Non ancora pubblicato in Italia. A seguito di un assalto che lo lascia con perdite di memoria e ferite fisiche, Toby si ritira nella casa di famiglia per guarire. Ma il suo periodo rilassante si trasforma in un incubo quando un corpo viene trovato in un antico olmo in giardino.
This is my first novel by Tana French, but it won’t certainly be my last. It is slow-paced, but with a lot of suspense that will keep you glued to the page.
There are two mysteries in this novel. The first and smaller one is about Toby. A young man, loved by everyone, with a good job, and a nice girlfriend who everyone likes. One night, he is assaulted by burglars in own house and he wakes up in a hospital bed suffering from physical injures and memory loss. Was someone trying to hurt Toby or was it a random act of violence?
To recover from his assault, Toby moves to Ivy House, the family home where his uncle Hugo lives. He spends his time taking care of Hugo, who is dying of cancer, helping with his genealogy job, and with visits from his family, especially his cousins Susanna and Leon. During one of the usual Sunday lunches with the family, a body is discovered in the elm by the garden. Soon the police, and also the media, invade the house. The investigation lead to a few surprises for Toby who starts wondering about things from his past.
I think that to have a good thriller you need an unreliable protagonist and that’s what Toby is. He doesn’t remember things from his past (because of the assault and the memory loss), so he tries to figure out the truth through the tales of his friends, but, above all, through the stories of Susanna and Leon and it’s clear that you can’t trust those two characters so you never know who is telling the truth.
The characters are mostly irritating and not very lovable and the atmosphere is dark and suffocating, all the ingredients for a good story!
