Library's review
Tana French steps away from her acclaimed Dublin Murder Squad series with a stand-alone literary mystery that is less a conventional whodunit than an extended riff on the vagaries of memory and the mutability of character and personality.
Toby is a 20-something social media manager for a Dublin art
Toby comes across as a classic unreliable narrator — but is he really? Is he hiding things from the reader, or are things hidden from both the reader and himself by his own mind? If you don't remember something, did it really happen? And who do you believe when you're presented with alternate versions of events that you were involved in but cannot remember for yourself? It's a fascinating puzzle, and French explores all the pieces of it as the answer to the murder mystery is slowly uncovered.
In the end, I found the resolution both satisfying and unsatisfying for a variety of reasons that I won't spoil here, but I haven't been able to stop thinking about it, which seems like a pretty good effect for a book to deliver.
Toby is a 20-something social media manager for a Dublin art
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gallery when he suffers a traumatic brain injury during a robbery. Even after his physical injuries have healed, he struggles with anxiety and his lack of memory of the attack. In an attempt to re-focus his attention outward, he and his girlfriend Melissa move into Ivy House as companions to his favorite uncle, Hugo, who has been diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor. When a dead man is discovered on the property, the family has to cope with police intrusion and the veil of suspicion that falls on all of them.Toby comes across as a classic unreliable narrator — but is he really? Is he hiding things from the reader, or are things hidden from both the reader and himself by his own mind? If you don't remember something, did it really happen? And who do you believe when you're presented with alternate versions of events that you were involved in but cannot remember for yourself? It's a fascinating puzzle, and French explores all the pieces of it as the answer to the murder mystery is slowly uncovered.
In the end, I found the resolution both satisfying and unsatisfying for a variety of reasons that I won't spoil here, but I haven't been able to stop thinking about it, which seems like a pretty good effect for a book to deliver.
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Description
Toby is a happy-go-lucky charmer who 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, 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. As detectives close in, Toby is forced to face the possibility that his past may not be what he has always believed.
Awards
Irish Book Award (Nominee — Crime Fiction — 2019)
NPR: Books We Love (2018)
Boston Globe Best Book (2018)
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
2018
Local notes
review posted at An American Bluestocking