An intricate character study

The Wych Elm by Tana French (Penguin Random House, $37). Reviewed by Ken Strongman.

The Wych Elm is a work of crime fiction written by an Irish writer who demonstrates on every page that crime fiction can also be literary fiction.

Toby works in Dublin for an art dealer. He is an unthinking, mildly charming, well set up young man who has managed to dance through life with a light step. Whenever things have gone awry, he has always managed to talk his way out and carry on as a blithe spirit. The latest scrape, that as usual he believes he has managed to avert, seems to be under control and he is celebrating with friends. Returning to his flat he surprises two burglars who viciously beat him.

Toby’s life is changed. He has suffered brain damage that has left him weak on one side and slurring his words. He is told he will probably recover in time but that this time might be long.

To convalesce, he goes to live with an uncle in the family’s ancestral house. Hugo, the uncle, has been diagnosed with terminal cancer. Toby, as he very slowly becomes used to his own vulnerabilities, works with and helps Hugo, both having their lives enriched by Melissa, Toby’s girlfriend, whom Toby clearly does not deserve.

Every Sunday, the family arrives for lunch at the house, including Toby’s cousins Leon and Susanna, Leon gay and Susanna with her husband and two young children. One Sunday, the children discover a skull in the wych elm in the garden. The police are called and this is the start of Toby discovering his earlier life with his cousins at the house was not as he has always imagined it.

Although centred around a past crime, The Wych Elm is an intricate character study that is necessary to unravel the crime and to find who was responsible.

It is not easy to place this book in an appropriate context. The writing is superb and somehow unashamedly Irish, even reminiscent of James Joyce. The author’s exploration of the conscious and unconscious complexities of the characters, their psychological defences and their attempts to make sense of their own lives is astute and penetrating. And to cap it all there is a twist in the tail that surprises and makes complete sense.