Liane Moriarty is back with another mystery that is bound to be a hit!

A Summary (No Spoilers)…

We meet the Delaneys: the father, Stan, the mother, Joy, and their four adult children – Amy, Troy, Logan, and Brooke. This is no ordinary family. This is a family of tennis superstars who are bound to stand out in a crowd – while Joy is a petite and cheery woman, Stan and the children are all tall, dark, and beautiful. They are a dysfunctional family, although they’ve kept that hidden very well. When a shocking disappearance rocks the boat, secrets about the family’s past begin to surface. Are the family lying to protect each other? And what’s the story behind the mystery visitor who knocks on Stan and Joy’s door?

This book is funny, slick, chilling, and engrossing in equal parts. A highly recommendable read for anyone who wants the best of the mystery/thriller genre.

On Liane Moriarty

Moriarty is a master of creating real characters. I can clearly picture the characters she is describing because I’ve met a version of them before, in the form of the adorable grandmother who lives across the street or that annoying teacher I had in primary school.

Moriarty has a sharp eye when it comes to creating people and places. Her characters are hyper-realistic, from their appearance, to their mannerisms and vernacular. The settings of her novels are also imbued with a unique spirit that utterly transports readers into its world.

This makes her books so easy and pleasurable to read, as I can imagine the events of the book happening in my town to people I know.

Jo’s Recommendation

For fans of mystery novels. If you’re new to the mystery genre, Apples Never Fall is a great place to start as it is humorous, not too bleak, and you’ll be kept at the edge of your seat with twists and turns, unreliable narrators, and multiple perspectives.

Fans of family sagas and dysfunctional families will also enjoy this one: while the overall tone is light, the darker moments of the book explore the sacrifices, secrets, and love that can bind or destroy a marriage.

If you like Apples Never Fall, you’ll also love…
- Big Little Lies // Liane Moriarty → because no one does it like Moriarty. This is Moriarty’s most popular book for a reason – as gossip rages across the town about a mysterious murder, details are blown out of proportion and secrets bubble to the surface.
- Nineteen Minutes // Jodi Picoult → for another mystery novel with unreliable characters and a murder that seems unsolvable. This book is much darker and more topical than Apples Never Fall.
- The Wife // Meg Wolitzer → for a deeper exploration of marriage and the sacrifices made in the name of love. Both books are about how marital relationships change with retirement.

Joy and Stan Delaney have had a family filled with children and tennis. The children are all grown (much to Joy’s dismay there are no grandchildren yet) and their tennis playing days became tennis trainer days a long time ago. Now supposedly enjoying their retirement, Joy in particular feels her nest is even emptier than before. When a stranger knocks on their door one night, running from her abusive boyfriend, the Delaney’s take her in, despite the protests of their own children. Savannah cooks every meal and Joy is starting to hope she’ll never leave. But then, Joy goes missing.

As the story unfolds back and forwards in time, with the current day police investigation and flashbacks to the time before Joy disappeared, with no more than a cryptic text message to her children, the family is divided. The police attention is focused squarely on Stan as their prime suspect. Some of the family believe there’s no way Stan could have hurt their mother, some are not so sure. We are given several points of view, from Joy, to Stan, to each of their individual children and the police, throughout the book, which made for interesting reading and I enjoyed putting it all together. The ending was a little meh for me. It was kind of a cool twist, but I expected more to be honest. This was one of those books that took me a long time to read, because although there was nothing inherently wrong with it, the story was fine, it just didn’t grab me like I expected a Liane Moriarty book to. I wasn’t quite invested enough in Joy’s disappearance and found some of the ‘motives’ behind main plot points a bit odd and overblown.

Apples Never Fall is a fun, light read and is the sort of book I’d take on holiday, knowing I’d like to know what was unfolding, but I’d find it easy to put down and pick back up again when I had time.

Apples Never Fall is a story about a tennis academy dynasty - The Delaney family. Stan and Joy ran the tennis academy for years - training their children Amy, Loran, Troy and Brooke as well as countless other young hopefuls. They are the sporting elite, the somebodies, the who's who of the local tennis glitterati. Now Stan and Joy are a little older, and their children are grown, the couple still maintain their presence in the local tennis scene but people grow older, and families grow further apart as children reach adulthood, have their own interests, and move on. So when Joy Delaney goes missing, the first person of interest is Stan because everything starts with the husband right? And there's a small matter of a young female houseguest called Savannah who remains unaccounted for, and what did happen at the Father's Day lunch where family laundry was well and truly aired.

Apples Never Fall is an intricate, family drama. It focuses on events in families, people's memories, and how everyone the same event can be interpreted so differently. It's about parenting, ageing, and life stages and changes. Each of the characters have their own points of view discussed in the book, with their own views about whether Stan could have done away with his wife. There's also the views of the community, ever ready to provide their opinions of a family who have led such a public existence.

I listened to Apples Never Fall on audio courtesy of Librofm and read my netgalley copy in tandem. Joy and Stan were an interesting couple - the vibrant Joy and the dour and pragmatic Stan. Their children - all so different, and each thinking (even as adults) their parents individually favoured their other siblings. The dynamics between them and their individual internal pressures were interesting and varied. Some of the "it" statements came from Joy, and the narration of her "voice" hit the right note for me. An example "in my memoir I'll write about all the innocent corpses of dead people who have ended relationships with my annoying children". And then there was Savannah - they young, needy nymph-like character who seemed to be able to recreate herself.

I enjoyed the most recent offering from Liane Moriarty. Thanks to Librofm and Macmillan Australia.

Meet the Delaney family - Stan and Joy for years ran a very successful Tennis academy which produced a champion in Harry. Their four children also were tennis players but not as successful as Harry went on to become. Its been a while and they have sold their business and happy to retire but one night there is a knock at the door and a young girl is there with a head injury. Joy takes Savannah under her wing and welcomes her into their home for shelter, and into their lives. Savannah becomes almost a part of the family much to the horror of their children. Joy becomes a surrogate mother to her. Meanwhile the four Delaney adult children are dealing with their own issues in their lives - Amy is the free spirit who has never been lucky in love, Brooke is trying to establish a business while separated from her husband. Logan is separated from a long term relationship and not sure if his work is what he really wants and Troy is a jetsetter with plenty of money but an ex-wife who is asking the impossible of him.

All seems ok until one day Joy goes missing, which is very out of character for her. Fingers get pointed at Stan, suspicion rises and the police are involved. Just what has happened to her?? Secret lives and revelations ensue and a body is discovered nearby.

Liane is back! I couldn't put this one down, she focused a lot on each character in the book which I really enjoyed reading and there was sadness, humour and suspense throughout. I was not a fan of her last book and am so glad she has returned to her writing strengths.

Thank you to Pan Macmillan and Netgalley for the copy of this book for review purposes. 5*

For the longest time Liane Moriarty has been one of my favourite Aussie authors.   After being mildly disappointed by <i>Nine Perfect Strangers</i> I was both excited and a teeny bit nervous about her latest title.   Would it meet my typically high expectations for a Liane Moriarty novel or might I fail to gel with this one too?  I'm thrilled to report I thoroughly enjoyed <b>Apples Never Fall</b> and felt it was a terrific return to what she does so very well.  Contemporary Australian fiction; flawed yet loveable characters who seem so realistic; high drama with a bit of a twist; something to tug at the heartstrings all wrapped up with a great denouement.    What more could I have hoped for.

The novel revolves around the Delaney family. Joy and Stan have tennis in their blood.   They've played competitively their whole lives, and they've shared their passion for tennis with hundreds of kids through their tennis coaching school.   Their four adult children, Amy, Logan, Troy and Brooke were each highly succesful junior players on the  Australian cicuit.    Joy and Stan seemingly have the perfect marriage but scratch the surface and perhaps this family is not as perfect as they seem.     When Joy goes missing after an argument with Stan there is plenty of reason for looking closer not just by the police but neighbours and social acquintainces all weigh in on the topic.      The thing I loved most was the way Moriarty completely nailed the family dynamics, the intracies and interplay between siblings, the way Joy knew her children - the facade they choose to portray to the world versus their insecurities, their vulnerabilites and their motivations.  

I was only part way in when I started recommending this book to family and friends.   It only got better from there,  finished strong and I have no hesitation in recommending Apples Never Fall.   My sincere thanks to Macmillan Australia and NetGalley for the opportunity of reading this digital ARC in exchange for an honest review which it was my absolute pleasure to provide.

I really struggled with this novel, and I've read a few titles from Liane Moriarty, so I know the kind of captivating character-full suburban dramas she normally writes. This one, however, was so boring. I read 25% of the novel and I didn't care about any of the characters - not one - and so I didn't care why the mother went missing, or who might be responsible. I was just bored.
I can't bring myself to read anymore of this novel, and I'm afraid I wouldn't be comfortable reviewing this title.

I love Aussie writer Liane Moriarty, it was her books that got me back into reading again so I was absolutely thrilled when I received an early copy of Apples Never Fall!

Apples Never Fall is going to be another hit, it’s a family saga where the mother goes missing without a trace and another family member becomes a murder suspect.

‘There were tiny seeds of bitter resentment at the centre of her heart, like the tiny bitter seeds at the centre of even the sweetest apple’.

Meet the Delaney’s - Stan & Joy who have been married for nearly fifty years and their four adult children, Amy, Logan, Brooke and Troy. The Delaney’s have run a very successful tennis school and local tennis club. Their children grew up coached by their father but unfortunately none of them had the passion to become champion tennis players.

The story is heavily character driven and has dysfunctional family dynamics, dramas and the unravelling of many secrets. There is a touch of humour throughout and the story goes back and forth between the present and the past.

Apples Never Fall is more of a family saga than a thriller and there’s a heavy focus on competitive tennis and sibling rivalry. Recommended read, the mystery element will have you turning the pages!

Publication date 14 September 2021

Apples Never Fall is an Aussie family drama about a tennis obsessed family!! When mam goes missing all hell breaks loose and things start looking a bit dark and everyone’s on edge!

I do quite like Moriarty’s writing style but found the plot of this one pretty predictable and it lacked the sense of mystery quite quickly with regards to the mams disappearance. I loved the bickering scenes between the children of the family as it reminded me quite a lot of the bickering sessions i’ve had with my sisters and I’m feeling quite homesick at the moment so it was nice!!

Overall, I did enjoy this book but not as much as I have liked Moriarty’s other novels!

Thanks so much to NetGalley and Pan MacMillan Australia for an Advanced Reader Copy of Apples Never Fall by Liane Moriarty in exchange for an honest review!!

Another excellent novel from this talented Australian author. She really knows how to delve into relationships and expose all the secrets between families and friends. At the same time she writes a good story which keeps the reader engaged and hanging out for each new page to see what happens next.

Apples Never Fall is a family saga centering around the Delaney family. Joy and Stan, the parents, are still married after fifty years and are still playing up a storm on the tennis court at 69 and 70. Their four children Amy, Brooke, Troy and Logan, are all adults who have a bit of growing up still to do. There are a lot of childhood grievances hanging around and affecting their relationships and lives.

Things come to a head when a family member disappears, another is suspected of murder and the others begin to take sides. It is a well designed mystery plot which continues throughout the book and kept me turning the pages until very late at night. There is a surprise ending which rounds everything up beautifully.

I only had one criticism - the book does not stop at what was for me the obvious high point. It meanders along for several more chapters, like an epilogue, telling me all sorts of things which were nice to know but meant the book wound down to a stop instead stopping at the crescendo. Sometimes I think not everything needs to be explained. It's a small point though and lots of people probably will like the added details.

Altogether this is an excellent book and just as enjoyable as all her others.

Apples Never Fall is Liane Moriarty's latest offering, and although it was a bit of a slow burn to begin with for me, it did ramp up about a third of the way through and that's when it became a real page-turner. Set over two timelines, this book is primarily a family drama with some suspense thrown in, in the shape of a mysterious young woman. I really liked the underlying message of the importance of family, communication, and understanding. An enjoyable read, I recommend this one for Moriarty fans.

Thanks to Mac Macmillan Australia and NetGalley for an ARC to read and review.

This story is about the Delaney family who live in Sydney, Australia. Joy 69 and Stan 70 have just retired having sold their business, Delaney Tennis Academy. The other members of the family are their grown up children, Amy, Troy, Logan and Brooke and their partners. It takes a little while to learn about the family but as you do you become immersed into their lives and dramas, of which there are plenty. One night a young woman, Samantha, turns up at the home of Joy and Stan, suffering injuries and claiming to be a victim of domestic violence. Joy immediately takes her under her wing and insist she stay as long as she likes. This, naturally, causes drama in the family. The biggest drama though is when Joy, uncharacteristically, disappears. Is she a missing person? Has something untoward happened to her? Has Stan done something?

Apples Never Fall by Liane Moriarty is an excellent read. Well written and cleverly developed with a lot of unexpected twists that added extra dimensions to both the story and the characters. At times I thought it was getting too complicated but life and people are indeed complicated! This is also the first novel I have read where there is a ‘now’ which includes the current pandemic which has been sweeping over us all in the world for the last two years.


Thank you to Netgalley and publisher Pan Macmillan Australia for an ARC ebook copy to read and review.

Liane Moriarty is a master of intricate, domestic relationships and her latest offering, Apples Never Fall is wrought with tension. She peels the layers back with such detail and understanding of human psychology she makes it look easy. This time she delves deep into the relationships between the Delaney family, Joy and Stan and their four grown children. Their lives have always been centred around tennis; playing, coaching, and running a family business and now find themselves floundering without it in retirement. When Joy goes missing this is a catalyst for the family to re-evaluate their parents marriage and their lives growing up with their 'grown up' perspectives.

Moriarty delves into the intricacies of husband and wife, parenting and sibling relationships with such depth, wit and nuance that I found myself turning the pages quickly for her insights and resolution of the underlying tension of the mysterious disappearance.

I approached this new novel with an apprehensive hopefulness, given that her previous novel Nine Perfect Strangers, didn't quite hit the mark for me and I was rewarded with Moriarty at her best. A thoroughly engrossing tale and characters that I am still thinking about long after I have finished reading it.

Many thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for an ARC copy (in which I was checking daily for this!) in return for an honest review.

Liane Moriarty is back with her latest book Apples Never Fall. It follows Stan and Joy Delaney who are well known for their tennis prowess, and their four children who have all been tennis players throughout their years. Enter Savannah a mystery girl who arrives on their doorstep and soon becomes embedded in their lives. While the Delaney children have all long left home, they soon take a keen interest as to why Joy has taken such a shine to Savannah, and then Joy suddenly disappears. This is where the story gets juicy, but I will leave it to the reader to discover exactly what happened to Joy as you are taken on a split timeline that bounces back and forward like the proverbial tennis ball.

I found this one quite entertaining with a storyline that kept me wanting to read. It was clever and I enjoyed how it played out but I did find it unnecessarily long. I think this novel could have easily culled 100 pages and still be just as good. I think fans of Liane Moriarty will be delighted with Apples Never Fall, a great weekend read.

Thank you to Pan McMillan and NetGalley for this early reading copy.

If this is your first Liane Moriarty, you'll love it.
If you're a fan, you might find that the author's trademark quirkiness is not apparent in the first few chapters. Don't worry: it's coming. The characters are lovable and unusual, the plot not at all what you think, and the book leaves you uplifted, with a craving for apple crumble (and for the next Liane Moriarty read).

Liane Moriarty is always a go to for me.

This book explores the disappearance of a Mother, her four grownup children trying to put their own differences and troubles aside to locate their Mother. Throw in a few lies and laughs and you have the making of a good read.

The relationships between husband and wife; siblings; parents and children are explored in this one.

If you are a Liane Moriarty fan I recommend this one for you.

Liane Moriarty is one of my favoruite authors so when I seen she had released a new book I was all there. Apples never fall was a real slow burn for me taking me probably the first 3rd to really get into it. But, after that, it was a real page turner and I couldn't put it down until I found out what happened.

I was especially intrigued by Joy Delaney. Her character had so many layers and I was fascinated by what kind of person, tennis coach and mother she was and how her husband and her shaped their children's lives and made them the people they are today. Liane did excellent at also creating a character that is so manipulating, you just want to scream at the characters to stop being so naive. Savannah played on each characters weakness, exposing their flaws to 'even the score.'

Although, I did end up enjoying this book, I felt it was lacking a little of the normal WOW factor that Moriarty's novels normally bring me. I still recommend this book for a lighthearted read with thriller elements.

Defintely an improvement on 9 perfect strangers but not quite in the same league as what Alice forgot or big little lies.

3/5

Apple's Never Fall by Liane Moriarity ♡ 5/5 stars ♡ I was so excited to receive this book that I read it straight away. This book follows the lives of a family who's mother goes missing and the drama that unfolds in the weeks following. I loved how this book centered around tennis and the positive and negative impact of competitive sport. I also really enjoyed the story changing between time periods and the differing points of view. I was completely surprised with every twist and turn that was in this book and highly recommend reading this. Thank you to Pan ManMillan Australia and Netgalley for sending this ARC.

Apples Never Fall is the ninth novel by best-selling Australian author, Liane Moriarty. When sixty-nine-year-old Joy Delaney goes missing on Valentine’s Day after a garbled text message to her four children, they are understandably concerned, especially as certain things (an argument that morning, scratches on his cheek, a professional car clean) sort of make their father, well-known tennis coach, Stan Delaney look guilty.

Joy’s disappearance and her subsequent lack of communication is completely out of character so, of course, the Delaney siblings report their mother missing. Stan is strangely reticent when questioned by the police, and his adult children are being quite selective with what they reveal about their family.

Detective Senior Constable Christina Khoury is finding it difficult to get a handle on this family. “On the surface they seemed loving and cheerful but she could sense dysfunction bubbling ominously beneath their sporty, matter-of-fact demeanours.”

While the siblings are all very different, they do seem to agree that a potentially precipitating incident occurred during the previous September, when a mysterious young woman named Savannah was staying with the Delaney parents, and when tennis star (and their father’s former protégé) Harry Haddad announced a comeback.

Only much later is it admitted that this was when some sensitive revelations were made, criticisms voiced and long-standing resentments aired.

As well as split-time narratives from multiple character perspectives, the story is told by conversations overheard or gossip shared by the waitress, the beauty therapist, the physio patient, the Uber driver, the journalist, the neighbour, the receptionist, the hairdresser, and others.

Some readers may find this too much of a slow-burn as Moriarty lays down the detail of the lives of each member of the Delaney family, but patience and persistence is rewarded as the story develops, with each new twist, turn and wrinkle adding another layer of intrigue before the dramatic reveal.

Moriarty gives the reader a level of intimacy with these characters that may cause a lump in the throat on several occasions in the final chapters. A perfect mix of humour, heartache and drama, Moriarty’s latest does not disappoint.
This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by NetGalley and Pan Macmillan Australia.

I have never read an of Liane Moriarty books but know of and have heard about her books so I thought it was about time a read one. The opportunity arose and I wasn't disappointed.

This is a book of family, secrets and a disappearance that baffles all those involved. When a stranger arrives (Savannah) and then a wife and mother (Joy) disappears along with the stranger what lies have been told and who do you trust.

This is such a great book of family secrets, mystery, thrills, drama and even a bit of humour to lighten the mood. It is a book that kept me reading, kept me interested, as I just wanted to find out what was happening the whole time. I just couldn't put it down and now I must go read some more of Liane Moriarty's books.

Great read, exciting and unputdownable!

When Joy Delaney - former tennis star, businesswoman and mother of 4 grown children - goes missing after sending a garbled text, we must peel back the layers of her life to find out what really happened. Told from differing perspectives - the children, the police, Joy herself - in chapters both Before and Now, the past six months of Joy's life are slowly unravelled.

Apples Never Fall explores relationships, sibling rivalry, mental health issues, pressure, and healing, and the characters are all eminently relatable. Beneath the veneer, everyone is hiding something.

I love Moriarty's books. They're engrossing page-turners full of detail, the minutiae of suburban life, and intrigue. Apples Never Fall proudly joins the lineup.

It was a slow burn of a book, but it built up to a gripping, fast-paced climax that will keep you reading long after it's sensible.

~ Many thanks to NetGalley and Pan Macmillan Australia for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review~