Books By Bullets: The Witch Elm | Tana French

Welcome to my first Books By Bullets entry! You can check out my post breaking down the purpose of BBB if you'd like, but long story short, the main goal of BBB is to provide a bulleted summary of the plot and action that occur in the book. I will also include a list of other information such as characters, trigger warnings, setting and representation. The below information is intended for people who have already read the book and need a refresher. The trigger warnings and list of characters may be useful to people who are in the process of reading the book or are thinking of reading the book, but I just want to make sure that you are wary of potential spoilers below.

LIST OF CHARACTERS

• Toby Hennessy: Narrator. Good looking. Thick, smooth hair. Blue eyes. Privileged/entitled male.

• Susanna: Toby's cousin. Red gold hair. Smart.

• Leon: Toby's cousin. Gay. Small. Dark hair. Snarky.

• Declan McGinty: Toby's friend from school. Stocky. Uptight. Wears glasses. Unruly copper hair. Okay-looking but but insecure.

• Melissa: Toby's girlfriend. Small. Blond. Sweet-faced. Freckled.

• Sean: Toby's friend from school. Big guy. Broad face.

• Audrey: Sean's fiancee.

• Richard: Toby's boss. Owner of art gallery.

• Tiernan: Toby's coworker. In charge of exhibitions. Lank hipster.

• Jenna: Declan's ex-girlfriend. Crazy school teacher.

• Toby's mother: Silver blond. Slim. History professor.

• Ed: Toby's father. One of the four brothers.

• Dr. Coogan

• Louisa: Toby's aunt. Susanna's mom. Phil's wife.

• Miriam: Toby's aunt. Oliver's wife. Leon's mom. "Witchy."

• Oliver: Toby's uncle. Miriam's husband. One of the four brothers.

• Phil: Toby's uncle. Louisa's husband. One of the four brothers.

• Megan: Melissa's roommate. Manages raw cafe.

• Gerry Martin: Detective. 50-ish. Above 6 feet tall.

• Colm Bannon: Detective. Younger and skinnier than Gerry. Ginger hair.

• Niall: Melissa's creepy customer.

• Robber #1: 5'11". Around 20 years old.

• Robber #2: Few inches shorter than Robber #1. Stockier. White. Mid 20s.

• Uncle Hugo: Owner of the Ivy House. One of the four brothers. Sick.

• Tom: Susanna's husband. Very average.

• Sallie: Tom and Susanna's daughter. Pale curls. Pale blue eyes.

• Zach: Tom and Susanna's son. Pale curls. Pale blue eyes.

• Charlotte: Toby's childhood friend. First kiss. Blond.

• Carsten: Leon's current boyfriend.

• Jeanette: Another ex girlfriend/fling of Toby's.

• Maddie: Susanna's friend from school.

• Mike Rafferty: Detective. Early 40s. Tall.

• Bernard: Homeless man. 50s. Medium height.

• Detective Kerr: Rafferty's partner. Short. Stocky.

• Dominic Ganly: Rugby player. Broad shoulders. Good looking.

• Nessa: Audrey's friend

• Jason O'Halloran

• Lara: Audrey's friend

The above list includes all characters mentioned in the book. Characters are listed in order of appearance. Bolded characters are important/main characters. The further down, generally the less important they are. If there is no/little description, these can also be assumed to be not very important characters.

SETTING

• Dublin, Ireland

• The Ivy House: Toby's family's house.

TRIGGER WARNINGS

(Spoilers ahead)

• Home invasion, breaking and entering. 3

  • One scene, with continual flashbacks to it. Not too graphic, but it does play an important role in the narrative.

• Robbery, assault and battery. 3

  • One scene, with continual flashbacks to it. Not very graphic, but it does play an important role in the narrative.

• Death. 2

  • Multiple instances of this. Graphicness depends on the situation (explained in other trigger warnings below)

• Terminal illness. 2

  • Plays an important role in the narrative. Not told in a particularly graphic or depressing way.

• Bullying. 1

  • Not graphic in descriptions. Discussed occasionally in the text.

• Suicide. 2

  • Allusions to suicide. Important to narrative of the story. There is an attempt shown, but it's not too graphic.

• Self Harm. 1

  • Allusions to self harm. No graphic accounts retold.

• Rape and sexual assault. 2

  • Close calls. Sexual harassment. Prevalent in a certain section of the book but not continually referenced or discussed throughout.

• Murder. 4

  • Multiple instances of this. Decently graphic in the few scenes that this is described.

• Bludgeoning. 3

  • Graphic in one scene.

• Suffocation. 3

  • Graphic in one scene.

• Transphobia. 1

  • Some problematic descriptions during playful banter

• Homophobia. 2

  • Some problematic descriptions of gay characters. Ties to bullying.

These are rated on a scale of 1 to 5 (1 being not very bad, 5 being very graphic and important to the narrative).

REPRESENTATION

• Neurodivergent male (medical condition from physical trauma)

• Gay male

PLOT

• Chapter 1

  • Toby describes himself as lucky.

  • Toby goes for a night out with friends (Declan and Sean). They have playful banter and tease each other.

    • Declan points out that Toby was in the newspaper recently. The picture showed him chatting with a celebrity at an opening for his gallery.

    • Toby flashes back to starting his job as a PR/marketing manager for an art gallery. He likes it there, but wants to leave for somewhere that pays better. He and his girlfriend, Melissa, want to get their own place together.

    • They talk about vacation plans and where to go for Sean's final vacation as an unmarried man.

  • As Toby is recounting this story about his night out, he says he lost his memory for periods of the night. He mentions piecing it together from what his friends have told him.

  • Toby flashes back to earlier in the week.

    • Tiernan, one of Toby's coworkers, comes up with an idea for the art gallery. They will put together an exhibit of art made by under-served kids.

    • They start gathering art. Toby finds out that the star artist ("Gouger") is secretly Tiernan. Toby goes along with it because the art is good and people are liking it, no matter what is happening behind the curtain.

    • Richard, the owner of the gallery, finds out about "Gouger" a few days prior to Toby's night out with friends. Richard fires Tiernan and puts Toby on leave for a few days until he can figure out what to do with him.

    • Toby is allowed to come back to work a few days later. Richard is mad, but understands and allows him back. Toby goes out to celebrate with friends.

  • Toby tells his friends about his work situation. They get mad at him saying he shouldn't have covered for Tiernan. They mostly make up and continue with their banter.

  • They disband for the night and go their separate ways. Toby walks home and calls his girlfriend on the way.

  • Toby goes to bed and wakes up in the middle of the night to two robbers breaking in.

    • He tries to fight them off, but they jump him. He blacks out periodically. He claws to his apartment hallway and is found by his neighbors.

• Chapter 2

  • Toby is in the hospital recovering. His parents visit him.

  • Toby has some cracked ribs, a brain injury that required surgery. He will need physical therapy for a few years. He has a weakness on his left side. His speech is also affected.

  • Toby flashes in and out of consciousness while at the hospital.

  • Toby gets irritated with his mom babying him and being clingy. His dad also visits. Melissa visits as well.

  • Toby is scared that he'll be like this forever.

  • Toby thinks that Gouger is responsible for the break-in.

  • Detectives come to question him about the burglary.

  • Declan and Sean come to visit him in the hospital. Declan says that he's back together with his ex girlfriend, Jenna. They give Toby some gifts and alcohol.

  • The detectives take him home from the hospital. They ask him if anything special is gone from his apartment.

  • Toby doesn't suspect Gouger anymore, but starts suspecting Tiernan. He says he should have paid more attention to the troubled youths Tiernan would bring in.

  • At home by himself, he struggles with normal things. This negatively affects his mental state.

  • Susanna calls Toby and tells him that Hugo is dying and that Toby should stay with him at Ivy House.

  • Melissa comes to visit Toby and encourages him to visit Hugo. Toby agrees and convinces Melissa to come with him for a bit.

• Chapter 3

  • Melissa and Toby go to the Ivy House. They arrive on a Sunday lunch day when the whole family is there.

  • That night the cousins (Toby, Melissa and Leon) talk outside, drink and smoke. They want the house to stay in the family after Hugo dies. Leon says he will ask his dad what will happen to the house after Hugo dies.

  • Everyone goes home for the night. Melissa and Toby go up to their room and have sex.

• Chapter 4

  • Toby, Hugo and Melissa get into a routine. Hugo makes breakfast. Melissa goes to work. Toby and Hugo do various things like go on walks. During the day they work on Hugo's genealogy work. Melissa comes back and makes dinner. Family and friends occasionally come visit.

  • The cousins find out that the house was left to Hugo. They need to figure out who he will leave it to in his will.

  • Hugo is getting worse. He has a fall.

  • Toby and Hugo talk in the garden one day. Toby mentions preparing a will to Hugo.

  • Hugo gathers the cousins to discuss the will and the Ivy House.

  • Susanna's kids are playing outside and discover a human skull.

• Chapter 5

  • They call the police to the Ivy House. The police come and briefly check it out. They call the detectives to investigate further.

  • The detectives question the kids. Zach says that Hugo sent them off on a treasure hunt. They were searching for treasure and he went to look in the hole in the tree and pulled out the skull. He realized what it was and threw it on the ground. The kids screamed and then the adults came out.

  • The police set up a crime scene around the tree. They need to cut down the tree to see what else is inside it. They will leave an officer there to guard the crime scene overnight.

• Chapter 6

  • They tear down the tree. Now they have to pull up the whole garden. Hugo, Toby and Melissa try to go back to normal as the detectives work.

  • The detectives talk to Toby. They tell him that they found a full skeleton in the garden. Most of the skeleton was in the tree. One of the hands was buried in the garden.

  • The skeleton was determined to be from a white male who was between the ages 16 and 22 at the time of death. He was around 6 feet tall and physically active. The collarbone was broken at some point. There was modern dental work that was done sometime in the past 15 years.

  • The detectives narrow it down for the skeleton to belong to Dominic Ganly, who was one of Toby's classmates from school.

  • Everyone had believed that Dominic had killed himself after school was out.

  • The detectives question Toby about his friendship with Dominic. They ask why he believed that Dominic killed himself and what was going on in Dominic's life at the time.

  • Dominic was a ladies man but was a good guy according to Toby. He didn't do the best in school because he was spoiled and didn't have to try in most other aspects of his life. In the last months of school, Dominic was upset about his Leaving Cert results.

  • Toby says that they were acquaintances. Toby has had memory problems since his accident. He has some memories of Dominic coming over on other occasions other than just parties.

  • Since Toby knew Dominic, the detectives will need to search the house. Toby and Hugo leave for a bit to let them search the house.

  • Toby calls Susanna to tell her about the skeleton and warn her that they'll probably go question her next. He asks her if Dominic was there when they smoked weed for the first time. She said no and that there was no one else there (other than the cousins), but Toby remembers hearing another laugh.

  • Toby and Hugo come back. The detectives finish their search and leave. Toby and Hugo stare at the destroyed garden for a bit.

• Chapter 7

  • The cousins meet at the house. They chat and compare stories of what they were asked by the detectives and what they told them.

  • The detectives don't check in for a while. The media and community interest starts dying down.

  • Detective Martin comes to visit the Ivy House. He returns the candlestick that was used to beat Toby during the break-in. This candlestick was also a gift to Toby from Melissa. He says that they still don't really have any evidence or leads for Toby's break-in incident.

  • Detective Martin has a theory or hunch that Dominic was killed, and the killer then went after Toby. Another variation of this theory is that the robbers thought Toby might have killed Dominic and then went after him ten years later for revenge.

  • Toby updates Melissa. Later that night he finds the candlestick in the trash.

  • Toby starts trying to solve the mystery, starts looking for more information. Toby calls Faye. She tells him that she was questioned too. He tells her about his accident and his memory recall issues. She helps fill in some gaps for him. She says she remembered that Dominic and the cousins had gotten into a fight.

  • Declan and Sean come to visit Toby at the Ivy House. They have drinks with Melissa, Toby and Hugo. Toby is using a new tactic for his investigation where he admits that his memory isn't the best.

  • They talk about Dominic. Declan says that he used to get bullied by him. They verified that he would also harass Leon. Toby never knew about this. It likely isn't because of his recent memory issues. He never knew about this stuff because he was oblivious to it because he wasn't one of the bullies or victims.

  • Toby says he can't remember all of the night he got jumped. Sean and Declan fill in the blanks.

  • After they leave, Melissa and Toby discuss the night. She's upset that Toby asked them so many questions. She doesn't want it to impact his recovery.

  • Toby and Melissa dance. He daydreams about marrying her soon.

• Chapter 8

  • The detectives come visit again. They say they found the gate key in the tree but they can't tell whether it was in Dominic's pocket or if it was thrown in by someone else. They also throw out some other evidence/theories (such as at the point that Dominic got in the tree rigor mortis hadn't set in yet).

  • They also found a piece of rope that they think could have been used as a garrote.

  • They start hard core questioning Toby. They really think he's a suspect.

  • Hugo has a seizure that night. Melissa says that he has been having them for awhile now.

  • Melissa reveals that the detectives visited her during work and asked if Toby was ever violent. She doesn't think Toby killed Dominic, but she says that he shouldn't be digging around. They get into a fight over this.

• Chapter 9

  • Toby asks Melissa to help him with a plan to try and extract more information from Leon and Susanna.

  • Melissa asks about how Toby and Dominic were in high school. They say Toby was mostly the same but was more oblivious back then. Dominic was a jerk.

  • They play a game where they each have to say the worst thing they've ever done.

    • Susanna's story is about her gynecologist. The gynecologist was taking advantage of her while she was pregnant and didn't know any better. She went back a few years later and threatened him. A few days later he dies. She feels guilty for whether she was responsible for his death.

    • Melissa's story is from one night when she was a kid. Her drunk mom broke her leg and was yelling for help, but Melissa ignored her because she thought it would scare her off of drinking.

    • Leon's story is that he broke up with his boyfriend out of nowhere because he was scared that it would inevitably end.

    • Toby told them his story about the art gallery.

  • Leon explains how Toby didn't defend him against Dominic.

  • Melissa pulls Toby away from the conversation. She says her usual lecture about not wanting him to mess up all his progress. She wants to go home to her apartment immediately. She goes to bed and Toby goes back outside.

  • Toby confronts Leon to get him to confess to attacking him in his apartment. He tells him his theory that Leon got people to beat Toby up and rob him, and now he's trying to set him up for Dominic's murder.

  • Susanna says that the night that Dominic sent out the goodbye text (suicide note), she checked on Leon in his room and he was there, but Toby wasn't in his room.

  • Susanna and Leon play a prank on Toby to scare him.

  • The cousins leave. Toby goes upstairs to his room to find that Melissa left. He realizes that the reason why she would always discourage him from prying was so that he wouldn't learn that he had in fact killed Dominic. Everyone believes that he did it, so now he starts to believe that he did it.

• Chapter 10

  • In the morning, Toby tells Hugo that Melissa left.

  • Hugo tells Toby that he figured out the mystery of his genealogy project.

  • Toby takes a shower and hears the detectives come in. He rushes down and finds out they'll be taking Hugo into the station to take a statement. Hugo says he is responsible for Dominic's death.

  • Toby calls Susanna. They decide not to tell anyone.

  • Detectives call Toby and tell him that Hugo collapsed and they will be taking him to the hospital.

  • They find out Hugo has had a brain hemorrhage. He's in a sort of coma now.

  • The doctors say that he's not going to wake up and he's just going to get worse. The family decides to let him go if Hugo has another episode again.

  • Hugo dies.

• Chapter 11

  • They have a funeral for Hugo. Toby briefly talks to Melissa there.

  • The police release Hugo's name to the public as Dominic's murderer. People hate on him and create theories.

  • Toby wants closure to the murder. He maybe thinks maybe it will help get Melissa back. He invites Leon and Susanna over.

  • Susanna tells her story about how Dominic bullied her in school. He tried to get with her, but she was not receptive to it. He then started sexually harassing her, abuse, attempted to rape her. She tried going to the police but they didn't take her seriously. Dominic continued escalating the situation. He stole the garden key during a party so that he could get to her at any time. He was threatening to follow her and find her at college. She decided she had to take things into her own hands. She started really thinking of killing him. She looked up methods to kill him. She convinced Leon to help her. They trained and practiced. She made sure they had a lot of conflicting evidence to confuse detectives if they ever found the body. They included a hoodie cord from Toby, DNA from Sean and one of her friends, something of Hugo's etc.

  • Dominic came to try and rape her one day so she made a plan/agreement with him that she would give him a blow job if he came another day and if he would leave her alone after that. He agrees. He comes back on the day they agreed on. Susanna and Leon kill him with the garrote. Leon sends the text and drops the phone in the place where everyone eventually thought Dominic killed himself.

• Chapter 12

  • Detective Rafferty comes to visit Toby. Rafferty says Hugo was their #1 suspect. He says they never really suspected Toby, but they were using him to get more information on the other people. He says Toby would have been a good person to pin the murder on because of his limp, droopy eye and memory loss. Hugo would have known that the jury would automatically be against Toby, so he gave himself up to protect Toby.

  • Toby hits Rafferty. They get in a huge fight. Toby kills him. He then tries to kill himself with pills.

• Chapter 13

  • Toby apparently left Melissa a voicemail. She then notified Toby's parents who found the detective dead in the backyard. They found Toby in his bed with vomit everywhere.

  • He is accused of killing Rafferty. He is sentenced to 12 years. 10 of those years get suspended, the other 2 years he has to serve in a mental institution. His punishment isn't as harsh because he plays up his brain injury and memory loss.

  • People come to visit him. Melissa is one of the people who visits him. She reveals she has a new boyfriend.

  • The Ivy House was sold to pay for Toby's legal bills.

The above information is not perfect. This is what I deemed to be important during my first read of the book. And I of course may have gotten some things wrong or misinterpreted elements of the story. For example, I know that Louisa was mentioned as being Susanna's mom at some point, but I'm not sure if Miriam is Leon's mom or if Louisa is Leon's mom as well. I assumed Susanna and Leon were cousins, but I suppose they could also be brother and sister. That's just one example of something that may be wrong and I encourage you to tell me if I got anything wrong. Please let me know if you have any proposed edits to the above post and I will try and fix it. Hope you found this helpful!