BLURB
The bestselling psychological thriller from Louise Doughty
Shortlisted for the CWA Steel Dagger for Best Thriller and the Specsavers National Book Awards Crime & Thriller of the Year
Yvonne Carmichael has a high-flying career, a beautiful home and a good marriage.
But when she meets a stranger she is drawn into a passionate affair.
Keeping the two halves of her life separate seems easy at first.
But she can't control what happens next.
MY THOUGHTS
I added Apple Tree Yard
to my huge TBR read pile towards the end of last year after hearing rave
reviews. I wasn’t sure when I was going to get round to it but when I saw last
week that an adaptation of the book was starting on the BBC in January, it shot
straight to the top of my list. I wanted to read the book before I sat down to
watch the television show.
I can understand the
hype surrounding this book. Louise Doughty is a seriously talented writer and
there were several points in the book which left me gasping. When the novel begins,
Yvonne Carmichael is already in court, being questioned in the witness box. I
was intrigued by the opening chapter and all sorts of questions started firing
off in my head? What has Yvonne done? Is she a witness or is she a criminal?
After reading the opening chapter, I did find the novel a little bit slow, for
a time, but once Yvonne’s affair really began with a stranger who she meets at
the Houses of Parliament the novel really picked up its pace. Louise Doughty’s
writing is seriously addictive.
I’m not sure that I
ever felt any sympathy for Yvonne. There were times when I grew a bit tired of
being stuck in her head all the time and I would have liked for there to have
been a little more dialogue, particularly between her and her lover. Even when
she was having her affair, there seemed to be a very moody and drawn atmosphere
surrounding her all the time which made her difficult to like as a character.
The final scenes of the
novel really were tense. This is when we go back to the very first scene, where
Yvonne is standing in the witness box. When I first started reading I really
had no idea where this novel was going to go. There were just some times when I
felt my attention wavering a little, which was a shame because most of the
story was really good.
Publisher: Faber & Faber
Publication date: 6th June 2013
Print length: 358 pages
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