Tana French

Toby is a happy-go-lucky charmer who's dodged a scrape at work and is celebrating with friends. 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.

The Witch Elm

Named a New York Times Notable Book of 2018 and a Best Book of 2018 by NPR, The New York Times Book Review, Amazon, The Boston Globe, LitHub, Vulture, Slate, Elle, Vox, and Electric Literature “Tana French’s best and most intricately nuanced novel yet.” —The New York Times An “extraordinary” (Stephen King) and “mesmerizing” (LA Times) new standalone novel from the master of crime and suspense and author of the forthcoming novel The Searcher. From the writer who “inspires cultic devotion in readers” (The New Yorker) and has been called “incandescent” by Stephen King, “absolutely mesmerizing” by Gillian Flynn, and “unputdownable” (People) comes a gripping new novel that turns a crime story inside out. 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.

A Novel

a book that feels like waiting with bated breath for the other shoe to drop 🫣 not terrifying like a thriller movie per se; the scariest part is imagining yourself in a scenario like the mc where you suddenly cannot remember large chunks of your life or even your own characteristics.. anyway love french's story-building and depressing flawed characters as usual!

From the writer whose novels inspired the BBC's Dublin Murders TV series... 'One of the most compulsive psychological mysteries since Donna Tartt's The Secret History' THE TIMES 'An engrossing, unpredictable, beautifully written mystery' SOPHIE HANNAH 'Dark and twisty' SUNDAY TIMES 'Mesmerising' GILLIAN FLYNN 'I'm a big fan of Tana French' IAN RANKIN ________________________________________ WHAT DO WE HIDE INSIDE OURSELVES? One night changes everything for Toby. He's always led a charmed life - until a brutal attack leaves him damaged and traumatised, unsure even of the person he used to be. He seeks refuge at his family's ancestral home, the Ivy House, filled with memories of wild-strawberry summers and teenage parties with his cousins. But not long after Toby's arrival, a discovery is made: a skull, tucked neatly inside the old wych elm in the garden. As detectives begin to close in, Toby is forced to examine everything he thought he knew about his family, his past, and himself. A spellbinding book from a novelist who takes crime writing and turns it inside out, The Wych Elm asks what we become, and what we're capable of, if we no longer know who we are. ________________________________________ 'The Wych Elm should cement French's place in the first rank of great literary novelists 'Observer 'This book confirms Tana French as [crime fiction's] biggest contemporary star' Guardian 'Lyrical, suspenseful, unpredictable' Harlan Coben 'French offers a masterclass in unreliability' Sunday Times 'Terrific - terrifying, amazing, and the prose is incandescent' Stephen King 'Another one of her rich psychological thrillers that will work its way under your skin' Lucy Mangan, Stylist 'To say Tana French is one of the great thriller writers is really too limiting. Rather she's simply this: a truly great writer' Gillian Flynn 'This mystery about family, memory and the cracks in both will haunt you for a long, long time' Erin Kelly

The Sunday Times bestseller

The Wych Elm

Laura Mauler

The writing was terrible. In fact it was so terrible that it made me angry, and the only way I could keep going was by highlighting particularly poorly-written sections on my Kindle. Here are some excerpts:

- "I wasn't really in the state to describe incipient epiphanies to Sean - there was no way I could even have pronounced "incipient epiphanies" - but I did my best. 
- "He even looked farther away, as if he had deliberately receded a few steps down some long passageway, although I was pretty sure that had to do with the booze."
- "For some reason this is the mistake - hardly a mistake, really, what's wrong with having a few pints on a Friday night after a stressful week, what's wrong with wanting the girl you love to think the best of you? - this is the choice to which I return over and over..."
- "He was holding a sheaf of cryptic-looking paper that I assumed was my chart, whatever that meant."
- ..."gossip about her flatmate's latest drama (Megan was a petulant, nitpicky girl who managed a chichi organic-raw-kale-type cafe and couldn't work out why everyone she met turned out to be an arsehole; only Melisa could have lived with her for any length of time):" ...

The final one that broke me involved a long and detailed aside about brochures. Here's the thing about asides: they take you out of the flow of the story, that is to say to the side of it, and there had better be a good fucking reason why an author is doing this to a reader. The payoff must be more than an extra dose of detail, and in every aside that the author makes in this book all we get is more pointless detail. 

It is all tell, no show in this book, and that is an unpardonable sin. HARD PASS.

Toby considers himself lucky: a good job, great friends, and a wonderful girlfriend. Until the night he is nearly killed, interrupting a robbery in his flat. And then, when a body turns up in his family's home.

I picked this up for the Irish setting (I adore Irish literature), mystery, and a desire to read a Tana French book. I'm definitely behind the time reading one of her novels.

What I got was much more than a good mystery. French does a beautiful job creating characters, getting inside the head of a person dealing with a brain injury, and creating a wonderfully creepy atmosphere. If 

Cheri McElroy

Toby considers himself lucky: a good job, great friends, and a wonderful girlfriend. Until the night he is nearly killed, interrupting a robbery in his flat. And then, when a body turns up in his family's home.

I picked this up for the Irish setting (I adore Irish literature), mystery, and a desire to read a Tana French book. I'm definitely behind the time reading one of her novels.

What I got was much more than a good mystery. French does a beautiful job creating characters, getting inside the head of a person dealing with a brain injury, and creating a wonderfully creepy atmosphere. If 

Named a New York Times Notable Book of 2018, and a Best Book of 2018 by NPR, The New York Times Book Review, Amazon, The Boston Globe, LitHub, Vulture, Slate, Elle, Vox, and Electric Literature. "Tana French's best and most intricately nuanced novel yet." -- The New York Times An "extraordinary" (Stephen King) and "mesmerizing" (LA Times) new standalone novel from the master of crime and suspense. From the writer who "inspires cultic devotion in readers" (The New Yorker) and has been called "incandescent" by Stephen King, "absolutely mesmerizing" by Gillian Flynn, and "unputdownable" (People), comes a gripping new novel that turns a crime story inside out. 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.

Lara Engle

As always, I love the lyrical slow burn of a Tana French book. Her characters are never simplistic, which is definitely true of Toby and the rest of the Hennesy family. They are close and loyal, but far from simple, or perfect. I like how Toby starts out seeming like the golden boy, but little by little, his flaws are laid bare. I've known many guys like him, who don't see the ways life has been made easy for them or realize the damage their thoughtless actions can cause. Their casual cruelty is unintentional but hurtful all the same.

One complaint I've heard about French's books is that readers don't like how unfinished the stories feel. I think French may have gone too far in the other direction here, carrying on until every loose end was tied up. We want a satisfying ending, but this one carried on a little too much for me. 

I must repeat how much I love French's writing. There were several paragraphs I reread immediately after reading them, just to hear the language again in my head. At one point, I was nearly in tears from the heartbreak and tragedy she made me feel. (I'm not a crier, so this is a pretty big deal.)

I thought taking the kernel of a story from the true crime tale about "who put Bella in the wych elm" was clever. This clearly went an entirely different direction, but the inspiration was there. I still wonder what happened to poor "Bella" though.

Lisa Lindquist 

Zoey Mikalatos

Very different from The Dublin Murder Squad novels, but still a suspensful read and well worth the time.

Sarah Hudson

I'm hoping French's other books aren't as slow as The Witch Elm. The blurbs of praise on the back cover were pretty, little lies.

The story lacked tension and was not "terrifying", Mr. King. French kept me somewhat interested because, in the end, I still read the whole book. There were several times while trudging through the middle of the novel that I thought, Sarah, you should really put this down and return it to the library. I need to listen to my gut more.

My issues stem from the main character, Toby, an unreliable protagonist (due to brain damage after he gets pulverized by burglars, and he often drinks or is high on Xanax). The break-in scene is when I truly started to dig into the book. Finally! Action. And then you read some more about – well, not much really – until you finally reach the entire reason for the story 162 pages in: (view spoiler)[Toby's cousin's kids find a skull inside a hollowed out portion of the witch elm tree in the garden of the family home. (hide spoiler)]

Then after finally reading through the next couple hundred pages… the climax, the whole reason for the book, is explained to us by (view spoiler)[Toby's cousins via dialogue. (hide spoiler)] Boring, frustrating, annoying. But I continued to climb up the hill, pushing and pushing through sentence after sentence, noticing there were still some pages left and maybe, MAYBE, it would redeem itself. It didn't. This book was simply not for me. It ended and relief washed over me. I can leave Toby and his world behind like his (view spoiler)[ex-girlfriend did, except without the letters. (hide spoiler)]

Despite all those grievances, I'm going to give her other books a chance. French is an excellent writer. I often found myself swept up in her prose. And I loved the humor – that sort of quirky, dry humor that offends here in America.

Favorite Line:

  "A girl across the street walking fast, black coat swirling around her ankles, head down over the phone that shone blue-white in her hand like a fairy-tale jewel. Delicate dusty fanlights, golden glow in a tiny high window. Dark water under the canal bridge, glitter and rush."

Clara Moore

A delightfully dark read with unpredictable twists and turns. The character flaws and raw emotion add greatly to the mystery. It kept me engaged until the very last page.

Alecsia Dima

În Misterul Ulmului facem cunoștință cu protagonistul nostru, Toby, un băiat alb, fost sportiv, dintr-o familie mare, foarte bine educat, ce toată viața sa s-a considerat un om norocos. Tânăr, frumos, cu o iubită minunată, cu prieteni buni, o slujbă bine plătită, multe privilegii și tot tacâmul. Practic, acel golden retriever boy, dacă ar fi să o dăm pe termeni … Doar că o noapte aparent obișnuită se transformă într-un coșmar de proporții, iar Toby își dă seama că poate norocul lui tocmai s-a terminat. Accidentul își pune amprenta pe Toby atat fizic cât și mental, așadar se refugiază la Ivy House, casa unchiului său. Dar, când găsește un craniu în trunchiul unui ulm din grădină și declanșează o investigație, tânărul descoperă secrete care îi pun trecutul într-o lumină cu totul nouă.

Am terminat Misterul Ulmului cu capul în toate părțile, de parcă tocmai coborâsem dintr-un mountain rousse. Am citit-o mai lent, mi-am luat timp să diger și să analizez informațiile. Primele 150 de pagini sunt în special mai greu de parcurs, dar odată ce lucrurile încep să se complice, m-am simțit prinsă de poveste. Misterul ulmului este un roman mocnit, multe scene fiind relativ liniștite și concentrându-se pe dinamica dintre personaje. Este mai mult un thriller psihologic decât un thriller plin de acțiune, dar tocmai partea psihologică devine nucleul și frumusețea cărții. 

Aveam așteptări puțin mai mari de la plot twist-ul de care vorbește toată lumea, care cred că ar fi putut fi și mai dramatic. Cu toate acestea, Tana French face o treabă genială în a stratifica fiecare personaj în parte și în a-l aduce la viață, iar asta este principalul atuu al cărții. Nu știi cine e victima, cine e suspectul, cine e rau sau bun. Atmosfera a fost una apăsătoare, de parcă piesa lipsă din puzzle era în fața ta, dar nu știai cum s-o potrivești, iar Ivy House devine fundalul perfect pentru tensiunea și ranchiuna care se instalează între Toby și verișorii săi.

Un roman ce se încadrează pe linia subțire dintre mister și suspans, după cum zice King însuși. Un studiu despre noroc, privilegiu și dinamica familiei

Elli

It's hard to say much about what I liked about The Witch Elm without venturing into topics that feel like spoilers. It took about 150 pages to get to the meat of the story, which felt like a long time. If it were another author who I didn't know I might have felt annoyed, but in my experience Tana French knows what she's doing. While I still feel like the first 1/3 dragged a bit, pushing through definitely paid off. The writing is top knotch, French a master of plot and psychologically complex character development. I watched an interview with her where she said that she's less interested in "who did it" than "who the detective is" and the impact of the mystery/story on the person trying to work their way through it and find the truth. I think that's what makes her stories so good. You want to know who did it, but the payoff is deeper and longer lasting because solving the mystery doesn't put the world back in order. The detective is forever changed and solving the case doesn't bring the satisfaction and closure they hoped it would. 

Jill Swan

This was kind of a slow read, which is the same review I've read of it. It's a little over 500 pages and it took me until around page 400 to be invested in it, but I'm glad I stuck through. French's storytelling and world-building are great, I really see these characters and this house. It's a long book with a slow development but it is well done.

Lori Keenom

Toby was always a happy go lucky kind of person. But turns out things may not be just like he remembers them. 

He ends up going to stay with his ailing Uncle Hugo( I love Hugo) after several events in Toby’s life. Hugo has terminal brain cancer and needs someone to look after him. 

While staying with Hugo something happens that test relationships with family and will test Toby’s memory all over again. 

I really enjoyed this one. Tana French is great at writing mystery.

Jan Talkington

Just ok. Some parts drew me in, others were a snooze fest. It didn't help that I solved the mystery early on.

Paige Morgan

When I got this, courtesy of NetGalley, I wondered if I would be disappointed that it wasn’t another Dublin Murder Squad book; and I assumed from the title that this would be a bit of a supernatural ghost story — going further into the territory that French explored in The Secret Place.

I don’t want to spoil the fun by revealing too much, so I’ll say that the title and the tree itself play beautifully into the territory that French explores: the things we see, don’t see, and misinterpret, even when they’re right in front of us. Not that that’s the only theme being explored here: The Witch Elm is likewise about ability and disability, and how they constitute our sense of self, and of others. It is as carefully plotted as fine lace — and though some developments are telegraphed from far off, French’s incisiveness still caught me off guard (to my complete delight).

I’m not at all sorry that this isn’t a DMS book — the shift into standalone territory means that some of the ideas and questions that I have come to think of as classic Tana French are newly illuminated, in ways that feel as fresh as ever. I’m already looking forward to rereading.

Laura

I mean, I’m a Tana French fangirl. With the exception of The Trespasser, I love her Dublin Murder Squad books. But I think this one misses the mark. The characters seem more like half-developed concepts as opposed to the level of characters I’ve come to expect from Tana French, and the victim and murder itself lacked nuance.

Les Reynolds

Fascinating, compelling, and horrifying. Very well-written book, didn't love the subject.

The Witch Elm

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