The mystery in this story is about the events surrounding a 69-year-old Sydney woman’s disappearance. Joy and Stan Delaney met as champion tennis players more than 50 years ago and ran a well-regarded tennis academy until their recent retirement. Their long, complicated marriage has been filled with perhaps as much passion for the game of tennis as for each other or their five children. Then Joy disappears February. 14, 2020. The last text she sends to her now-grown children...Amy the bohemian, Logan the passive one, Troy the flash, Brooke who suffers severe migraines, is too garbled by autocorrect to make any sense of...and Stan, the fifth and the strangest child, refuses to believe or accept that there might be a problem, for some odd reason. Days pass and Joy remains missing with no other communication attempts...which is not like her at all. As details begin to come together the police finally become involved. At this point the mystery is becoming clearer when it jumps back several months into the past. Here, we return to the day that a stranger named Savannah turned up one day on the Delaney's doorstep, bleeding...and Joy welcomed her to stay for an extended visit. Who is Savannah? Is she’s an innocent, or is she a scammer, or could she be something else entirely? This all continues to remain unclear. This author is very good at only giving the small details such as the tossed tennis racket or the repeated appearance of apple crumble and the abandoned bike that's found by a passing motorist. The evidence that accumulates around what happened to Joy constantly challenges the reader both take notice to which are minor details and which characters are telling truths or mere half-truths. It became at one point difficult to distinguish between what are red herrings, buried clues, or out-right lies. The ultimate reveal is troubling. I finally interpreted it that the authors main focus was on the mystery of family...what it means to be a parent, or a child, or a sibling in the Delaney family, or in any family, for that matter, more than what actually happened to Joy. The story is funny, sad, astute, occasionally creepy, but absolutely intriguing. ( )

Liane Moriarty has created lovely, complicated, and heartwarming characters in this family drama about Joy and Stan Delaney, parents who run a tennis school behind their home in Sydney, Australia while raising their four talented children. In retirement, Joy and Stan find themselves with too much time on their hands while waiting for one of their independent offspring to provide some grandchildren. When a young girl, a victim of abuse, turns up on their doorstep, Joy is quick to step in as a motherly figure. From this act of kindness, Joy and Stan quickly become victims as their lives are upended, and their past lies are revealed. The tennis theme is used well in this family drama to illustrate the parents' difficult task of setting standards, playing fair while raising a family, and keeping their marriage alive while dealing with life's unpredictable choices. "Apples Never Fall" is a suspenseful murder mystery with an ending that brings it all together. ( )

A very cleverly written, character-based story involving a recently retired mother who goes missing after sending incomprehensible text messages to her four adult children.

The storyline moves between the current investigation, which becomes more and more concerning, and a few months earlier when we learn about events leading up to the disappearance. The author leaves us guessing until the last moment.

I found this compulsive reading and could barely put it down. Highly recommended.

Longer review here: https://suesbookreviews.blogspot.com/2024/04/apples-never-fall-liane-moriarty.ht... ( )

Joy Delaney, many years married, mother of four adult children, and previous owner of a well-know tennis academy, has disappeared. Her children are unsure what to do. Call the police? Wait it out? Meanwhile, her husband Stan does not seem overly concerned. Suspicion mounts, not only on Stan, but on a mysterious woman who spent several months in the Delaney home the previous year. Did Joy disappear of her own free will, or was something more sinister at work?

I would consider this classical Liane Moriarty. There's an alternate past & present time line, a somewhat dysfunctional family, and some mysterious past incident that the reader is gradually clued into as the story progresses. While portions of the story seem unrealistic, the dysfunctional family and character flaws seem jarringly realistic and tend to hit close to home. I tend to go back and forth with my opinions of Moriarty's novels as I'm reading, but I generally like them in the long run and this one falls into that category as well. I've just started watching the series adaptation -- only 2 episodes in, so I can't share my full opinion on it. I'm not sure I like the casting, and so at this point I'd say (as is often the case), the book is better. ( )

The Delany Family, tennis coaches and players meet their match when a mysterious stranger unexpectedly appears at their door. Could she be involved in their mother's disappearance? ( )