I enjoyed this story. It was very well written, and the characters were well developed. Although have read other books by the author I struggled with this book and found it rather too long and slow.

Tana French can certainly write, of that there is no doubt. I have absolutely raved about the Dublin Murder Squad and recommended them to everyone so i was greatly looking forward to this standalone novel. Toby works in a gallery, he is a young man of his times, confident, charming, self sufficient and master of his own story, until one night something happens to change all that.
French painst a wonderful portrait of a family house, rambling and homely, an uncle who kindly watches over young cousins dashing hre and there unsupervised by parents. It is to this world that Toby reverts. I found this early third very bleak and until something else momentous happens i was ready to give up.
It is hard to say too much without plot spoilers but the police are an unusual pres ence in this novel, almost friends at times, we get a sense of the men behind the job, another strength of Tana French''s. the dialogue is sparky, realistic and helps the novel bowl along , but ultimately i have to say I found it all a bit bleak and maybe too close to human nature, that distrust and disappointment in our fellow humans, with little to break the cheerlessness. Maybe it was just bad timing for me, but i didnt love it for those reasons. Sorry.

This is a very well written book with a carefully planned plot. There are plenty of twists and turns to keep the interest of the reader. It reminded me a lot of Donna Tart’s The Secret History. Unfortunately I found it just far too long for me. There was so much detail, so much going back and forth, so much going on in the mind of the narrator, that its speed of progression seemed to be excruciatingly slow. I am sure that all the readers who may be big fans of psychological thrillers will. however, find this much more to their liking. Thank you to Net Galley for the advanced copy of this book.

I enjoy the writing of Tana French and loved the 'Dublin Murder series' so jumped at the opportunity of reading this stand alone.
This is a well written novel but not a page turner. It is a slow boiler that builds up during the first half of book as you get to know the characters. It is not a criticism, just an observation, the book is well worth reading whatever the pace but some may be put off by the long build up.
The main character of this novel Toby suffers a brain injury when he is badly beaten up in his home. While off sick from work, he goes to live with his terminally ill uncle Hugo who still lives in the home that Toby had so many fond teenage memories. Everything is going fine until a human skull is found in an elm tree in the garden. Detectives are called into investigate and it is not long before Toby is made a suspect.
I would like to thank Net Galley and Penguin Books UK for supplying a copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

I remember sitting up all night enthralled by Tana French's debut novel, In the Woods. I've read every novel she's written since and while none have really lived up to her first, they have still all been excellent. I was delighted therefore to receive the ARC of The Wych Elm from NetGalley (thanks to them and the publishers). I struggled with this novel though. It is very slow and while the writing is as good as it ever was, the story just doesn't seem to merit the length of the book. The characters aren't particularly engrossing and their interactions are a bit dull. One of the things I liked so much about In the Woods was the crackling repartee between the two main characters, We could have done with some of that here.

I wouldn't recommend this as an introduction to French's work. Her earlier novels are so much better. Here's hoping she's back on form for her next one.

Having been an ardent follower of this author’s crime fiction in the Dublin Series, I was very excited indeed to hear she was publishing a stand-alone novel. It would be so easy to say this is different to that series but since one of the things I’ve enjoyed most about this author’s books is the fact that each one had a unique feel which sets it apart from most crime fiction series.

This book does however focus perhaps more on the psychological aspects of crime than her previous novels with a house also playing the part of centre stage.

Happy go-lucky Toby has had an easy ride of life and when things have gone wrong he has used his charm or has been rescued by a hefty dose of luck. Life is good until he is attacked by burglars in his flat and is hospitalised. The result is that Toby is broken, both mentally and physically. With his elderly uncle Hugo being in failing health the family decide that as a temporary measure Toby should move in to keep him company. This works well returning Toby to his seemingly idyllic childhood in the Irish ancestral home and his very fond memories of time spent with his two cousins under the less than watchful eye of their bachelor uncle while their parents went off and made merry over the summers of their youth.

Anyway there is Toby coming to terms with a brutal attack, the loss of ‘himself’ and at the same time staring death in the face as the cancer that has taken up residence in his uncle’s body makes the loss of this important man inevitable. Then a skull is found by his young niece and nephew in the hollow of the wych elm in the garden bringing a whole different kind of horror to their door.

This is a long book and one that has an entirely different feel to many that the term psychological sums up. It is slow moving, our chief protagonist Toby is presented as something quite easy to grasp but equal to any mystery concerning bodies stashed in a tree Toby is left to unravel the mysteries of his own past. He is forced to examine his blindness to the injustice that seemingly ravaged around him without his registering it on any level. This is a modern tale in the sense that it concentrates on the social concerns that perhaps only the privileged in life can afford to focus on. I have to admit I did struggle a little because in many ways this book is an attack on the main protagonist with his easy privileged life, son to two professionals, never a worry in his life being knocked because his life wasn’t awful. It isn’t just that he is privileged in the way that he had enough food or warmth or clothes, but his privilege is further emphasised because he wasn’t a minority in terms of his gender or his sexuality. His crime it seems is that he didn’t recognise, as a child, that others got bullied for such things. I have to admit the strident tone adopted around this strand of the story did at times cause me to question the reasoning behind it, thereby pulling me out of what is a complex and interesting story.
This is a book that truly stands outside the norms of crime fiction because it is a book about people and society and the beliefs we tell ourselves and each other. The visible and the invisible both are uncovered by Toby our narrator through his own particular journey in search of the truth.

I’d like to say a belated thank you to the publishers Penguin Books UK who allowed me to read a copy of The Wych Elm ahead of publication of this edition of 21 February 2019, although it is possible to get a copy of the same book named The Witch Elm in the UK already. Confused? Yes, me too!

A compelling read. Although it starts rather slowly, the pace increases as the book takes darker turns. Toby leads a rather charmed life, able to talk his way into or out of most situations, until an issue at work and then a seemingly random attack. While recovering at his uncle's house, a discovery plunges the family into turmoil, with Toby at the centre of the mystery.
Well-crafted story, if a little longer than was needed to tell the tale.

From Good Reads:
I actually picked this up thinking it was something else (got my Tana and Tania's mixed up)
So, this was a first Tana French for me but had heard some good things, so I carried on.
It was ok.
Felt overly long and waited too long for something to happen.
Way too much time reading about how Toby feels - could not stand Toby!
Young, handsome, privileged, good job, fab partner - and a complete arsehole.
I may be evil, but could not work up much sympathy for his predicament.
I appreciate this was not a traditional crime novel and was trying to explore others issues such as family, social attitudes etc - not really for me I'm afraid

I enjoyed this book, but................ I found some of the storyline unbelievable. I found myself getting more and more depressed as the tale unwound and the ending left me bereft. A young mans life went from one extreme to another and left me feeling so very very sad.

I have enjoyed all the Tana French books in the Dublin Murder Squad series and was looking forward to starting the Wych Elm her new standalone novel.
It sounded like it was right up my street.
However I struggled getting through this one. The slow and I mean SLOW pacing, the to my mind boring charachters did not help the fact that nothing really happened until I was over 50% through the mystery.
Nonetheless don`t be deterred from reading this from my opinion, I am sure some fans will undoubtably love it, it just wasn`t for me.
Thanks to Netgalley and Penguin books for the chance to read this as an ARC.

Tana French is an author whose books I can always rely on to be entertaining and well-written, and though The Wych Elm is not part of her well-loved Dublin Murder Squad series, it's just as tense and gripping. Though perhaps quite slow at building the tension for a lot of the story, the strong sense of atmosphere and the unreliability of the main character Toby makes this novel utterly addictive.

The book has drama, tension, some great characters (though not necessarily likeable) and plenty of mystery, which kept me glued to the pages. Instead of a 'whodunnit' or straightforward crime novel, it's really more of an intense character study of Toby, and the family and friends around him - and of course the white, upper class male privilege that gilds almost every part of his life.

Toby is not necessarily very likeable, but he’s very interesting. He seems to represent that ‘popular’, privileged guy who coasts through life with no idea what other people go through - case in point, his own cousins, who have told him about certain important occurances, which he still chooses to ignore with disastorous consequences. I do enjoy reading books with unlikable characters; that conflicted feeling I get always makes me even more interested in what’s to come. To illustrate Toby as cocky/ a bit of a shit, here are some quotes:

When describing his younger years: “we were in the same class and we we’re all popular and cool or whatever you want to call it” (*eyeroll*)
On telling Susanna about fitting in at school: “I had spent a fair bit of our teenage years explaining to her why she needed to make an actual effort with clothes and hair and whatever, unless she wanted the shit slagged out of her” (I could feel the anger building!)
Susanna explains what Toby told her years ago when she started receiving unwanted artention from men: "you explained to me that it was acutely a good thing that guys were starting to fancy me, it wasn’t something to freak out about, I’d have a lot more fun if I got a boyfriend instead of spending my whole life saving for Tibet”. - because it's of course more important to have a boyfriend and fit into society’s expectations of women rather than save for travelling...
The Wych Elm certainly highlights the differences in growing up between men and women, and that these double standards and unfair judgements last unfortunately long after school days and rocky teenage years. 

It feels like this novel is one of many parts; Toby has some seriously bad luck after a lucky and priveleged start in life which includes getting into serious problems at work due to an error in judgement, then his flat is broken into and he's left fighting for his life, followed by more trouble that I won't give away here... Because of Toby's injuries, we're never sure if everything he's saying is true, or if his mind has become seriously disturbed due to the attack, and this adds an extra layer on unease. However the common vein running through all of this story is the idea of privelege, how other people perceive us and why, the importance of memory in making us who we are, and how a person (like Toby) might feel if suddenly he is the one who is struggling - in more ways than one. Tana French allows the reader to explore this, and throws in various mysteries to keep us guessing as we go along.

I'd recommend reading this without knowing too much about it, as that just adds to the intrigue. The writing is brilliant (as always with Tana French’s novels) and doesn’t rely on cheap thrills or a particularly fast pace; the plot moves along pretty slowly at points, but stick with it as I found it to be a great read!

[Rating: 4/5]
Many thanks to Viking for providing a copy of this book on which I chose to write an honest and unbiased review.

Toby is recovering from a head injury. He needs to piece together the events leading up to his injury. Whilst he is recuperating at his Uncle Hugo's a gruesome discovery is made. Another fantastic mystery from Tana French.

Tana French’s Dublin Murder Squad series is one of my favourite crime procedural series so I was a little anxious to hear that she was taking a break from that series to write a stand-alone novel. I need not have worried though as this is an excellent book from a writer who is only getting stronger with every offering.

Toby is a twenty something living a seemingly charmed life. Working in a job he loves, with a great girlfriend and busy social life he’s been blessed with the ability to charm his way out of any situation along with the unwavering belief that things will always turn out ok. He’s one of life’s lucky people. That changes dramatically one night when Toby is assaulted in his flat and left with severe head injuries. Struggling to return to normality Toby’s world takes another knock when he learns his beloved uncle, Hugo, has terminal cancer. As the family reconvenes at Toby’s childhood haunt and Hugo’s home, Ivy House, an uneasy peace is shattered by the discovery of a skull in the wych elm in the garden. Toby’s fractured memories make him start to doubt his own self as the police turn the screw and Toby and his cousins begin to turn on each other as they try to get to the truth.

Tana French has already proved herself to be an accomplished and terrific writer but she has really raised the bar here. I’ve seen comparisons to Donna Tartt and I think that’s pretty accurate given the quality of writing displayed here. Toby is the narrator of the story and his head injury puts him in the position of the unreliable narrator. His unfailing arrogance and one sided view of the past is frustrating for those around him but makes for great character development as his rose coloured view of his teenage years slowly falls apart and his seemingly unending pot of luck dries up. His one sided narration made the book more layered for me. There was a character who I thought was being written rather one dimensionally until another character called Toby out on his prejudices and it all fell into place. There’s plenty of police involvement for fans of French’s usual genre and I can’t escape the nagging doubt that this book started off as a Murder Squad investigation until the author realised the potential of telling this story from Toby’s viewpoint. It’s a fantastic book regardless and so brilliantly written as it hurtles towards a genuinely shocking climax. It’s my first book of 2019 and if the rest of the reading year is half as good as this then I’m in for a real treat.

I received a ARC from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for a fair review.

Toby works in an art gallery, but one night a break-in at his apartment leaves him traumatised. He spends recovery time at the Ivy House, caring for his Uncle Hugo, and reliving childhood memories of the house.

A chain of events involving the Wych Elm in the garden of the Ivy House leaves Toby questioning his past, and his understanding of those around him.

Hard to write too much while reviewing a thriller without giving plotlines away, but this was a highly enjoyable read with plenty of twists and turns – would be great to see as a dramatisation. Only minor criticism – for a thriller, it felt like it took a long while to get going with being thrilling.

So unfortunately my loan of this book expired today and I was about 100 pages away from the end (arrrgh) I thought the book was well written and really set me away thinking - I'm sure there will be many more plot twists before the end. Obviously the reason I haven't scored the book higher is because I don't know if the end will be as compelling and worthwhile as the rest of the novel has although I'm almost sure it will.

I would definitely recommend the book and I will be purchasing a copy so I can find out how it all comes together.

Toby has a charmed life. One night he makes the wrong choice and ends up being brutally attacked in his flat. He moves to his an ancestral home with his girlfriend to help his dying uncle. A body is found in the old Wych elm. What follows is a tale of discovery which takes him back to his teenage years. How will it all unfold and is his memory playing tricks on him. It is a lovely book but in places it feels too descriptive even when things start to unravel there feels their is to much detail. This for me slightly takes away from the story.

Reading this book felt like crossing the Atlantic Ocean in a small boat - an adventurous journey with breezy waves of excitement and long stretches that felt like nothing was happening while you always maintain a sense that some potentially thrilling danger might be lurking right under your feet.

A very imaginative and thought-provoking story. This book deserves a thorough read.

Thank you NetGalley for the copy in exchange for my honest review.

This is as unlike French's previous novels as it is exactly like said previous novels. It's a heart rendering story about falling from grace, relying on the unreliable and believing the unbelievable. Toby is most definitely an unlikeable character and an unreliable narrator, which after getting over the initial hurdle at the start (it was boring, to begin with) actually plays a huge role in unravelling the mystery of what happened at Ivy House.

This one seems to be picking up some negative reviews from fans of Tana French's previous work. I haven't read any of that, but I did (mostly) enjoy this one. I had to stick with it, as I was initially put off by the slow pace, and the unlikeability of the main character, who is one of the braying overprivileged Ballsbridge wankers I tried my hardest to avoid when I was living in Dublin. Once you get past that though, it's a gripping read of a crime and its consequences echoing down the years, with the additional enjoyment of an unreliable narrator who knows he's unreliable. His descent from golden boy to...something else is the thematic heart of the book. It's well executed, if easier to admire than to like. Overall, I enjoyed this one. It put me very much in mind of Iain Banks' The Crow Road, a tale of a young man's life against a background of generational skullduggery and murder. I didn't like it as much as that book (but then again, the Crow Road is one of my very favourite novels), but it's still a good involving read.

Toby goes out with his friends for a drunken night, later he gets a nasty bump to his head. Recovering from his injuries he goes to stay with his uncle Hugo, when things turn for the worse.

The Wych Elm is a standalone novel set in Dublin and is told from Toby’s point of view. It is a mystery that is very slowly revealed, why Toby got that nasty bump to his head and the secrets held within The Wych Elm, a tree in his uncle Hugo’s garden.

I found The Wych Elm to be an awful read and dreadfully slow. It drags on and on with very little happening indeed. I developed no empathy for Toby at all. There was no bite to this story and the whole text just padded out the tale giving the impression you were stuck in a huge balloon of cotton wool. There was nothing entertaining about The Wych Elm and I took nothing away from this book.

Toby’s cousin Susanna did brighten up this story a little but even her contribution was painfully slow and was like trying to get blood out of a stone. The writing quality of this book was POOR, nothing was fresh or engaging, it was the same as when you hear a knock on your front door and encounter a God Botherer who you let speak for 60 seconds before you tell them to go away. The only part I thought Tana handled well was the death in hospital of a family member and their funeral. That part was spot on and brought back memories of my own mother’s death.

I have read ALL six of Tana French’s Dublin Murder Squad series, giving each book the top score of 5 stars, except The Secret Place #5 which I was very disappointed with and gave 2 stars. If I had not enjoyed Tana’s other books, I would have given up The Wych Elm after 30 minutes of reading, snapped off a quick review stating Did Not Finish and explaining why. I have never started a book without finishing it before but The Wych Elm would have been my very first Did Not Finish - however, I thought I should take one for the team.

Sadly I found The Wych Elm such a BAD read, I can only give this book the bare minimum score of 1 star. This for me is clearly a book to AVOID which is a shame as I really enjoyed five of her other books.