It is exciting to see French continue to make her way to the top of the crime genre. Of course, the differing accounts become problematic for him when the identity of the skull becomes potentially linked to Toby and his cousins while teenagers a decade ago. He seems to remember his relationships and his past in a wholly different way than his friends and family members do. Hints are dropped that Toby’s memory is less than reliable. When the police show up to investigate, the Hennessy family is snared into the mysterious death and the plot finally starts to race ahead to the delight of the reader. The plotting is slow and padded, and the reader will crave a leaner narrative, but once French hits her stride mid-novel, the mystery and intrigue are quickly ramped up and we never look back. During a family get-together, a skull is found buried within the two-centuries-old witch elm beloved by the Hennessy family.

While convalescing, he is asked by a cousin to stay with his dying Uncle Hugo at their family’s house. Everything goes sideways, though, when Toby stumbles upon fraud at the art gallery and then later that night is brutally assaulted by home invaders. With a cushy job at an art gallery and a too-perfect girlfriend, his life is an enviable one.

In The Witch Elm, 28-year-old Toby Hennessy is leading a life of ease and bliss. In her first standalone novel, Tana French delves into the mysteries of a family and their secrets.

The witch elm