So if you’re familiar with the other Tana French novels, you know that each is narrated by a detective from the Dublin Murder Squad solving one primary case and maybe other connected cases. In general there’s a kind of slight overlap/relay race kind of structure from one novel to the next, where a secondary character from the previous novel picks up for the next novel. For me, the last two novels in this series were relatively weak, or rather, I felt the detective’s role as a detective in them to be the least interesting part. All of her novels are rich in narration and plot, and are a very satisfying narrative experience.
This novel does something that I really liked. Rather than being a novel told from the perspective of the detective, it’s a novel told from the perspective from someone connected to the crime. This is a not a novel point of view, but in juxtaposition to the previous novels it’s satisfying here. Toby is walking home from a night out when he gets home to find himself being robbed, and then subsequently attacked. He’s left with a traumatic brain injury that has left his memory shaky, his identity and personality scrambled, and his life in disarray. He has some form of PTSD from the experience, his memory leading up to the attack as well as much earlier memories are disrupted, and he has the side-effects of concussion/memory loss/CTE like irritability, and other personality shifts.
He decides to become a caretaker for an uncle dying of brain cancer at the old family house where he and his cousins spent much of their childhood. His nephew, playing in the yard, finds a skull ensconced in the titular Witch Elm. This sparks a criminal investigation leading to Toby having to delve into his high school years with a fractured memory.
I felt this shift was strong because it allowed Tana French to finally address the issue with all cop books and movies, which is, how come no one is mentioning how absolutely cruel and sociopathic all cops and criminal investigations are? It’s not a primary part of this novel, but it’s finally addressed — along with my discomfort of having police be protagonists.
Also, this novel continues a trend in recent novels that sometimes works and sometimes doesn’t — putting the more recent conversation of the everyday effects of toxic masculinity and treatment of women into the forefront. It’s successful here because it’s not a vulgar/on the nose look at it. It’s using the expanded vocabulary of cultural awareness to allow people to see it in action.
The novel has two primary weaknesses. The last act drags on a little too long and there’s too many moments “If only I knew then what I knew now” in the narration.
(Photo: https://www.amazon.com/Witch-Elm-Novel-Tana-French/dp/0735224625/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1548940220&sr=8-1&keywords=witch+elm)