The Wych Elm by Tana French.

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.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher Penguin UK for giving me a copy of this book on the understanding that I provide an honest review.