THE WITCH ELM

by Tana French

With her book The Witch Elm, I have officially become a Tana French fan. Mysteries and murder mysteries aren’t usually my go-to genres for reading pleasure.  But with major personal upheavals in my life in the past several weeks, The Witch Elm really grabbed—and kept—my attention from beginning to end.

French introduces her protagonist, Toby, as someone who has always considered himself a lucky person. An only child of doting parents, he’s good-looking and proficient at sports. He coasted through school and university and currently works in a small art gallery. He’s got great buddies he often meets for drinks at a pub and a devoted girlfriend, Melissa.  But his idyllic life gets smashed one night when he encounters two men in his apartment who beat him severely. As he struggles to recover, Toby moves into an old family homestead with his much-loved Uncle Hugo.

French develops several interwoven plotlines. Who were the men who beat up Toby?  Was it random, or was he targeted? Toby has a hard time remembering the events of that night and is petrified when being interviewed by the two police detectives assigned to the case. While he recuperates at his uncle’s house, his two cousins Leon and Susanna, visit often.  It is during one of those visits, when Susanna’s young children discover a human skeleton in the trunk of an old witch elm.  A second police investigation ensues, with two sets of detectives now insinuating to Toby that somehow the two crimes are related.  

French deftly unveils countless back stories from Toby’s, his cousins’ and his Uncle Hugo’s past lives, each of which causes the reader to wonder at their involvement in the crimes.  French’s writing kept me reading late into the night.  I didn’t figure out who committed the crimes until the very end of the book.  Believe me, you really should add this book to your summer reading list!  (Liz)