The Witch Elm

This one seems to be picking up some negative reviews from fans of Tana French's previous work. I haven't read any of that, but I did (mostly) enjoy this one. I had to stick with it, as I was initially put off by the slow pace, and the unlikeability of the main character, who is one of the braying overprivileged Ballsbridge wankers I tried my hardest to avoid when I was living in Dublin. Once you get past that though, it's a gripping read of a crime and its consequences echoing down the years, with the additional enjoyment of an unreliable narrator who knows he's unreliable. His descent from golden boy to...something else is the thematic heart of the book. It's well executed, if easier to admire than to like. Overall, I enjoyed this one. It put me very much in mind of Iain Banks' The Crow Road, a tale of a young man's life against a background of generational skullduggery and murder. I didn't like it as much as that book (but then again, the Crow Road is one of my very favourite novels), but it's still a good involving read.