As the garden is dug up and destroyed, the Hennessey family history and relationships are similarly turned inside out in the search for answers.įans of the Murder Squad novels might miss that sharp evocation of the dynamics between police partners and colleagues, the compelling counterpoint between the case and the detective's own usually falling-apart life. When Hugo brings the family together to discuss the future of the house, his great-nephew makes a gruesome discovery: a skull, hidden in the hollow of the enormous wych elm. The cousins are now in their twenties and Uncle Hugo is dying of brain cancer. They spent their summers at the house together as children, overseen by their benign Uncle Hugo who has lived there forever. The garden belongs to a rambling Victorian pile on the outskirts of Dublin affectionately known as 'The Ivy House' by the narrator and his cousins, Susanna and Leon. The Wych Elm takes the idea of the family 'skeleton in the closet' and makes it shockingly literal: not an actual closet, in this case, but an ancient tree at the bottom of an overgrown garden. Love spoilers? Check out my full list of ten-second spoilers here.In Tana French's novel, a skull is found in the hollow of a wych elm.

The attacker at the beginning of the book was an artist angry about Toby’s gallery show that he had botched. He claims PTSD from his brain injury at the beginning of the book and is sent to a mental hospital instead of to jail. Toby and the detective fight, and Toby kills him. The detective still suspected Toby had something to do with it though, and came to his house to ask Toby about the emails that Toby had been sending to Dominic leading up to his death, pretending to be Susanna and encouraging his attention. He seems to have known about it all along. Hugo took the blame because he was about to die of brain cancer, and the case was closed once he died. He threatened to follow Susanna to college, so she came up with a plan to kill him and asked Leon to help. Susanna and Leon had killed Dominic because he was constantly sexually harassing Susanna and bullying Leon. Book spoilers ahead–if you haven’t yet read The Witch Elm, I suggest you turn back now.

The wych elm tana french