Apple Tree Yard by Louise Doughty

I am a big fan of psychological thrillers and this book didn’t disappoint. The story opens in a courtroom with the narrator, Yvonne Carmichael, in the dock.  Yvonne is fifty-two years old, an eminent scientist with a good marriage and two grown up children.  Throughout her life she has always done what has been expected of her.  Then, on a visit to the House of Commons to talk at a select committee and she embarks on a seedy affair.  The affair provides a thrilling distraction from her ordinary life.  Soon Yvonne becomes obsessed with her lover.  She doesn’t know much about him and draws her own conclusions to what his profession is.  Things start to unravel rapidly and it is clear from the opening of the story that the outcome is going to have devastating consequences.  I liked the style of writing - it is written in the second person, as though the narrator is talking directly to the reader, which creates a feeling of intimacy.  Sometimes I found myself questioning if Yvonne would act in such a way and then I would turn the page to find some backstory that made things slot into place and her actions more believable.    

The Sea Garden By Deborah Lawrenson

I was lucky to hear Deborah read extracts from The Sea Garden at the Parisot Literary Festival last month.  It was made the more poignant as I finished reading it on Armistice Day.  The Sea Garden is made up of three linked novellas.  The first story is set in the present day and is about Ellie Brooke a young woman recently widowed, who travels to Porquerolles, an island off France’s Azure Coast.  Ellie is a landscape gardener and has been asked by a wealthy, eccentric client to restore a memorial garden at the Domaine de Fayols.  All is not what it seems though and, in contrast to the beautiful island, there are some dark, mysterious happenings at the Domaine de Fayols.  

The second story is set in 1944 at the height of the resistance movement in Provence.  It is the story of Marthe Lincel, a trainee perfume maker, who is blind.  Marthe is a character from Deborah’s previous novel The Lantern.  This story culminates in a resistance night flight operation, which is fraught with tension. 

The third story begins in the Second World War and is about Iris Nightingale a junior intelligence officer.   This is different in that it follows Iris from her war days to the present day when she is in her nineties.  It is in this story that the link between the three women becomes clear.  I enjoyed this story the most because it tied up all the loose ends.  The cover of The Sea Garden is stunning and you can almost smell the lavender fields of Provence thanks to Deborah’s sensuous writing.

The Shore by Sara Taylor

I was lucky to hear Sara read extracts from The Shore, her debut novel, at the Parisot Literary Festival. The book was long-listed for the 2015 Bailey’s Prize.  The Shore is a book of thirteen interwoven short stories, the earliest of which is set in 1876 and the latest in the future, in 2143. The setting is The Shore, a collection of small islands off the coast of Virginia.   It is a dark read, dealing with abusive relationships, so it’s not for the faint-hearted.  There is a strong sense of place seen through the eyes of the different narrators.  The stories ebb and flow just like the sea, which is a huge part of island life.  I was blown away by the vivid descriptions and heart felt emotion, which seem so right for the particular narrator, the time and the place.  My only criticism would be that some of the stories have similar themes and many of the female characters seemed obsessed with motherhood.  The structure of using connected short stories is interesting and the fact that they are not written in chronological order means the reader has to do some work, which I liked.   Different viewpoint styles make the narrators voice distinctive with some stories written in the first person, some in the third person and one in the second person.  There is a family tree at the start of the book and I kept having to refer to this to see how all the different characters were linked, but this wasn’t a problem and I found it added to the overall intrigue and kept me turning the pages.  The first two stories were my favourite.  I could read this book again.  I look forward to reading more from this author.

The Taxidermist's Daughter by Kate Mosse

The Taxidermist’s Daughter is a gothic thriller, set in 1912.  The story is told over a short time frame – just four days.  It is a story inspired by place, the village of Fishbourne in West Sussex with its marshes and wild weather and the reader gets a real sense of foreboding from the descriptions.   The heroine of the story is Connie Gifford, a young woman who, ten years before, had a serious accident resulting in amnesia.  Occasionally she glimpses moments from her past and these episodes always leave her bewildered and exhausted.  Her father was a famous taxidermist, but having turned to drink after Connie’s accident, and forced to sell his beloved museum, he no longer has the skills or the inclination to carry on.  Connie has inherited his gift and, although women aren’t meant to be taxidermists, practices the art successfully.  As the story unravels it becomes clear what happened on the night of Connie’s accident and what the consequences are.  I’ve been lucky to hear Kate Mosse talk about this novel at the Guildford Book Festival last year and at the Parisot Literary Festival last weekend, when she said she set out to write something completely different and had great fun writing it.  It is a bit gruesome in places, but an easy read.   

The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt

Theo Decker is thirteen when his mother is killed in an explosion in a New York museum.  Theo miraculously survives the blast and, whilst he is recovering, unable to find his mother, he comforts a dying man.  The man gives him a signet ring and an address and urges Theo to take a famous work of art, The Goldfinch, a painting that his mother loved and had been admiring before the blast.  Alone in the world he is taken in by the wealthy parents of Andy, a school friend.  He settles down to some normality, but is still struggling to accept his mother’s death.  He goes to the address given to him and meets Hobie, an antiques dealer/restorer.  He gives Hobie the ring, but omits to tell him about the painting.  He starts to visit Hobie more and more and finds it is the only place he feels at peace.  The authorities manage to trace his alcoholic father who takes him to live in Las Vegas.   It is here Theo meets Boris and the binge drinking, drug taking and stealing begins. Over the years, Theo keeps the painting thinking of it as his one link to his mother.  It is the painting that later leads him into the criminal underworld. I found the characters, with the exception of Hobie and Andy, fairly unpleasant, but that was ok as I found Theo interesting.  It is told from Theo’s point of view so the reader feels the emotional turmoil he is going through.  A long read at nearly 800 pages, I found the first half of the book gripping; the second half less so, when I became a little frustrated and found myself skimming sections.  That said I’m looking forward to reading The Secret History by Donna Tartt.    

The Memory Book By Rowan Coleman

The Memory Book is about Claire, a woman in her early forties who is a mother, a daughter and a wife.  Claire has recently been diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s.   Her family relationships are complicated.  She raised her elder daughter, Caitlin, on her own and has just recently married the love of her life, Greg and together they have a three year old daughter Esther.  Her mother Ruth has moved into the family home to help Claire and to look after Esther.  This poses some conflict as Claire is a free spirit and won’t relinquish her independence easily.   As the disease progresses, the reader goes on the journey with Claire as she forgets the names of simple things.  We feel her awkwardness towards Greg as she forgets how much she loves him.  And we feel her terror when she goes out and forgets where she is.  Greg buys her a beautiful journal in which to write her memories and invites other members of the family to do the same.  In this way, we get to hear the backstory of the main characters.   It is a multi-viewpoint novel, but written in the first person so we get to know all the main character’s intimately.  Claire manages to keep her sense of humour throughout the story and this helps to lift the book from the depressing story it could be.  Ultimately it is a book about relationships.  It was an easy read, despite dealing with an emotive subject.    

Life After Life by Kate Atkinson

I have been meaning to read this for ages.  This novel won the Costa Novel Award in 2013.  A story based on ‘what if?’ scenarios.  Ursula Todd is born in February 1910 during a severe snowstorm.   In the first scenario the doctor is delayed by the snow and the baby, Ursula, dies.  In the second version, the baby lives, only to die again and again at different times of her life.   It seemed to me like a succession of short stories about the same life/character with different outcomes.  Because of the book’s unusual structure I thought it would be a dissatisfying read, but all the characters are vividly drawn and the fact that a small event in Ursula’s life can be seen in more detail as we progress through her different lives made it a compelling read.   I was interested to read the author’s notes at the end where she said the idea for the story came from asking herself what would have happened if Hitler had been kidnapped as a baby and, having explored possibilities, her belief that this seemed more of a short story than a novel.   It was a reminder of the horrors of war and how brave people were.   It was one of those books that stayed with me long after I finished reading it.  This is the first book I have read by Kate Atkinson and it won’t be my last.