The Witch Elm

        

Title: The Witch Elm

Author: Tana French

Publisher: Penguin, October 9, 2018

Pages: 526

Genre: Suspense

Toby is a happy-go-lucky charmer who’s dodged a scrape at work and is celebrating with friends when the night takes a turn that will change his life—he surprises two burglars who beat him and leave him for dead. Struggling to recover from his injuries, beginning to understand that he might never be the same man again, he takes refuge at his family’s ancestral home to care for his dying uncle Hugo. Then a skull is found in the trunk of an elm tree in the garden—and as detectives close in, Toby is forced to face the possibility that his past may not be what he has always believed.

A spellbinding standalone from one of the best suspense writers working today, The Witch Elm asks what we become, and what we’re capable of, when we no longer know who we are.

The unreliable narrator is one of the best tools in a suspense writer's toolbox. And Tana French has perfected the art of the unreliable narrator. To the point where the narrator didn't even know he was unreliable for most of this book. Certainly didn't admit it in his narration most of the time. 

Toby is a champagne bubble of a person. Just floating through life, easy peasy, until he experiences an assault that leaves him with brain trauma. Now he's scruffy and quick to anger, scared all the time and barely taking care of himself. Until his uncle gets sick and his cousin asks him to move in to keep an eye on him. Uncle Hugo has recently been diagnosed with brain cancer, and he doesn't have long. Toby is already off from work while he recovers from his own brain injury, so it makes perfect sense for them to look after one another. From the start, this felt like a ploy to keep the two most unreliable characters in an easily controlled environment.

But Toby and his girlfriend move in, and they live their lives in this perfect little bubble again. Until one of Toby's cousin's kids finds a skull in The Witch Elm in the back garden. Now Toby's brain injury is more inconvenient than ever. He's lost a lot of his memory, and a lot of his cunning, and he can't remember if he killed someone and stuffed them down the tree. And if he did, he can't remember why! 

This book takes you on the journey of the investigation with Toby. Through all of the toxic places that a family will go when secrets begin to come to light. And the book did a really good job of keeping me on my toes. You never really know who to trust, or what's real. It was SO well done!

Ratings

Stars: 4/5