#19 [2022/CBR14] Apples Never Fall by Liane Moriarty

At this point, I've read a lot of books by Liane Moriarty. I've liked some better than others, but I've found them all interesting. So, it wasn't difficult to pick up Apples Never Fall (2021) when I saw it was at the library. Although Apples Never Fall wasn't as compulsively readable as some of her books, there were some good characters with some dysfunctional family dynamics.

Stan and Joy Delaney just sold their tennis school, and are figuring out retirement in their empty nest. Their four children: Amy, Logan, Troy, and Brooke were all promising tennis players as children, and they all live close by, struggling with their own lives. With four hypercompetitive children vying for attention from their parents among hundreds of tennis school children along with a father who absented himself from their lives when he got angry, there is some tension in the family.

Then two things happened that brought everything to a head. The first was that a woman named Savannah showed up at Stan and Joy's house one night, barefoot and injured in the cold. She said that her boyfriend had hit her. Although Stan was less trusting, they took Savannah into their home until she could "get back on her feet." Savannah made herself very useful to Joy, cooking fantastic meals and being a very easy houseguest. The kids felt both jealous and wary of Savannah, concerned that she was a stranger, but unable to complain that she was making their mother's life easier. Eventually things with Savannah came to a head, and she left.

But months later, Joy Delaney disappears. She leaves her children a nonsensical text that mentions going "off-grid," but her phone is found under her bed. And Stan admits he and Joy were arguing the night before. And Stan has fresh scratches on his face. Even though they are worried, the children assume their mother will be back soon, but after a week, they report her as missing. When the police get involved and more damning evidence piles up, they have to face the fact that their father may have killed their mother. 

On the whole I liked this book, even though it follows the general pattern of most of her books. There is some mystery to be solved (Joy's disappearance), and Moriarty carefully and slowly feeds us information about the situation until the reveal at the end. This can be frustrating because the lack of information feels disingenuous at times. Why aren't the kids asking their dad about what happened? Why can't we get his perspective? I did feel that the coincidences in the end were a little farfetched, and I had a hard time buying Savannah as a real person. But in the end it's entertaining, and her characters' motivations usually feel understandable and relatable.