Let me start off by saying that I am a HUGE Tana French fan. I absolutely adore her <i>Dublin Murder Squad</i> series, so I very much jumped at the chance to read <i> The Witch Elm</i>.

Even though it is a standalone we still get French's engaging prose and uncanny ability to draw the reader into the story, no matter how dark.

Though it was, in my opinion, a bit slow to start, if you stick with it you will be rewarded with a fantastic thriller.

Sometimes taking violent action gives you power and sometimes taking violent action haunts you forever. It depends on what you have personally experienced in your life. Think about it...what would cause you to physically harm another person and not be haunted.

This standalone title by Tana French is her most chilling and disturbing novel yet. Yes, it's a whodunit, but it's also a psychological treatise that asks the reader to think about how well one really knows anyone - even those we deem closest. And how well do we know ourselves? What, in certain circumstances, are we capable of?

I read this in one day. It is mot a comfortable read, but the main character is so engaging I dreaded that something bad would happen to you.

The book had the unexpected hook I expect from Tana French. I never see what is coming.

I've been told more times than I can count that I "should read Tana French" so I decided to jump in to this puzzling, clever story head first. French has produced a story that makes you pay attention and think about who, what, where, and when. At first, I found the pace slow and the story rather uninteresting, but once the setting moves to the big, spooky house, things pick up and get really twisted. I was kept guessing throughout and was surprised at the ending - something that doesn't happen all that much anymore. Recommended for readers who like complicated mysteries.

Tana French's new standalone novel "The Witch Elm" differs in tone and pacing from her wildly popular Dublin Murder Squad series, but will certainly still appeal to readers that have already been hooked by her detailed plots and engaging writing.

I loved Tana French's other books, but this one was not as satisfying to me. I knew the body would be found in the tree, but it seemed to take a really long time before that happened. Then the mystery was wrapped up, but the book kept going.

Toby's humdrum life is about to explode. It starts with a problem at work, and escalates after a break in at his house that leaves him with a serious injury. This is followed by a murder mystery that he becomes involved in and culminates in the exposition of family secrets. Curveballs come from everywhere before the plot twists, and there are many, finally come to a conclusion.

The Mistress of Suspense does it again - great characters, great plot and a page turner from start to finish

Toby has led a charmed life, from his childhood spent at the family home, to his career and love life. He really has it all. One random act of violence later, and his circumstances have changed dramatically. As his life spirals our of his control, Toby agrees to stay with a terminally ill uncle at the Ivy House. While the adults are discussing the future of the familial residence, the children discover a well-hidden secret that threatens to rock the foundations of Toby's existence.

This standalone novel will please fans of French's Dublin Murder Squad and also readers who are new to her work. A first buy for most collections.

I wanted to read The Witch Elm even before I knew what it was about. At first, I assumed it was another Dublin Murder Squad, in which case, fuck yeah. But then the title alone had me wondering if this wasn’t Tana French making a foray into historical fiction. Like, was she going to solve “Who Put Bella in the Wytch Elm”? Because if there’s anyone who should be writing period procedural drama, it should be Tana French. I got so hyped that I was kind of sad to learn that, no, this wasn’t Tana French solving the mystery of “Bella in the Wytch Elm”, in fact, the only thing this novel has in common with the mystery of Bella is that it involves human remains discovered inside a witch elm. That’s it. Nothing else. The action is all in modern day Ireland, not 1940s England. No awesomely detailed 1940s England-during-wartime police procedural drama like Foyle’s War meets True Detective masterminded by Tana French for me. Sigh. That would be so goddamn amazing, though.

The Witch Elm is a standalone book - it’s not a part of the Dublin Murder Squad series. Though the book is in the same general style, it doesn’t center around the police or detectives. Instead of having a member of the Gardaí be our hero, our hero is an average Joe, and the police are viewed entirely from a civilian perspective.

Our protagonist is Toby Hennessey, a happy-go-lucky ultra-privileged upper-class-twit-of-the-year who has always had everything work out great for him. He’s from a rich family, he’s got a great girlfriend, friends, a job in PR, a fancy car...everything’s coming up Toby!

Until he’s brutally beaten by two burglars in his own apartment. The beating leaves Toby far from his normal self - he’s left with a TBI that causes left-side weakness, makes it hard to concentrate or follow instructions and leaves him with gaps in his memory. So far this is the only book I’ve read that actually shows the reality of what happens to a person when they’re given a hard enough blow to the head to render them unconscious. Throughout I was actually kind of worried that Tana French herself, or someone close to her, may have experienced something like this...That or her research skills are next level. Either way, there’s no Tintin-esque tap-on-the-head , perfectly fine ten minutes bullshit here. Toby spends the whole book recovering slowly from his injuries, and even in the end, he doesn’t return 100% to his old self. TBIs don’t just come and go, people.

Anyway - thanks to Ireland’s very liberal sick-leave laws, Toby is able to spend months - months! - off work to recover. While he’s enjoying his life in a nation that doesn’t automatically fire it’s workers for not showing up to work, TBI or no, Toby learns from his cousins that his uncle Hugo is dying of brain cancer. Toby is an only child, and from one of those weird families where the various aunts, uncles and cousins are so close to one another they’re almost like siblings. I’m only vaguely aware of my cousins’ existence, which is fine with me. Uncle Hugo lives in the grandparents’ house, called Ivy House, and, growing up, Toby and his two cousins, also only children, Leon and Susanna, spent their summers living at Ivy House while their parents went off on vacation. Now that Hugo only has a couple of months to live, Toby and his girlfriend, Melissa, move into Ivy House to help him out.

The whole Hennessey clan regularly converges on Ivy House to spend more time with Hugo before he dies. At one such gathering, one of Susanna’s children discovers a skull inside of the witch elm in the garden. The family promptly freaks out. How is there a skull inside the tree in the garden? How did it get there, is it old, is it recent, what…? The police get involved and it’s discovered that the skull belonged to one of Toby, Susanna and Leon’s old classmates, who disappeared one summer ten years ago. At the time, everyone believed he’d committed suicide via cliff dive, so how is his skeleton inside a witch elm in Uncle Hugo’s garden?

I don’t want to go more in-depth than that for plot summary, because mysteries are not the sort of books you want to spoil for other people. I, of course, got inpatient when the mystery wasn’t solved 43 minutes into the book, so I skipped ahead. This might be another reason why I don’t really read mysteries: slow reader + general impatience + short attention span = let’s flip to the back and find out. But if mysteries are your jam, you don’t want this spoiled for you, because it’s awesome. Mostly because Tana French’s writing style is super tense, detailed and atmospheric. But also because she’s an expert at writing from the point of view of characters who are kind of assholes, but aren’t entirely aware of the extent of their assholery. Eventually you start to hate the protagonist a bit, but also, weirdly feel sorry for them, and hope things will work out alright. French’s characters are very flawed and feel very, very real. Toby is a bit of a shitbird, and the whole novel is him coming to the slow realization that he is, indeed, a shitbird, but it’s all done in the best way possible. You feel bad for him, while at the same time recognizing that, yeah, he was a bit of a douche, but he’s doing his best to become someone who is not a douche. Which, uh...yay?

Either way: if you like mysteries, especially Irish mysteries or if you’re fond of Tana French’s books (as I am), then read The Witch Elm. Or at the very least check out the Dublin Murder Squad books, they’re great.

First of all, thank you to NetGalley and Viking for access to the eARC in exchange for an honest review. I feel like I've been waiting for a new Tana French novel FOREVER!

This is a stand-alone, not part of French's Dublin Murder Squad series., but, in my opinion, just as suspenseful and well-plotted. When we meet the principle character, Toby, he is a rather happy-go-lucky young man, of privileged background, out for a night with male friends.. Late that same night, he is awakened to sounds of someone in his apartment. When Toby confronts the intruders, he is badly beaten, suffering a head injury that leaves him with gaps in his memory as well as physical symptoms. When released from the hospital, Toby is unable to feel safe in his apartment and eventually goes, with his supportive girlfriend, to stay with his uncle Hugo, who has been diagnosed with a terminal brain tumor. During a family gathering, a skull is discovered on the property, and during the subsequent investigation, Toby find himself questioning whether he's the person he always thought he was, as well as whether his family members are as he'd always seen them, or different altogether from his assumptions. Highly recommended!

A new book from Tana French is always cause for celebration for me. The Witch Elm isn't a Dublin Murder Squad book, which was slightly disappointing (I love the way a tangential character from a previous book becomes the protagonist in another), but I tried to go in with an open mind. It's hard to summarize the plot without spoiling the whole thing. The story centers on Toby, a man in his late twenties who has just been through a bit of trouble at work and goes out for drinks with friends. He wakes to find his apartment being burgled and is beaten almost to death. As he recovers from his injuries, including a head injury that causes him some memory issues, Toby ends up going to stay at his family home with uncle Hugo, who is dying of brain cancer. While at one of the extended family's big Sunday lunches, a child turns up a human skull in the garden and the investigation begins.

I had a hard time getting into the story at first and only when Toby arrives at the Ivy House did it catch my attention. Toby is obviously a bit of an unreliable narrator because of his brain injury, but so is every other character, from the family members to the detectives. The story twists and turns like French's other work, and I found myself dreading finding out what really happened, especially as Toby's paranoia increases. The narrative shifts bit by bit, depending on whose version of the story we're getting, and while I suspected a few things that turned out to be true, there were lots of little surprises. I'm unsettled and unsatisfied by the ending, but I'm still thinking about it, so I guess that's a success. I read this straight through on a rainy Saturday.

I was so excited to hear Tana French's latest book is finally out, yet also extremely disappointed when I found out it wouldn't be a Dublin Murder Squad novel. I was afraid that there was no way I would like anything else of hers as much. Well, I am so happy to have proven myself wrong! The Witch Elm is probably one of French's best novels to date. It is still a mystery, only we're getting the story from the suspect's point of view. It's actually interesting to see one of her novels written from an alternate point of view and to see her detectives through the eyes of the other characters.

What really makes this book so unique and so original is that the main character is recovering from a severe head injury and he can't trust his memory - he can't even think properly half the time. It's clever that Tana French uses such an unreliable narrator to tell the story, but it's absolutely brilliant that also she made practically every other character around him unreliable too (his cousins can't be trusted, his uncle is dying of a brain tumor, and his girlfriend is a passive sort from a dysfunctional family).

The book is a little long, and the main story (the murder investigation) doesn't really start to develop until about 30% in, but it's definitely worth sticking with it. The story works and the novel is solid. I personally didn't like the way the book ended, but I actually think that made it a little more interesting - it stayed with me a little longer because I felt so unsettled at the end. I'm happy to say that Tana French doesn't disappoint, Dublin Murder Squad or not.

Tana French is pretty hit or miss for me, but this one was definitely a hit! There is a lot more going on here than a simple murder mystery. The narrator suffers a brain injury early in the story that messes with his memory, and one of the other main characters has terminal brain cancer. So, while the mystery itself is good, the story also explores memory and personality and what makes someone who they are. Highly recommend!

I am not sure how much I can say about this one without giving away details that I shouldn't! It is very different from the author's other books, but absolutely engaging. This is the story of Toby, who is a charming and yet not a particularly likeable guy in the beginning. After suffering a break-in at his apartment, he ends up living with his uncle at the family home. During a family event, one of the children--Toby's nephew--discovers a skull in the backyard and a mystery/investigation ensues. This is the kind of story that causes you to question how well you know your family and...how well you know yourself.

I have to say I did not see the ending coming, and I kept guessing (incorrectly) as to what had happen. The author is absolutely amazing at giving you details that make you think one thing and then a final piece falls into place that changes the whole thing. Incredible.

I will say that the beginning takes time to get going, but knowing the author's other works, I knew it would be worth it. And it was!

Fantastic read! French steps out of her usual police mysteries and takes on a family drama. The Hennesey's family home, Ivy House, holds a secret that brings three cousins together, and against each other at the same time. French is able to put you in the dark setting of the house that seems to close in on you the longer you stay in the story.

The Witch Elm continues Tana French's run of spell-binding, heart-stopping, superlative fiction. Toby Hennessy is a young public relations exec for a up and coming art gallery in Dublin, Ireland. He's got it all - handsome, great job, wonderful girlfriend, loyal friends - Toby is one lucky guy. That is until he wakes to the sound of people in his apartment and is beaten almost to death when he tries to confront them. His injuries include a concussion that has lasting effects especially on his memory. There are big gaps in his memories of the night he was attacked as well as holes in all his memories. Shortly into Toby's recovery, his favorite uncle, Hugo, is diagnosed with inoperable brain cancer. Toby and his girlfriend, Melissa, move out to Ivy House, the sprawling family home in the suburbs to help care for his uncle. When his niece and nephew turn up a human skull during a family gathering, Toby, his uncle, and his cousins are forced to relive a past that had seemed idyllic to Toby but now - maybe not so much. How can a person with gaping holes in his memory recall the events of a summer years before? As Toby struggles to make sense of the differences between what he perceives and the vague pictures his memory provides, he finds that life as he knows it may not be the life he lived.

I couldn't put this book down. As usual, Tana French's writing is peppered with local slang and references to popular culture. She's a master at building suspense and spinning a story that's not at all what you'd expect. I predict this will be another bestseller - adult readers of all genres will thoroughly enjoy reading this, and reading it again!

The Witch Elm is Tana French's first standalone novel, although technically each of her previous novels was only tangentially related through the "Dublin Murder Squad," and do not suffer from being read out of order. Because this is her first non-detective novel, I was intrigued to see how it would pan out. Tana French is a masterful crime novelist, so how would she fare writing from the perspective of someone outside of the police? The answer is: refreshingly well.

Tana French does not write unputdownable, edge-of-your-seat suspense novels. She writes carefully crafted tales woven with characters that are so dimensional and so believable that you have to take your time with reading her books in order to fully live in her world and absorb all the details. There are no wild plot twists that drag you in so that you have to know how it will turn out, regardless of whether the rest of the book is any good. The rest of the book is so good that it does not matter who did it in the end. What matters is the characters you've gotten to know along the way and the way their relationships with each other unfold. The one thing Tana French does truly better than anyone else is just that: relationships. Family and friends are all intricate and full of personality. Her characters are all at turns unlikable and sympathetic. You feel you've gotten to know them by the end of the book, and that is what makes it hard to put the book down.

The Witch Elm is, in every way, a Tana French novel. She hasn't lost any of her magic with the absence of the Murder Squad, and I look forward to what she comes out with next.