Apple Tree Yard by Louise Doughty
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
A sophisticated literary thriller. Educated, successful, married – Yvonne Carmichael is suddenly caught up in an affair that leads to a murder. The writing style is sophisticated, which suits the very educated protagonist, and the story pacey and suspenseful. It does start a bit slow but boils to a great narrative as the book moves towards the middle.
The story goes between past and present tense, but is done so masterfully and eloquently I hardly noticed. While the protagonist was maddeningly arrogant and irritating, and I found certain elements of the story a little hard to believe, the writing is eloquent and the plot enjoyable.
The story is ultimately about, as Yvonne herself says, “the stories we tell in order to make sense of ourselves, to ourselves.”
