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.