPEAKER_02 0:03

This is a podcast where we both read a book. And we tell you about the book.

SPEAKER_03 0:07

And we try not to spoil it.

SPEAKER_02 0:09

Because we want you to read the book also.

SPEAKER_03 0:11

And I'm Elizabeth.

SPEAKER_02 0:12

And I'm Andrea. Thank you for joining us. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 0:16

Hi, everybody. I feel like the um the SNL skit um where they're like acting like they're NPR people and they're just like, welcome to Bookshop Show. Welcome. It's just like that's like I can't remember anyone's names. Um it's fine. But uh but yeah, so uh how's your week been going?

SPEAKER_02 0:38

Um chaotically good.

SPEAKER_03 0:40

Yeah. Yeah. I've been um reading obviously the book uh for this episode, and then I've also just been like listening to so many audiobooks. I so so I went on that like uh Kim Harrison like deep dive.

SPEAKER_02 0:58

Yeah, I remember.

SPEAKER_03 0:59

So like now I've read so we did play nice last week, and then I've read Black Sheep, Cackle, The Return.

SPEAKER_01 1:07

How was the Return? You know, what in your favorite?

SPEAKER_03 1:11

No, which is so weird because it was more like play nice. So like she does a little bit of both of like the like creepy, like creepy db horror and like cozy comfy horror.

SPEAKER_01 1:24

Bedtime horror.

SPEAKER_03 1:25

Yeah, bedtime horror. Um I actually like cackle was the least horror one that she's written that I've read. And I honestly feel like I liked it the most. Like it was really fun and like like kind of like I was talking about last time. It was like I just sort of felt like the character was me a little bit.

SPEAKER_01 1:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:47

Um, the return, I felt less connected to the character. It was creepy deepy. I didn't love the ending, so um that's fine. Sorry, we're burping, we're drinking mimosas today at the same time.

SPEAKER_02 2:03

That's fine. It's early. I I started the audiobook for play nice. Oh, how is the audiobook? The audiobook's really good. Yeah, I mean not far in. I started it, I think, the last time we talked. And uh, and then my phone every time I got in my car would be like, Oh, you want to listen to Spotify? And I'm like, No, I want to listen to Libby. And I got to the point where I was just like, fine, I guess I'll listen to podcasts. So I just picked it back up. Oh, okay. And because I was like, I'm done with podcast.

SPEAKER_03 2:34

Yeah. Uh yeah, screw podcast.

SPEAKER_02 2:36

It was murder podcast. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 2:43

I don't think play nice is gonna really help you uh uh get out of a hole.

SPEAKER_02 2:47

Well, because it's fiction, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 2:49

Well, that's okay, so so also, so we talked about Under the Dome last time. Yeah, I found uh in my algorithm, I found an article that was basically like, you know, we're talking about Stephen King horror versus sci-fi. I swear, like they're listening to us because I had an article that was like the top 10 Stephen King sci-fi series.

SPEAKER_02 3:09

After we talked about that, it popped up on mine. Really? Yes. I was like, I have to read this.

SPEAKER_03 3:14

And so I was looking at um obviously the list, and I think in the list I was looking at Under the Dome was number four. Uh 112263 was number one, which I agree with. Um I can't remember what the other one was, but like three was the dead zone.

SPEAKER_04 3:33

Oh, I forgot about it.

SPEAKER_03 3:35

So I started listening to the dead zone, and I feel like I made it like four hours in. Like I really gave this book a good college try. Um, so it's also narrated by James Franco, who is sort of like a cancelled actor now.

SPEAKER_02 3:55

He's been cancelled for a long time.

SPEAKER_03 3:56

Yeah, so it wasn't like great like listening to him talk the whole time, even though I will say it's another like piece of shit uh character. So you're like, oh okay, let's have a piece of shit read a piece of shit. Like that's cool. Um so I was like okay with it for a while, but you can definitely tell that like Under the Dome was written because this book was written in 79. Um, and so you can tell like by the time I think Under the Dome was like, I don't know, 2000. Early 2000. Yeah, like eight or something, maybe eight or nine. Um you can tell he's like much more refined uh writer by then. Like I felt like this was like sort of a precursor, like just in the way that he's writing and the way that the characters are sort of developed, it definitely feels under the dome-ish, but it's not as good. So I I gave up on it. And and guess what I just started reading. What Jesus instead, Lost Gods. Oh, it was so good now. Um the audiobook is a little weird.

SPEAKER_02 5:02

I was gonna say I read it, so like what the narrator is fine.

SPEAKER_03 5:06

He's a little monotone in his actual delivery of it. Yeah, but like he but but he's not monotone because when he does voices, he does great voices. It's like just when he's reading the yeah, just when he's reading what's going on, he's like a little monotone and then he does voices and they're great voices. So I'm like, I don't know what you're doing here, but it's it's good. Like I'm not it's not turning me off.

SPEAKER_02 5:28

The narrator doesn't control it. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 5:30

I'll put up with a lot, as we found out with Game Changer. That's right. I'll put up with a lot sometimes with an audiobook if I feel like it's worth it.

SPEAKER_02 5:42

Uh yeah, apparently I can too.

SPEAKER_03 5:48

Oh god. Bless Kip's heart. I know, poor Kip.

SPEAKER_02 5:52

So cutie. Uh well, I'm glad you started. I I really like Lost Gods.

SPEAKER_03 5:58

Yeah, I'm super into it so far. I just got to the point where he uh f finds out that the ghost children are uh his grandma's dead children. Yeah. Yes, like nothing. That's literally he just found that out.

SPEAKER_00 6:14

So I was like, oh no.

SPEAKER_03 6:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:17

Like, mommy, mommy! It's pretty early in the thing, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 6:21

Um cool. I like that. I uh I had a reread a book I've already read for for this this time? For this time. Um, tell me about it. So I read The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones.

SPEAKER_03 6:36

We haven't done a Stephen Graham Jones yet, have we?

SPEAKER_02 6:39

No.

SPEAKER_03 6:40

We both really like Stephen Graham Jones.

SPEAKER_02 6:42

So I well, and that's what I was like, we haven't done one. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 6:45

My luck, you're I still haven't read this one either.

SPEAKER_02 6:47

Oh, good. I was like, I know Which is crazy because I've read Yeah, yeah. But I was like, I knew you had read read in.

SPEAKER_03 6:55

Mm-hmm. I read uh My Heart is a Chainsaw. Um, what else have I read? Is that the only one I read by him? I think so. Yeah. Because I haven't even I started the Reaper what is it? Don't fear the Reaper, which is the second one of that series. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 7:11

Um, but I haven't finished it yet, so uh The Only Good Indians was the first book I read by him. Uh I think the other one was I was a teenage slasher.

SPEAKER_03 7:23

That's right.

SPEAKER_02 7:24

And that was really good. Yeah. But uh but I wanted to reread this one because it's been a couple years and my aunt just told me she uh I know I need to read it.

SPEAKER_03 7:33

There's another one, my friend Emily, who we've brought up a couple times. Uh she read the Buffalo Hunter Hunter that she said was really good. I almost did that one. I've almost done that one uh also, but I keep being like, oh, I should like stop doing horror and then like you fall back into horror, yeah. You just like can't stop.

SPEAKER_02 7:50

I have the same my light fluffy is always like really weird too. Yeah. My palette cleanser.

SPEAKER_03 7:55

Yeah, my horror palette cleanser.

SPEAKER_02 7:58

Uh so the only good Indians, uh, it it's it's good. It's one of my favorites. It's the first one I've read by him. It's been my favorite. Uh and so when you when you start reading it, uh the first sentence in the book is said the headline for Richard Boss Ribs would be Indian Man Killed in Bar Dispute. So you're like, oh what's going on? All right, tell me more. Um Ricky just up and left the reservation that he lived on uh once his little brother Cheeto, which was not his real name, but he looked like a Cheeto. Is orange?

SPEAKER_03 8:43

Like, why is he looking like Cheeto?

SPEAKER_02 8:44

He's got red hair and freckles. Okay. Um, but he OD'd in somebody's living room and um basically like the funeral happened and he just split. He was like, I'm gonna try to go to Minneapolis. He ends up somewhere in North Dakota. Um he does like drill work. So uh there's that, but he's like thinking about the hunt that him and his buddies gave Lewis and Cass went on last Thanksgiving, that they wanted to bring back meat to the whole tribe, but that the big wet snow had come in and everything had gone straight to hell. So then he's at a bar, he's like four beers and nine country songs later. He he's got a pee. So he's waiting in this long ass line to get to the urinal urinal, and like it already like you can already smell the bathroom. Like it's gross. It's just like a roughneck bar, yeah. Like out in the middle of nowhere. And he's like, I'm just gonna go outside uh to pee. Uh so he like starts leaving and the bouncer stops him and he's like, Hey, like uh fire marshal fire marshal rules like you're gonna end up having to wait in line to get back in. And he kind of looks and there is a huge line of like cowboy roughneck types out there. Yeah, and he's like, I'm like one of two Indians in here, and I'm sure like they're gonna be pissed off when I leave. So he's like, it's fine, I'll take my chances. So he goes out to the um parking lot and he's taking like the best longest pee of his life, and but he feels like somebody's like watching him or like coming up behind him. Um he's assuming it's like the line of the cowboys behind him. Uh but after he's done, he like turns around and nobody's there. And then he realizes that there's this like big elk like standing on this, like he calls it a 280Z, which is a little sporty Nissan car. Um, it's like trying to climb over the hood and like denting it up really bad. And then he was like, What? And it jumps over onto the next truck, which isn't as quiet about it, like all the alarms start going off. The elk falls onto the ground and then just starts kind of like pinballing around all the vehicles, setting all the alarms off. Uh so um he's like, What is going on? This is not like this is where people go, not elk. And um the elk jumps over and like sees him and it like like beelines it to him like like a mad male elk would be like breathing out his nose real hard and stuff. Um and so it like comes straight for him and he dodges it and then it turns around and it's gonna come back for him, and he turns around and grabs this big wrench out of the back of I don't know if it's his truck or just a wrench that's in a truck next to him, but like he gets this big ass wrench and he's like, Okay, well, like I can I can do this. Like, if I could do my work cry, I would, but like no. Gabe's not here. He he brings it out of me. Um, so he turns around with a wrench and the elk is gone, disappeared. But all of these guys are like heading for him. Oh no, they think he did all the damage. There was like a a ruckus inside the bar and he came out, didn't know whose car he drove. Like, you know, he's got the wrench in his hand, so he's getting blamed. Um so uh that's how he dies. Oh, he dies, uh, because that was the headline. They beat the shit out of the car. They beat the shit out of him and he died, and they chalked it up to like a bar fight gone gone wrong kind of thing. Um and then we meet Lewis, which is one of the four guys that was on the big hunt. He was that the Cheeto or who was Cheeto? Cheeto was the the guy that was at the bar's brother. Okay, like that's why he bounced town was after Cheeto died. He was like, I'm out. Okay. Um so then we meet Lewis. Lewis is also not living on the reservation. Um, he's actually on a ladder in the living room of his new rent house, which his wife Pita and their dog Harley also live in the house, too. Um, but PETA is at work. She is like the the person that tells the airlines where to go with the big orange. Air traffic control. Air traffic control is like, go this way.

SPEAKER_03 13:32

Yeah, yeah. I know what you're talking about. I don't know if that's no air traffic control is like in the buildings, right? That's I don't know. I can't remember. That's fine. Who cares?

SPEAKER_02 13:42

You know, the one that she directs the traffic of the airlines. She's got like bright little sticks. Yes, that's her job. Um Harley's in the backyard barking. Uh he's got Harley tied up to the like laundry post that's out there with like the rusted out uh line holding him because he's been uh he's been in it's a new house, and he's like, I'm not gonna let my dog train me. He can just bark until he gets tired of it. It's fine. Um, but he's trying to fix this light fixture in their living room because it flickers at random times and it's right by the fire, like right by the fireplace. He's like, PETA is like uh it's supposed to illuminate the hearth because she's like a white girl and knows what everything is called.

SPEAKER_03 14:27

What's a name like PETA?

SPEAKER_02 14:29

Is it P-E-T-A or P-I? Okay, it's P-E-T-A. Um, which they mention the spelling in the book too. Yeah, like it's not P-I-D, it's P-E-T-A. Yeah. Um so he's on the ladder and he like realizes he forgot to turn the ceiling fan off. So he like jump scoots the ladder over about 10 inches and so um the the ceiling fan's at like his hip level and he like kind of looks down and he sees a uh hold on, I'm gonna turn the page. How did I word this? Oh, he sees a young cow elk and he knows she's young. Um her teeth aren't all really like grown into ivory because like back in the back in the ancient days, like elks had big fangs and they were ivory. So now like the elks nowadays they just have little bitty ivory teeth, but that's how young she is. Um he knows this because he knows that she wouldn't mind him if he like looked into her jawn checked because he's the one that killed this elk. So he recognizes it. Yeah. Um it was 10 years ago him and his buddies all went on this hunt, and this is the one he recognizes. So um he's kind of like taken aback. He's like, Oh my gosh, I still have that elkide in the freezer from that elk. Um, Peter was supposed to make me gloves out of it, but you know the leather thing that she was doing failed, which later you learn that PETA's a vegetarian, and I'm like, she's vegetarian, but she does leather goods.

SPEAKER_03 16:09

That makes sense, man.

SPEAKER_02 16:10

PETA Wait a second. Um yeah. So um the elk blinks her yellow eyes at him, and he is falling directly for the brick hearth. He's like, My head's gonna hit that, and this is gonna be it. Like, oh my gosh. But then at the last second, he sees PETA like had come home with groceries, and she like dropped the groceries and like pushed him away so he wouldn't, and he's he's alive, it's fine. Okay, good. Um Lewis is a postal guy, so he worked for the post office. He's a postal guy, he's a postal guy, he's a postman, if you will. Postman. So he like goes to work the next day and he's training this girl named Shaney. She um she's the only other Indian that he works with. She calls him Blackfeet because she's a different Indian and they were enemies back in the day. So she's like, hey, Blackfeet. Um it's kind of fun, but are they Blackfeet Indian? Is that what they uh that's what Lewis and his buddies are? Yeah. Um so um he realizes kind of like he's like, I need to call like Gabin Cass to talk this over with. So he calls uh Cass and he's like, Hey, do you ever uh think about those elk? Um he's like, no, what has it been 10 years now? And he was like, It's gonna be like the 10-year anniversary in two weeks. And he's like, Yeah, like they banter a lot. It's kind of fun. But he gets off the phone and he was like, I'm gonna call Gabe. Gabe has a daughter. Um, so he asked her, he's like, hey, how's Denora? And he's like, she's a basketball superstar. Do you remember this guy that we played with? She's even better than him, like she's amazing. There's a lot of basketball in this book too, which is really like fun. I like it. Yeah. Uh but then uh he he asks uh he asks him if he's been back to Duck Lake because he still lives there. And he's like, Yeah, the place is haunted, haunted, the elk don't even go there. Um, they're afraid of the four butchers that took them that year the year that they went hunting. And then after work, all the dudes he works with are like, you keep talking about your dog Harley keeps jumping this big old fence, and it's a nine-year-old dog um that shouldn't be able to do this. He's never done this before. Like, prove it. So, like, Shaney is also like, Oh, I'm coming too. And so they all go over to Lewis's house and they like make it to the backyard, and uh they realize that he's not connected to the fence post anymore. He's tried to jump the fence.

SPEAKER_03 19:05

But the rope my eyes are well are welling up.

SPEAKER_02 19:12

Uh it's real sad what they find. Uh I'm sure you can imagine. But Harley's not dead. They think he's dead, and then he like kicks a little and they rescue him off of the fence. Okay, good. So they're like babying Harley. Um, and Lewis is like, what like what's making him jump? Is it something that like is spooking him from in the house or is he trying to get something after like because they live right by train tracks and he knows that the train doesn't really set the dog off, but like what if something else is out there after the whole elk experience in his living room? He's gotten a little obsessed. Um, he like Peter finds him with like black duct tape in the living room, like trying to like do the outline of where he saw the elk through the fan. And uh so they're just like he's just trying to figure out why this elk is back because he knows exactly which one it is, and he's like, What like what do they want? And then he starts thinking that maybe it's PETA because she met him right before he left the reservation. Um and he gets really paranoid and kind of delusional, and at one point, like in the book, the the owl warn you, the dog does not make it. Okay. Um trigger warning, everybody. Yes, I should have done this at the beginning. I know there is uh animals die and people die in this book in kind of pretty morbid ways, so be warned. Yeah, um it is horror, it is horror. So uh, so he he's like, is this is this pita pita or is this like fake pita? Like, is she really the elk? At one point, like he the next white lady, right? Yeah, okay. Uh so the next time she he sees the elk, it's like a woman's body with that elk head on it. Oh, and it keeps like glaring at him with those yellow eyes that aren't supposed to be yellow. Even like he to ends up telling the story about the hunt at one point. He starts telling the story to Shane because she shows up at his house asking for books because he reads like this really fun sci-fi books, and I'm like, I wish I knew what those books were based off of. So yeah, because they do sound like really fun stories. So Stephen Graham Jones, if you're listening, yeah, what books are they based off of? Cause I want to read them. Um so you're like, uh Peter comes home when they're talking and he's like telling her the story, and Peter's upset, and he ends up he didn't tell Peter the whole story because she's like real heartfelt about animals, like vegetarian. I don't know. Name's Peter. And her name's Pita. So then, like, she's upset that she he told the coworker and he she was like, Well, are you gonna tell me like this? Like, it's like who's your wife? Me or Shaney. Who's this girl? Uh so he tells her the rest of the story, and um then he starts thinking that maybe the elk woman is Shaney, and uh things happen and he's not in a good way. And I'm gonna stop there because I'm gonna give too much away if I keep going. Because I'm gonna read this book. It's I like if you can get over like the sad parts of mostly just the what happens to animals in that book, like it's so good. Um, there's a lot of basketball mentioned in it, which is I think actually why a lot of people don't like this book. I wonder because of basketball? Because it's like references basketball from the very beginning. It's like they all play basketball, so and so plays basketball, like and they're just it's like if you like I think it fits in really well. And I like it has it all tied up at the end anyway, but uh, but like some people are just like, oh, someone have no, like it's cool. I love basketball. Why?

SPEAKER_03 23:20

We're from Oklahoma, so like the thunder, like all we have is basketball sometimes. I mean, you might say we also have like OU football, but who cares about football?

SPEAKER_02 23:30

I mean, like, I don't even follow our basketball team, but like I played basketball growing up and it's still something I enjoy watching. Like I've like I go to at least one OU women's basketball game. Yeah, we have a good women's team. Uh they're really good. Yeah. Uh yeah, that's uh so that is The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones.

SPEAKER_03 23:52

Stephen Graham Jones. He's so good. He's a really good author. Yeah, yeah. I did really like uh My Heart is a Chainsaw. And the only reason I haven't read uh Don't Fear the Reaper is because like of this podcast. Like I literally can't, I don't have time. I actually did try to start the audiobook of it, and I don't like the audiobook because I read the first book, and so it's very much like um people's and it does a thing where it's like different voices, like for different yeah things, and so it's like I'm like these voices aren't the voices I had in my head. Uh but I loved my heart as a chainsaw. It got me to watch so many slasher movies.

SPEAKER_02 24:33

Yeah, that's kind of uh what I that's not what got me into like those old slasher movies, but like after I read I was a teenage slasher, like I wanted to re-watch a lot of movies.

SPEAKER_03 24:45

We went on like a binge uh because I hadn't seen like any of the Friday the 13th. I I I at least knew like a lot of the references and stuff, but I hadn't actually watched any of them, so we literally didn't watch all of them. I think we watched the first three because they go a little off the rails.

SPEAKER_02 24:59

Uh we watched all of them one year. Yeah. Because I I like I don't know until my 30s was yeah, couldn't watch fun movies, apparently. Uh so like John was like, What you've never seen this? So, like one Halloween a couple years ago, we like tried to watch everything we could. So we but you know, he's a start to finish guy. So we watched Halloween. We're not Halloween. We watch like all of all of them.

SPEAKER_03 25:25

Friday the 13th, yeah. Yeah, they're good. They're but I love them. Yeah, really good. So I yeah, I love Steve Grimmshows. He's great.

SPEAKER_02 25:35

What'd you read?

SPEAKER_03 25:37

Oh man. So I picked up a new book, well, it's not new, new, but uh new for me by an author that I love. Uh I did The Searcher by Tana French. Um, so Tana French does mystery. She's one of my favorite mystery authors. Um, she has a series, it starts with In the Woods. Um, but I won't say In the Woods is my favorite. In the Woods is a good solid mystery, but like honestly, um, she has another book uh called, well, there's uh God, I can't remember books right now.

SPEAKER_01 26:17

Um The Pressure of I don't know.

SPEAKER_03 26:20

Well, I'm remembering like um actually I think she has a list back here. Uh there's um the likeness. Okay, so the likeness is my favorite. It's like number two. So basically what she does is she's um an Irish mystery writer. Um and it's mostly like what they call the Dublin Murder Squad. And so, like, if they're like in a series, it's usually following detectives that either were in one, like it may follow like the same detective, or it may be like one detective's a star or the main character in one book, and then they're like a side character in the other book, and it's what kind of follows a different detective. Yeah, so there's like um the likeness um was like my favorite. I've read that one a couple times. Um, and then I also really liked uh Broken Heart Broken Harbor um was another one of my favorites. Uh so this one is a part of a different series, new, it's not Dublin Murder Squad. Um, but my mom had recommended it because her third book in this series had just come out. Um, and she was saying it was really good. And I was like, okay, well, I need to start with the first one in the series. Um, so that's The Searcher. Um, so still an Ireland book, so that's like cool, really fun. Um the main character is Cal Hooper. So this is a little different for her uh because he is a retired Chicago PD detective. So he has moved, like he's he's basically retired. Yeah, he's like you know, left the forest. He's still young, like he's probably like in his early 50s. Um decides to move to Ireland, uh small town. I think that it was a it was a fictional city called Ardn Ardenakelty, which I looked up. It is fictional, it's not real, but it's it's actually um by Sligo. Oh, okay. Uh which we've been there. Yeah, we got chased by the Garda. Gardi? Garda. We didn't know. We were trespassing, we did not know. Um so yeah, so it's like kind of by there. Western Ireland uh is what they say. Um so he's moved out there, he buys this like really run-down house on some land, um, and just basically decides to like spend his retirement fixing up this house. Like he's trying to get away from the big city. Okay. Uh he had a wife. Um, she had left him a little prior to him quitting the force. Um, and he has like an adult daughter uh who's like, I think she's like recently out of college. Um, so he's sort of just like on his own doing his own thing. Doing his own thing. He's a little trouble, a little bit of a troubled past, trying to get away from it. Um, so he's like got this house, he's fixing up. Uh he starts to realize that, you know, he's out in the middle of nowhere, basically. He has neighbors, but they're pretty far away. Um, and he starts getting this like feeling that he's being watched. Like he has the like prickles in the back of his neck. Yeah. Um, and he even says, like, you know, I was a I was like trained in the forest for 25 years, so like he's really knows what those prickles mean. Yeah, yeah. Um, and so he ends up deciding to uh he like buys like a bunch of dirt and puts like dirt outside his windows, uh, and then the next morning there's like footprints like on the dirt. So like someone is definitely yeah, someone's definitely watching him. He does say that they're like they're like kind of like matched together and he can't like tell the size or like the tread or anything, but he definitely confirms that someone is spying on him. Um so uh he ends up actually one night um catching whoever was spying on him. He like sees them out and uh tries to like get a hand on them. It's like dark or whatever, because they're in the middle of nowhere. Um and they end up biting him and running off, but he does realize that it's like a kid, like not an adult. It's just a kid, it's a kid spying on him. Weird. So Cal's just like going about his business, keeping on repairing his house. Um he's got this neighbor named Mart, who's pretty fun. Um he uh gives him like a bunch of unsolicited advice uh about like hormone-free diets. Like he's basically since he's like fixing up the house so well, he's like losing a bunch of weight and he's like telling him it's like because like all the hormone, like all the meat here is better and the food is better. Yeah, so like you don't have all that like antibiotics and stuff in your food. Um and so uh he's just you know continuing to fix up the house. He's got like this old desk that I guess came with the house. I don't really understand why. That's sort of like a he's just like this guy that likes to do things the hard way, you know. Um really work for it. Yeah, and that that is one thing I want to say about like Tana French, is that she it's it's a lot less about the mystery for her and more about like one thing I really like about her is she really it's like about the characters. She's developing yeah, she does a really good character development. She's one of the first authors that I was reading that I sort of realized that I I like character, like character development's my favorite part about a book. It's like the plot is important, but it's like kind of secondary to like caring about the characters and liking the characters and really making them like real people in my mind. Um and so uh he's like fixing up this desk, it's like broken, it's gross, it's been in this like moldy house for a while. And he eventually like catches this kid that's like kind of like just like watching him from behind like a bush or whatever outside of his house. And he's like, Hey kid, like I see you there. Like, why don't you like put yourself to some good use and like you can like carry yeah, like sand the like I think it was like like it was like one of the drawers in the desk and he's like, why don't you just sand this dress this drawer down so it'll fit into the desk? And the kid is like realizes that he's been like seen and he's like okay fine, like so he just like comes out like kid like doesn't talk, he just starts standing the desk, and that's like how their relationship like starts. It's just the kid shows up, helps him fix up this desk. He's sort of like teaching the kid useful skills useful skills, like how to fix desks. Um and that's just they really barely talk at all. The kid's like skinny, um looks very poor, so like doesn't really have like Cal sort of like sees this as like taking this kid in under his wing, sort of thing. He feeds them sometimes, like sandwiches and stuff, so it's like well, at least he's getting a meal. He's also coming around at times of day that he should be in school. So he's realizing that he's skipping school, not going to school, that sort of thing. Um, so there's this pub called Shawnog's, which is where all the old cats go um to drink their beers. And it's actually really cool because Cal drinks Smitics. Um so we went to McNelly's yesterday and I brought I brought the book to read. Um, and I was like ordering Smitics, so it was really because it was. Yeah, I was like, I gotta drink some Smitx. I haven't known Snakes in a while. Um so yeah, so it goes to Shawnog's orders of Smittix. Um there's a bunch of local farmers they're arguing about a sheep that was killed um on it was like literally just like one sheep, throat torn out. It was like mutilated in a way that they're like basically saying it wasn't an animal.

SPEAKER_02 34:22

A person had to. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 34:24

Or honestly, they thought it was aliens.

SPEAKER_02 34:27

Or aliens.

SPEAKER_03 34:28

Also a good which they're like fall back. What why would aliens just mutilate a sheep? Like this doesn't make any sense. But it's just they're just like a bunch of old cats that are just you know, a bunch of sheep farmers. That's fine. They're they're just you know, they've got the one crazy one that is sure it's aliens.

SPEAKER_02 34:44

I would have esmetics with them.

SPEAKER_03 34:45

Yeah, yeah, they're pretty cool cats. Um, they like do the whole, like they sing like for entertainment. Like it's just like everyone's singing, everyone's great. Um, there is an incident where there's like this youth local boy named Donnie McGrath. Uh they're playing some like card game that I don't remember what it was called, but it's like some big card game, money exchanges, okay, hands. Uh, and apparently this Donnie McGrath has been cheating. Um his neighbor Mart is there accusing him of cheating. Um the kid ends up getting thrown out. He's like kind of like threatening and cussing at Mart and Cal, who's like cop is like clocking all this, and he's like doesn't really note Yeah, he like doesn't he's like kind of worried because Mart's like an old dude. He's like kind of like worried that Donnie's gonna come after him, like he knows where you live, and Mart's just like, oh yeah, you know, who cares about that kid? Like everyone knows each other, everyone's grown up with each other their entire lives, so it's not a big thing, yeah. He's like, I'm not worried about that kid. Um, but you know, Cal, of course, is um, because he just like can't turn the cop off. Uh so um Trey returns again to help with the desk um and kind of lets it known to Cal that he knows that he was a detective. So Cal is like trying to keep a low profile in this town because he knows it's a small town and people talk. Um so he's not really like, you know, just like letting everyone know he's a detective. So he's kind of just like, how did this kid find out? Um, but the kid reveals to him that um his 19-year-old brother Brendan has gone missing.

SPEAKER_02 36:32

That's what he's been sucking.

SPEAKER_03 36:34

Yeah. And um, he wants Cal to help find Brendan. So there's like a theme in this book about so basically the th the I'm trying to like say this in a good way because it it is a big theme of the book. Um but mostly like a lot of young men in so it's it's like a a small town, but the community is kind of dying.

SPEAKER_01 36:59

Got it.

SPEAKER_03 37:00

It's slowly becoming a ghost kind of thing. Yeah, so it's like the the whole thing is like I don't remember what the reasoning was of why the women are okay. Uh, but it was like the young men like just basically don't see a future for themselves a lot of the time. So like if they can't get out, so a lot of people just leave.

SPEAKER_04 37:22

Right.

SPEAKER_03 37:22

Um, but if they can't get out, like they can't afford to get out or whatever, like a lot of them are like killing themselves.

SPEAKER_02 37:30

I wonder if Oklahoma's small towns that were like once big boom. It could, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 37:35

Like, and it's it's very much like it's just like they don't see a future, they don't want to maybe do what their parents did. I I don't really know there's no other option, yeah. So like a lot of so it is kind of like this like epidemic of like young kids being found like hanging and stuff. Um and so there is like or or just like leaving, like they just are like trying to get out, but trying to leave. Um so basically Cal is like I mean your brother probably just left. Um and Cal has heard about this kid. So this kid's name is Trey. Um Trey Reddy. And the Reddy family is sort of the like black sheet family of the town. Like the dad is this like too good for everybody. Um always thought he was the smartest one, trying to make, you know, trying to it kind of sounded like um keeping up with the trying to like trying to like like get money out of people. Like he was just always like scheming, that sort of thing. He ends up like having a bunch of kids and then like running out on the wife. And so she's just left with like I think she has like five kids or something. Yeah, they're like he's like one of five. Um because of the dad, no one likes his family in town. Um, and so the kid knows that like no one cares that his brother's missing. And he also knows his brother, like, is a good kid and like wouldn't run out like his dad did. And so he's like, My brother didn't leave, he wouldn't have left without telling me. Like, someone he thinks someone kidnapped him.

SPEAKER_01 39:16

Like they were close enough, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 39:18

Like he's like, he wouldn't have left without telling me, like, there's no way. Um, so like I need you to find him. And so one thing that Cal used to do when he was a cop was he uh he would just like I think it was kind of like the you're trying to find I don't I don't know, it was like you're trying to find suspects, like you're trying to track them down. It wasn't like he was like a missing persons type person, but he was like a profiler, yeah. Like he's trying to track, like, oh, some guy escaped out of prison. Like Cal goes and helps try to find where he is. So you go interview all their associates, you go try to find, you know, where they would go if they had anywhere to go.

SPEAKER_02 39:53

He's an investigator.

SPEAKER_03 39:54

Yeah, yeah, he was an investigator. Uh he was more than just a beat cop. Right. Um, and so uh basically um he's trying to like convince and he knows enough to be like, you know, the likelihood of this getting a kid getting kidnapped versus like him either like offing himself or leaving. He's like, you know, your your brother probably left, and the kid's just like the kid is very uh temperamental and gets like really upset at this because he's like I think had been like putting all of his like eggs in this like this guy's gonna help me.

SPEAKER_02 40:32

Like oh yeah, he was convinced, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 40:34

So he like destroys the desk. He like gets all pissed off, like destroys the desk they've been working on, um, and like runs out. He even like comes back and is like egging his house. Oh no. And he's just like, by that time, Cal actually had kind of decided that he was maybe possibly gonna look into it. Uh he did do like a little bit of asking around. Um, because he's been like, so you have to have like a firearm license in Ireland, and it like takes a long time. And so he'd been trying to get a firearm for mostly hunting. Um, and so he like goes to talk to the cops in town to ask about his license because it had been a couple months and he was just like, you know curious. And he asks about the kid that was missing, and they're basically give him the runaround that this kid's a piece of trash and we don't care, and he probably just left and just like his daddy and blah blah blah blah. So he is sort of getting the like, okay, so if something did happen to this kid, no one would care.

SPEAKER_02 41:29

So like he's gonna look into that.

SPEAKER_03 41:31

Someone could something could have happened to him, and then no one just no one cared. So he is sort of like warming up to the idea of maybe I could start uh looking into it. Um so uh so yeah, I'm gonna stop there. Um That's fair. Yeah, so he basically starts um doing his you know investigation into what happened to Brendan Reddy. And uh I will say, um, great character like characters are great. I love Trey. Um there's a fun twist, and the end is good. It made me cry. Oh no. Uh yeah, so good book. I'm gonna read the next one somehow.

SPEAKER_02 42:15

I'll have to look up, I'll have to figure out a book.

SPEAKER_03 42:18

She's great. She's like, I she's not trashy murder, she's like solid, legitimate, legitimate, good story, good writing, murder mysteries.

SPEAKER_02 42:27

Because there are a lot out there that are.

SPEAKER_03 42:29

Yeah, yeah. Like definitely, like, if you want something that's good and not something that's just like mass-written. Yeah, just like so many, like they just write one a year or whatever, like like she does uh like she's when her books come out. There's a couple that I haven't read because they're like outside of the series of hers. Um, but like when any of her like I think even HBO did like a Dublin Murder Squad series. I I think I got canceled.

SPEAKER_04 42:56

For Matt.

SPEAKER_03 42:56

Um I did start watching it, but it seemed like they were just kind of trying to smash all of them into one. Oh. So it was a little like because it was very much the likeness and um in the woods together. And it was kind of bugging me a little bit, so I didn't actually finish it, and then of course they cancelled it. So um, but she's great, especially if you love a good, cozy Ireland.

SPEAKER_02 43:20

So that's funny that you read an I literally this morning told my husband, I was like, you know, I haven't been listening to my audiobook because like my car fought with me about it. So I've been listening to podcasts, and all of the commercials are like the big like chain grocery store in Ireland is like if you buy this, then you can get three basketball hunky dory. Oh hunky dore. And I was like potatoes, those are my favorite potatoes. They're so good. But so like then I get I get all commercials for Ireland. I'm like, I'm running, like, why are you doing this to me? And then you come in today with an Ireland book, and I'm like, ah it's

SPEAKER_03 44:00

It's great. It's very like there's certain things that she's like she she paints a really pretty Ireland picture too. Like you just want to go there and be and live there. And I mean, maybe maybe not a real small town because it sounds like uh things are a little bit things are a little shadier than they seem. But yeah, it's a good book. It sounds like a good book. I'm gonna read the next one.

SPEAKER_00 44:21

Good. So yeah, so this week we did I did The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones.

SPEAKER_03 44:28

And I did The Searcher by Tana French. Very good. Thank you for listening. Yeah, thanks for listening, guys. Uh we will see you in two weeks.

SPEAKER_02 44:36

We'll see you then. Bye. Bye.