First of all -Toby was beat because he was part of some shady stuff at the art gallery where he was working. This piece of information isn't revealed until nearly the end.
Hugo confessed to the killing of Dominic, but really it was Susanna and Leon. Dominic had been sexually harassing Susannah for quite some time. Susanna and Leon planned his murder in a cold and calculating manner.
But here is what shocked me more than anything - after Hugo died, after Susanna and Leon confessed their actions to Toby. Toby murdered the detective investigating the body. Toby claimed that he frightened him, and given his recent attack he was found not guilty by reason of insanity.
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Thank you! I couldn't get through it but was curious about the end.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad I'm not the only one who couldn't get through it.
DeleteI couldn't get through it either, but did want to know how it ended.
DeleteI am listening to this book on tape - it is read just wonderfully by Paul Nugent, but my god it is long-winded and boring. Finally reached the part about finding the skull, so I hope the pace will pick up from here on. The long dull opening chapter with all that dialog by drunken Irish lads in a bar was interminable - and bearable to sit through only because of the nuanced acting voice of Mr Nugent. I can easily understand why the two commenters above "couldn't get through it." I am determined to stick with it to the end, in hopes of learning why the author is so well-regarded.
ReplyDelete... it’s jusr as slow the whole way through, no joke :o
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DeleteI finally managed to finish this endless and endlessly boring novel (albeit read brilliantly the whole way through by Paul Nugent). The narrator, Toby, is a cocky self-centered jerk at the beginning and a self-pitying self-centered jerk at the end. Tana French can write, no doubt about that, but this book is so melodramatic and ultimately so unbelievable, that all her fine writing just weighs it down even more. And the holes in the plot are so evident, and so clearly designed to keep some (false) sense of mystery going, that my exasperation level grew sky-high.
ReplyDeleteThe two elements I did like were: 1) the whole art gallery scene near the beginning, with the privileged Toby and Tiernan dealing with the "lower-class" street artists (French should write a novel about that!); and 2) the way the police were perceived, and even presented as, the enemy, as they needled Toby and tried to make him confess to the murder. Toby's valiant efforts to resist them were the one time I felt any sympathy for him at all. Plus, Uncle Hugo was a good character - and I wouldn't be surprised if he HAD actually done the murder himself, instead of just taking credit for it ...
So far its a good book. i am 40% in. i chose to read spoilers for I will not be able to finish before ebook library loan is over.
ReplyDeleteArgh. I listened to the excellently read audiobook up to the final chapters, and then the library repossessed the digital audiobook. I concur with other comments that this felt drawn out way to long. I got tired of the main character's agonizing (while appreciating French's description of someone with head trauma trying to sort out the past and the present). And I got tired of the wheel-within-a-wheel discoveries that what he thought was true wasn't. I'd pretty much guessed that his initial beating was related to the gallery, and had listened past the point of finding out whodunit and the killing of the police officer. Now I dont really want to listen to or read the final chapters, but I'd kind of like to know what twists there are right at the end, because surely there are going to be some. Can anybody help? I left it at the point where Susanna visits Toby in the psychiatric hospital.
ReplyDeleteWhy did the police dig up the garden and find a skeleton, when the body was in the tree?
ReplyDeleteThey dug up the garden to look for more info. They did end up finding the hand of the body under a shrub
DeleteI agree. I keep feeling that this could have been a much better book. But the endlessly boring meanderings of Toby were painful. And then the ending was ridiculous. One of those books where you just get so annoyed by the story arc and wish an editor would have taken a red pen to it. So much potential but ultimately very disappointing.
ReplyDeleteThank you thank you. First DNFed trying to actually read the book. Then I had opportunity to listen to audiobook on Overdrive through library, so tried again.I made it through 2 hrs and 26 minutes or 11% and DNF again.
ReplyDeleteIts brutal no matter which way you come at it. I hear good things about Tana French's Dublin Murder Squad. Im taking a break from Police Procedural and Crime Thriller/Mysteries for awhile. Burned out and everything started sounding repetitive. If and when I go back I'll still give the series a fair shake. As far as The Witch Elm, sorry, I'm done.