A holiday read recommendation and it turned out to be fit for purpose, even though I ended up finishing it back home. It opens in a court room and sets up as a mystery/thriller while also exploring the psychological and social elements leading to the central crime, as doled out piece by piece by the narrator, 52 year old geneticist Yvonne Carmichael. I read it quickly and enjoyed it - but I don't think I'm looking for the things in literature that this genre offers, as well put together as Apple Tree Yard struck me as being - the plot unfolding in a way that played fair yet revealed a series of surprises as it went, the underlying elements of motivation and character fitting together plausibly, but ultimately the whole proving a good diversion and nothing more.
