Why a Booktrail?
2000s: If you want a sex filled romp around London, walking down back alleys and in dark corners all from the Houses of Parliament then this is the book and the trail for you!
Apple Tree Yard
What you need to know before your trail
Yvonne Carmichael has worked hard to achieve the life she always wanted: she has a good job a husband and a happy life. She’s a scientist and works hard at carving a successful career for herself.
But one day she puts everything in jeopardy when she meets a stranger at the Houses of Parliament and starts a passionate affair.
Soon things will spiral so far out of control that being found out for an affair will be the last of her worries. Just who is the man she has started an affair with. Who she flits around London with meeting in secret?
Shows how one decision can affect your entire life and that of the people around you.
Travel Guide
London – Westminster – The corridors of power – you might see them in a different light after this! But it’s a good way of walking around the city and seeing just where two people have had an affair and the places they will go to in order to avoid detection!
The places mentioned are in the Houses of Parliament and other buildings which make the affair all the more exposed – the seriousness of the parliament environment with the frivolity of the affair. However when the affair notches up a rank, the danger is all encompassing.
Apple Tree Yard is a small alley way near to St James’s Square and it makes for a nice walk away from the hustle and bustle of the government buildings.
We don’t know the meaning or significance of Apple Tree Yard – and why it should be the title of the book until later on in the novel– but a keen piece of foreshadowing in the opening courtroom scene sets it up nicely –
“You are familiar aren’t you?’ says Mrs Bonnard in her satin , sinuous voice, ‘with a small back alleyway called Apple Tree Yard.”
The affair starts off as the couple meet up in the Crypt under the Chapel of Westminster –
“You paused briefly, then said, ‘Have you seen the Chapel in the Crypt?’ Your tone was light, conversational. I gave a small shake of the head. ‘ Would you like to?”
Yvonne’s inner turmoil is compounded by the fact that much of the novel is written in Yvonne’s mind so that her sheer panic is clear at every step, giving the whole novel a feeling of subterfuge amidst a black veil of confusion as well as secrecy.
How they both end up in the dock at the Old Bailey is the result of a frenetic and thrilling chase around London dim and dark streets.
Trail Gallery
Booktrailer Review
Susan:
Addictive. Totally and utterly addictive. Yvonne, as she tells us the story, is very dry and exacting as she digs herself deeper and deeper into a situation that causes her entire world to come crashing down. There is a horrific scene of violence at one point which made me put down the book and not pick it up again until much later. But read on, as the situation rages furiously out of control and we start to see exactly why the two lovers have found themselves in the dock of the old Bailey.
It’s the order of everything so out of place with what Yvonne and her lover are doing that are so thrilling to read. This is a real mystery – which is unlocked by coming to know Yvonne, her reasoning and “excuses” for the affair, the lies she tells herself. Seeing and getting to know her lover only through her eyes makes him an enigma and all the more thrilling as we see him as she does, and finds out about him at the same time as we do.
And what about where they were going and who they were going to meet?
What do we assume everyday about people?
And just how dangerous can assuming be?
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Twitter: @DoughtyLouise
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