Tennis balls and apple falls

Stan and Joy Delaney are at loose ends in Apples Never Fall by Liane Moriarty.  Their four adult children are all out living their own lives, and they've recently sold their tennis school.  That might explain why Joy is delighted to have a stray waif to mother when a disheveled young woman suddenly appears on her doorstep.  The young woman, Savannah, says she has been assaulted by her boyfriend and knocked on the Delaney's door because the house looked nice.  Without a thought, Joy immediately takes Savannah in.  Over the coming days, Savannah returns the favor of having a place to stay by preparing amazing, gourmet meals for the couple. When Joy suddenly goes missing, her children and the police go back in time to investigate events leading up to the disappearance.  All four children have their own problems.  Oldest son Troy has recently been left by his long-term girlfriend because he's too passive.  The other son, Logan, is also separated from his wife but she has recently come back into his life to ask a big favor.  Daughter Amy is something of a free spirit who is currently sharing a house with much younger housemates and flitting from job to job.  Youngest daughter Brooke has her own physiotherapy practice, but her husband has also left and it's been hard for her to attract clients to her new business. All of the children have a complicated relationship with their parents, especially their father.  He coached them all in tennis as well as taking on numerous students over the years.  All of the children eventually gave up the game, and Stan's best student left him for another coach as just as success started building.  Stan and Joy have also had a somewhat tumultuous relationship over the years, with Stan frequently walking out and staying away for frightening periods of time.  Still, he surely couldn't be responsible for Joy's disappearance?  The story goes back and forth between present time and the days surrounding when the mysterious Savannah turned up.  I listened to an audiobook version read by Caroline Lee.   Her narration was very good, if a bit squeaky when she wanted to convey disbelief.  Overall, the story was very good and many clues were dropped throughout which were eventually explained satisfactorily.  The only quibble I have is the tennis angle.  It was way overboard, in my opinion! Tennis, tennis, tennis on every page and coloring every action.  It all got to be a bit much.  If you can overlook that, it was a very enjoyable book.

Disclaimer: I received an audiobook copy of Apples Never Fall from NetGalley in exchange for this review

 

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