Book aweek: Book25, The Witch Elm"

 I don't know why chose that book to read. Think, it was available to borrow right away and the title sounds nice.

The first chapter got me hooked. Toby is a charming young PR person for an art gallery. He has a good life: a nice job, great family, a very good girl friend... He is a charmer, who knows to get his way around. 

In the beginning, Toby tells us how he almost messed up with his job. By providing solutions to get out of the mess he had co-created, he was able to keep his job. Then, his life took a turn and he got attacked in his own home. The attack caused neurological damage to him. 

Toby moved in with his uncle Hugo while recovering. Hugo is diagnosed with brain cancer and not much time left for him. 

Then the story was moving slow, at a crawling speed. Half way through it, I almost abandoned reading. Then, the skeleton was found by Zach. It became so interesting to find out how the skeleton got inside the hole of the Elm tree. Toby even got confused he might have done the crime. But, the way his cousins tells the story and let him know he didn't do anything wrong. But that didn't  bring any comfort to him. He thinks about uncle Hugo and how Hugo might have known the truth years ago. 

I was wondering the criminal mind of Susannah and how she can get away with everything. 

After Hugo's death, Toby happened to kill the detective. In the end, Toby lost everything of his happy go lucky life. But, still he is lucky: in in several other ways. 

The economic disparity is mentioned in the book  a few times. Toby's friend remembers getting in trouble at school. While Dec got suspended for three days, Toby got detention for a day. Toby does't even remember the incident. When he killed a cop, he got sentenced to recover in a mental hospital. If it was some one with a not so privileged background, the verdict would have been different. Toby thinks about it. 

When Toby is out of hospital, he got a PR job because of his family connections. He still don't have to struggle economically, even though he has trouble with his neurological damages.

 If you can handle the slow pace, it will be a pleasure. It was not a great one for me. This is the first I am reading a Tana French novel.

The Witch Elm by Tana French
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

It is a murder mystery, a thriller. But moves in slow pace.
People keep a lot of secrets. They are not the ones they appear on the surface.


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