Stand alone by Tana French and not the police procedural that we are used to from her books. This novel focuses on Toby, a man who admits he is a lucky guy, and his sad demise, coming up against bad luck and abuse which he has never had to face before. Slow start but beautiful writing and a great character study.

One horrific night changes Toby’s life for ever. He retreats to the place he feels safest – Ivy House, to look after his terminally ill uncle. But then a skull is discovered in the garden and Toby has to question everything he believes to be true. Are his cousins hiding something from him? Is his uncle a killer? And, with his own memory damaged, how can Toby be sure he’s not the murderer? While The Wych Elm is a slow-burner, it’s well worth sticking with.

Family drama and whodunnit, The Wych Elm is an interesting read but other than Hugo, the characters aren't terribly likeable or relatable. For some reason I read it all in the voice of Jamie Dornan.

This was one of the worst paced books I’ve ever read! I have never read any of her other novels (I know she has many) but I was very let down with this one.
The story and descriptions dragged on and went off on so many tangents. I reached about 20% in and nothing had happened except a burglary and a backstory about an artist.

The central character of this Dublin set contemporary psychological thriller is Ivy House, a rambling family home with a huge garden on the outskirts of Dublin. Although Hugo lives there alone now it is still the gathering place for the whole family at least every Sunday for lunch. The middle generation of this family are Toby, Leon and Susanna, once thick-as-thieves childhood cousins but now grown apart as adulthood has brought different lives and priorities. Toby is the lucky one who seems to have it all: arty career, lovely partner, loyal friends, doting parents, fabulous flat and even stereotypical good looks. Then everything changes for Toby as he is the victim of a brutal attack in his own home and his beloved Uncle Hugo is diagnosed with terminal brain cancer. Life in the Ivy House spirals downwards from here until a body is found inside the wych elm tree in the garden. The family are trapped inside the house as the police investigate and everyone is under suspicion. Family secrets come to light and Toby finds that he is not as dependable as he thought he was. I really enjoyed reading this book which worked on many levels: the surface plot concerned the body in the tree - who it was and how it got there. However Tana French successfully wove many other issues around this central plot and the novel is much more than a psychological thriller. The story questions friend and family loyalties, self perceptions and interpretations of the truth. Bullying becomes a dominant theme on both personal and institutional levels. Class, gender and sexuality are explored through the motivations and actions of, and consequences for, the characters. This literary novel worked for me on all these levels and I look forward to reading more from Tana French. Thank you to the publishers for a complimentary ARC of this book via Net galley in return for an honest review.

Golden boy Toby has it all, he is successful at his PR job, has a lovely girlfriend, owns an apartment and a fancy car, has the full support of his family, has some longstanding close friends, and there's the idyllic old family house with a garden and enough rooms where he spent his summers with his cousins, left free to roam by their bachelor uncle Hugo.

Then it all starts to fall apart with a situation at work, a burglary, uncle Hugo's brain tumor, and a skull coming out of a tree.

I still don't know what to think about my first Tana French novel. When I think about what I liked and what I disliked I end up with the same answers.
The skull in the tree starts of the core mystery of the book, but by then we're well into the book. Everything that comes before that, the situation at work and the burglary, does play a part later on and forms an interesting back story, but it also seems a bit too elaborate. I actually enjoyed reading that first part and was almost disappointed that those situations weren't the main attraction.
Then there is the unreliable narrator Toby. I am very bad at guessing plots in detectives and mysteries, since I can always think up twenty scenario's that would work. In this novel French uses the unreliable narrator to keep the options open, you cannot even trust what's inside the main character's mind and memory. It works well to in opening and closing new storylines and scenario's, but at times I felt like the author was not sure where to go with the plot and kept on writing to see where it would end up.

Overall I enjoyed the ride, the setting in the old family home where the family gathers felt cosy and I loved uncle Hugo. At the same time I got the impression that it could have been sharper and more concise without losing content.

Wonderful thriller from one of the best genre writers working today. Totally gripping and equally disturbing - a must read!

This book wasn't for me. I couldn't relate to the characters or get involved in the story. It was well written and lengthy. It has had some very good reviews so mine is obviously a personal opinion.

Toby has a great life, nice job in a gallery, lovely girlfriend, good longstanding friends and a lifetime of happy memories with a close knit family. One night he suffers a brutal attack which sends his life on a different track. He takes time from work and moves in to the old family home, Ivy House, to look after his uncle Hugo who has terminal cancer. During a family lunch Tobys nephew makes a shocking discovery, he finds a skull in the old wych elm in the garden. This leads to a lot of garda activity in the house and a lot of questions are asked. How long is the skull there? How did the person get there? Was there foul play involved? Toby is overwhelmed by it all, the after effects of his attack, the decline of his uncle, the allegations being made by everyone about everyone.
The family are an interesting bunch, all their history is closely intertwined, the cousins spent all their younger summers in Ivy House running wild. Uncle Hugo is a great character, a genealogist who ropes them all in to help. He is a good person to keep secrets too.
My one problem with this book is it really only starts about 25% of the way in. There is a lot of superfluous detail and certain things that happen do not really add to the story.
Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher and author for an ARC in exchange for an honest review

I have really enjoyed the Dublin Murder Squad series by this order so looked forward to this independent book, but I was a little bit disappointed.

It's very well written and a good story, but I just thought it was too long and would have benefitted from stronger editing. Not sure the second twist was a good idea either.

Wasn't sure whether to give this 3 or 4 stars, but I've given it the benefit of the doubt based on her other work.

Yes Toby has made a few mistakes in his work but nothing life changing until he is violently attacked at home. This leaves him with a brain injury.

As he is recovering from this he gets the news that his beloved uncle Hugo is terminally ill and it is suggested that he moves in to the childhood family "mansion" to help out. Then a skull is found in a wych elm tree by his young nephew and niece in the garden and this sets off a new chain of events..

It has been suggested that because the close relationships Toby has with his cousins Susanna and Leon that this has a flavour of Donna Tartt's The Secret History. I didn't make that comparison.

It is a book with a strong theme of identity. Toby's personality is changed due to his brain injury. His family may not notice the differences as much as Toby does himself but they are there. This was one aspect of the book
I found really convincing. Having had a brain haemorrhage myself I know how you can get "sensory" overload in busy places and how easy things can become difficult.although I didn't get the episodes of anger that Toby gets.

In terms of the identity theme there is also Uncle Hugo doing genealogical research. I did wonder if this might tie in plotwise but this wasn't what happened.

I was unsure about the character of the saintly" Melissa- although the author does give her an alcoholic father. I was also unsure about the pacing of the book. The part of the book leading up to the discovery of the skull seemed overlong and then the ending (with an unexpected twist) seemed to arrive. all in a rush.

I ended up with mixed feelings about the book in general but would be interested to hear our customers' opinions.

A mesmerising journey through the twists and tangles of family relationships, this novel explores memory, with a bit of a murder mystery thrown in too.

Our protagonist, Toby, is a high flyer in PR. A bit cocky, one of the lads and seemingly infallible until he is brutally attacked after a night out. Then, with a thread revealed, his whole life unravels and what’s real, imagined or forgotten become harder to distinguish.

I very much enjoyed this novel and discovering the secrets behind an apparently ordinary sir urban family. The idyllic family home and its beautiful garden soon becomes a swamp, both metaphorically and physically, reflecting the disintegration of various lives in the story.

Highly recommended.

Like an Irish Secret History, Toby's easy life has changed in the blink of an eye. A body is found wedged in the tree at the end of the garden but he can no longer remember what happened the summer the boy went missing. His cousins know but their experience of those teenage years is not his, so what really did happen? And who killed the boy? Claustrophobically good.

Tana French's THE WYCH ELM is a grippingly dark and eerie look into the life of Toby, a young man whose life changes after a brutal attack. Struggling to return to his normal life, and frustrated with the slowness of his recovery, Toby goes to The Ivy House to stay with his Uncle Hugo, who is suffering with health problems of his own. The Ivy House has been in the family for years and years - Toby and his cousins, Susanna and Leon, grew up over summers spent at Hugo's; there are memories there stretching from childhood all the way through to young adulthood.

The family's focus, however, is up=ended when a grim discovery is made in the garden one afternoon. From that moment on, everything Toby thought he knew is turned on its head and The Ivy House - and the wych elm in the garden - begins to represent something else altogether.

This is the first of Tana French's books that I've read, and I wish I hadn't waited so long! Her writing is strikingly atmospheric and beautifully detailed without ever being stodgy. I could visualize The Ivy House so clearly in my mind - every brick, worn armchair, chipped mug and rattling windowpane. There's a beautiful gothic touch to it all and, in fact, Tana French's writing reminded me (only in positive ways!) of the breaking-down of style and structure I did many years ago in A-Level English Lit; looking at how authors use representation, symbolism and meaning in narrative to reflect emotions and storylines.

I always feel a book is more honest when the characters aren't 100% likeable - and that's the case with THE WYCH ELM. Almost every character has moments of being pretty unpleasant for one reason or another, and that makes the story all the more realistic and sharp.

The last portion of the book is pretty twisty, pulling several rugs out from under you, one after another. The ending was pleasingly conclusive, which is always a relief (nothing worse than a mystery without a clear finish). I really enjoyed this and will now be searching out the rest of Tana French's books.

The start of this book feels very ambiguous and ambles along without clearly setting the scene. As a not insignificant sized book, this has risks as it isn’t a page turner, more a meandering but very loaded read.
It is a crime thriller that centres on a very unreliable narrator. Toby suffers from a brain injury post a brutal attack at his home. After a slow recovery he ends up supporting his uncle in his secluded home to support and care for him as his health deteriorates due to brain cancer. Whilst there, a body is found in a tree in the grounds. From here a murder investigation is undertaken that is heavily dialogue driven and told entirely from Toby’s perspective, who throughout the story is a victim, a witness and potential murderer.
This is a lengthy story with lots of back story to uncover. Some of the relationships between his cousins are at best weird. There are some dead ends that are traversed and a lot of mixed emotions and trust issues to resolve. Melissa, Toby’s girlfriend and Uncle Hugo are about the only likeable characters. The cancer diagnosis adds a sad and tender dimension to the book.
Overall with the layering and careful discourse there is a huge amount of story packed into this. The approach of the detectives, their style and questioning is thoroughly impressive, as despite the charm they leave a strong, deferred after effect from their subtle yet penetrating questioning. Everything covered in the story has some relevance but it is a heck of a journey getting there. Some may find this journey very worthwhile, others like myself may start to will the book to pick up its pace to keep me engaged. So I guess what I am saying is the writing when broken down is impressive, but it didn’t quite hold me and felt like a trudge. It’s definitely a marathon and not a sprint, with a very slow middle

This book had an intriguing premise and I was very excited to read it. Although it was well written and enjoyable on several levels I had a fundamental problem with the main character; a shallow, smug guy that I couldn’t warm to much as I tried.

I also had an issue with the ending which strained credulity in my opinion.

I have conflicted feelings about this book. On the one hand I felt it was beautifully written, Tana French is clearly an excellent storyteller. On the other I felt the book was much too long, it took far too long to get started and would have benefitted from some serious editing. A hundred pages worth of editing. I would certainly read more books by Tana French.

wanted to read Tana French's novels for a while, and as this o read Tana French's novels for a while, and as this was a stand alone. In all honesty, I found it a little slow although expertly written it just took me a long time to get into. Not put me off the author though I will be reading more of her books.

Really enjoyed this book. I wasn’t sure at first - the early chapters seemed a bit ‘ordinary’ but gradually the story sucked me in and got hold of me, until I couldn’t put it down. It has been described as reminiscent of Donna Tartt’s The Secret History, one of my favourites - and I can see that, but in no way is it lacking in originality. It has an uncomfortable, but compelling, atmosphere which is all its own. Highly recommended.

I made three attempts to read this book and could not get beyond the first chapter because the foul language of the conversations was both not necessary and unacceptable. As both a parent and I teacher I have always made it clear that other people should not be subjected to this type of language and I could not understand why the author felt that it was necessary to subject her readers to this. how could this ever be chosen a set text for study in any institution when it starts with this language?????!!!!!!!!!
However, after reading four star reviews in two national Sunday papers I decided to give it another go and when I got beyond the first chapter I found the novel to be spell binding and was unable to put it down.

One night everything changes for Toby when a brutal attack leaves him damaged and traumatised! Broken and traumtised he returns to live with a relative at his old family home and is making good progress towards a recovery until a skeleton is found in the trunk of a tree at the bottom of the garden.
The story then unfolds into a complicated mix of mystery, murder and family relationships.

It is an intense and difficult read and needs perseverence to reach the end!!!! There must be something that I did not see in this book seeing that several national papers have awarded it 4 star reviews!!!!