I recently listened to the audiobook of Tana French’s The Witch Elm. I have liked French’s Dublin Murder Squad series and was looking forward to this one.

From the Publisher’s Summary:

From the writer who “inspires cultic devotion in readers” (The New Yorker) and has been called “incandescent” by Stephen King, “absolutely mesmerizing” by Gillian Flynn, and “unputdownable” (People), comes a gripping new novel that turns a crime story inside out.

Toby is a happy-go-lucky charmer who’s dodged a scrape at work and is celebrating with friends when the night takes a turn that will change his life – he surprises two burglars who beat him and leave him for dead. Struggling to recover from his injuries, beginning to understand that he might never be the same man again, he takes refuge at his family’s ancestral home to care for his dying uncle Hugo. Then a skull is found in the trunk of an elm tree in the garden – and as detectives close in, Toby is forced to face the possibility that his past may not be what he has always believed.

A spellbinding standalone from one of the best suspense writers working today, The Witch Elm asks what we become, and what we’re capable of, when we no longer know who we are.

I liked the narrator for the most part, which is critical to enjoying any audiobook. And for the most part, I liked the characters in this book- a favorite was Uncle Hugo. I very nearly detested Leon because at times he was portrayed so bitchily.

Overall I liked the plot and the character interactions, but I do have a few problems with the book. First, it’s too long. I don’t mind a long book if it doesn’t drag, but I feel like a good third of this one could have been cut out and it would have been fine. Second, without spoiling, I found the “big plot” as constructed by a teenager to be pretty unrealistic (though entertaining).

The heart came through in the novel, though. I found myself tearing up at a particular point, and that is something in a mystery, at least for me. As far as works from Tana French go, I prefer the Dublin Murder Squad books, but I’ll read another standalone.