Bad Apple - Alice Hunter

Reading Challenge Category: Free ARC from NetGalley

Official Blurb:

Trusted officer. Family man. Monster?
Prepare to be hooked by Alice Hunter’s addictive new novel – so shocking it should come with a warning…
What would you do if you found out the man you loved was rotten to the core?
Becky Lawson’s life has been shattered.
When she discovered her husband, John – a trusted policeman – was a monster, she reported him. But her faith in the system was crushed when it didn't lead to any charges or consequences.
Now, John lives freely with a new girlfriend and her young daughter, while Becky battles guilt over missing the obvious signs.
Determined for justice, Becky hunts him down. But John wants her silenced – at any cost. Becky knows only one of them can survive, and she’ll do anything to make sure it’s her.
Becky must tread carefully though, because John isn’t the only bad apple lurking in the shadows…

My Thoughts:

Ah, Bad Apple, a novel that promised much but, regrettably, delivered somewhat less. Penned by Alice Hunter, this book marked my first foray into her literary world, and it's fair to say that it has left me more perplexed than enchanted.
At the heart of this narrative is Becky, formerly a detective, who finds her life unravelled after making grave accusations against her husband, also a detective. The premise itself starts on a stark note: Becky loses her job while her husband’s career seemingly remains untarnished. This setup, meant to evoke a sense of injustice and ignite the fuse of an enthralling plot, unfortunately, spirals into a series of implausible events. The decisions Becky makes are staggeringly ill-judged for someone with her background in law enforcement. Her actions border on the absurd rather than the astute, and this discord grates on one’s sensibilities as a reader.
As the story progresses, Becky's journey into the quagmire of proving her husband's guilt becomes tedious. The narrative desperately needed a robust backbone to make her quest believable or, at the very least, compelling. The 'big twist', intended as the climactic revelation, was predictable and lacked the impact necessary to redeem the earlier parts of the book.
That said, there were elements that kept me tethered to the pages—particularly the sections labelled 'then', which offered a nostalgic reprieve from the current frustrations. These passages hinted at potential, suggesting depth and a narrative complexity that I wished had been more prevalent throughout.
The portrayal of Becky, which was meant to be the linchpin of the story, was perhaps the most disheartening aspect. Her lack of procedural rigour, the careless handling of potential evidence, and a baffling obliviousness to the dangers that might be closer than she imagined—all these painted a portrait of a protagonist hard to root for. The authenticity of her character as an ex-police officer was, sadly, not on the mark.
In conclusion, Bad Apple was a tale that could have been a deliciously dark and twisted journey but ended up feeling more like an under-baked pie—lukewarm and lacking. While it hasn't quite encouraged me to delve further into Hunter's oeuvre, those fleeting moments of intrigue within the book might just be enough for other readers to take the plunge. For me, however, the book was a lesson in frustration, dressed up in a mystery that promised far more than it delivered.