WITCH ELM a Tale of Twisted Fate and Murder

The Witch Elm by Irish Author Tana French is a crime novel in which fate and coincidence play twisted roles in the course of fatal events. The story deals with the question of what motivates a person to murder as much as the details of the actual murder itself.

Toby Hennessey is a young man living a normal, content life when two random events suddenly wrench that life into crisis. First, he is the victim of a home break-in and brutal beating that leaves him coping with a serious head injury. Then, while visiting his old family country home, The Ivy House, a human skeleton is found inside a huge elm tree on the property. A police investigation finds the skeleton belongs to a murder victim from years earlier. When the victim is identified, he was a friend who hung around with Toby and his family members at one time.

As the police press continued questions, Toby's damaged memory struggles to recall the past. Is it possible he could have been involved in the murder? Or perhaps his cousins or his uncle? The more Toby tries to answer these awful questions, the worse his mental condition becomes.

The Witch Elm is an engrossing  psychological crime novel that builds slowly to a disturbing revelation. The one quibble with the book is it's overwritten length at five hundred pages. Dialogue scenes go on in talky circles far too long. At a hundred pages shorter, the novel could have been even more unsettling.

Two Cops Join Forces in DARK SACRED NIGHT

Dark Sacred Night by Michael Connelly is the latest police procedural novel in the series that features Detective Harry Bosch. Bosch is retired from the LAPD and now works at the small police department of San Fernando.

This time Bosch is teamed with another Connelly character, LAPD detective Renee Ballard. She works the night shift cases, dubbed the Late Show. Bosch and Ballard cross paths on a cold case involving the murder of a teenage girl by an unknown predator who may still be out there. The two cops agree to pool their efforts to find the killer.

At the same time, Bosch pursues his own murder case against a violent local gang. The case is fraught with danger. First, Bosch loses his key witness to a hit job. Then Bosch himself is kidnapped and set to be killed by the gang.

Meanwhile, Ballard is working her job as on-call night shift detective. She is called out on a house break-in, but little does she know that it may be linked with the cold case she is working with Bosch and bring her face to face with a serial murderer.

Dark Sacred Night is a riveting read that moves back and forth between the two main characters of Harry Bosch and Renee Ballard created by Michael Connelly, one of the best crime authors writing today.