Melissa is also clearly bothered by something, although Toby feels unable to ask her about it.Īfter over a week without the presence of any detectives, Detective Martin, one of the detectives who handled Toby’s attack, arrives at Ivy House. Another Sunday lunch occurs as usual, and Hugo, Toby, and Melissa maintain their routine, although Hugo’s health begins to decline more noticeably. Toby expects the detectives to return, but they do not. Leon is clearly agitated about the possibility of being accused of Dominic’s murder, but Susanna calms him down. During their conversation with Toby, Leon and Susanna discuss the possible police theories about Dominic’s death. The chapter opens with the arrival of Leon and Susanna at Ivy House. 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. Toby's valiant efforts to resist them were the one time I felt any sympathy for him at all. The 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.
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. 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. The narrator, Toby, is a cocky self-centered jerk at the beginning and a self-pitying self-centered jerk at the end. I finally managed to finish this endless and endlessly boring novel (albeit read brilliantly the whole way through by Paul Nugent).
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