Apple Tree Yard

October 21, 2013
Riveting from the opening scene of geneticist Yvonne Carmichael on the stand being cross-examined—at what readers will eventually discover is her trial at London’s Old Bailey, along with her lover, for murder—this taut British psychological thriller from Doughty (Whatever You Love) boasts just about everything a mystery lover could want, except a truly likable protagonist. Which proves to be a problem in the case of narrator Yvonne, a successful scientist who, at age 52, gambles her marriage, family, career, and future on what starts as furtive sex with a stranger in a secluded chapel beneath the Houses of Parliament, and progresses to something approaching folie à deux. It’s even more of an issue with her paramour, known initially as “X,” a man whose true nature she discovers only after it is too late. Eventually, even Doughty’s cunningly constructed and cannily revealed plot can’t camouflage the emotional void at what should be Apple Tree’s core. Agent: Anthony Harwood, Anthony Harwood Ltd. (U.K.).

October 15, 2013
Sex with an anonymous stranger blows apart a British scientist's carefully ordered life in London resident Doughty's seventh novel (Whatever You Love, 2010, etc.). We know from the beginning that narrator Yvonne Carmichael is on trial, but we don't know for what, and we don't know why she reacts with panic when a barrister begins asking her about a London back alley called Apple Tree Yard. We learn its significance as she unfolds the story of her affair with a man who observes her testifying before a parliamentary committee, strikes up a conversation in the corridor and leads her to a secluded area where they have sex. She doesn't even know his name, yet they continue having sex for months, most recklessly "in Picadilly, in the rush hour, with a thousand people hurrying by a few meters away"--in Apple Tree Yard, that is, just before Yvonne goes to a professional party where she gets drunk and is brutally raped by a colleague, George Craddock. She can't tell the police, since a physical exam would find semen inside her not belonging to her assailant; she can't tell her husband, Guy, "because too much was at stake, our home, our happiness, our children." Yvonne still loves Guy and, until this affair, hadn't quite realized how tired she was of their responsible, respectable union. So she tells her lover, who has hinted he works for MI5, and goes along with him when he promises to "frighten the living daylights out of [George]." This violent encounter sends them both to the dock, where she finally learns her lover's name and the extent of his deceit and betrayal. But Yvonne is no helpless victim; her narration reveals anger and vengefulness, as well as vulnerability and fear. The slightly anticlimactic trial outcome isn't as interesting as the adult ambiguities Doughty unravels in smooth, sinuous prose, leading to two shocking yet credible final revelations. Brooding, emotionally complex and powerful.

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November 1, 2013

Doughty's second novel (after Whatever You Love) is a dark exploration of what happens when a woman's desire has disastrous consequences. In her 50s, Yvonne Carmichael is an expert in genetics, called upon to testify before Parliamentary committees. Her home life is staid; a longtime marriage to another scientist is companionable rather than sexual. When an exciting stranger strikes up a conversation, the attraction is immediate and visceral. He leads her to the Crypt Chapel and seduces her without even telling her his name. The novel opens in a London courtroom; Yvonne is being questioned about her role in the death of a male colleague. Her lover stands accused as the murderer. Part courtroom drama, part psychological study, this thriller is at times hard to stomach because the characters seem selfish, narcissistic, and not particularly likable. It is also milder than E.L. James's Fifty Shades of Grey in terms of eroticism and has violence that is more off-the-page than Stieg Larsson's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. VERDICT This is a thinking person's Gone Girl, with a British flavor, about the stories we tell ourselves and the stories we tell about ourselves. As Yvonne admits, "the trouble with stories is they are addictive." So is this one. [See Prepub Alert, 7/8/13.]--Christine Perkins, Whatcom County Lib. Syst., Bellingham WA

Copyright 2013 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 1, 2013
Wrong place, wrong time, wrong man. For respected scientist Yvonne Carmichael, her split-second and totally uncharacteristic decision to engage in a harmless bit of flirtation with a charismatic stranger is one that will ultimately have fatal repercussions. Self-described as a bit of a middle-aged frump mired in a stolid and sexless marriage, Yvonne leaps at the chance for risky romance with a man who exudes an air of danger and mystery. Is he a spy for MI5 or a high-powered politician? The sex-crazed Mr. X plays his cards close to the vest, but when Yvonne is savagely raped by a sadistic colleague, he is the only one she can turn to when her attacker continues to stalk her. When their plan for revenge results in murder, Yvonne and her lover find themselves at cross purposes at their tabloid-fodder trial in the venerable Old Bailey courtroom. Spellbinding, shocking, seductive, and wickedly intense, the latest literary work from top British author and columnist Doughty (Whatever You Love, 2012) is a knockout novel with thriller undertones.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)