Name: Luke Harkness's review of Blood Orange by Harriet Tyce
Item: Blood Orange
Rating: 4
Author: Luke Harkness

Harriet Tyce

The incredibly gripping, must-read Sunday Times bestseller 'Utterly compelling... I couldn't put it down' Lisa Jewell, No.1 bestselling author of The Family Upstairs 'A classy thriller with complex and compelling characters' Clare Mackintosh, bestselling author of I Let You Go 'Fans of Apple Tree Yard and The Girl on the Train will love this' Guardian 'Twists that keep you frantically turning the pages' Sunday Mirror FIERCE, UNFLINCHING AND PROVOCATIVE, BLOOD ORANGE WILL HOLD YOU IN ITS GRIP UNTIL ITS FINAL, HEARTSTOPPING CONCLUSION. Alison has it all. A doting husband, adorable daughter, and a career on the rise - she's just been given her first murder case to defend. But all is never as it seems... Just one more night. Then I'll end it. Alison drinks too much. She's neglecting her family. And she's having an affair with a colleague whose taste for pushing boundaries may be more than she can handle. I did it. I killed him. I should be locked up. Alison's client doesn't deny that she stabbed her husband - she wants to plead guilty. And yet something about her story is deeply amiss. Saving this woman may be the first step to Alison saving herself. I'm watching you. I know what you're doing. But someone knows Alison's secrets. Someone who wants to make her pay for what she's done, and who won't stop until she's lost everything.... BLOOD ORANGE IS: 'Gripping' Daily Mail 'Sizzlingly addictive' Heat 'Delicious and addictive - a perfectly crafted treat!' Louise Candlish, author of Our House 'Glittering and fierce . . . a glorious bonfire of a marriage thriller' Irish Times

Blood Orange

JUST ONE MORE NIGHT. THEN I'LL FINISH IT. 'Utterly compelling... I couldn't put it down' Lisa Jewell, No.1 bestselling author of The Family Upstairs 'A classy thriller with complex and compelling characters' Clare Mackintosh, bestselling author of I Let You Go 'Twists that keep you frantically turning the pages' Sunday Mirror BOLD AND SHOCKING, BLOOD ORANGE WILL HOLD YOU IN ITS GRIP UNTIL ITS FINAL, HEARTSTOPPING CONCLUSION. Alison has it all. A doting husband, adorable daughter, and a career on the rise - she's just been given her first murder case to defend. But all is never as it seems... Just one more night. Then I'll end it. Alison drinks too much. She's neglecting her family. And she's having an affair with a colleague whose taste for pushing boundaries may be more than she can handle. I did it. I killed him. I should be locked up. Alison's client doesn't deny that she stabbed her husband - she wants to plead guilty. And yet something about her story is deeply amiss. Saving this woman may be the first step to Alison saving herself. I'm watching you. I know what you're doing. But someone knows Alison's secrets. Someone who wants to make her pay for what she's done, and who won't stop until she's lost everything.... 'Gripping' Daily Mail 'Sizzlingly addictive' Heat 'Delicious and addictive - a perfectly crafted treat!' Louise Candlish, author of Our House 'Glittering and fierce . . . a glorious bonfire of a marriage thriller' Irish Times

The gripping, bestselling Richard & Judy book club thriller

Jade Salmon

Emily Booth

'Shocking, addictive, dark domestic noir' SARAH PINBOROUGH 'Breathes new life into the domestic noir genre and grips until the final page' DAILY EXPRESS 'What a twist at the end!' LISA JEWELL AN ELECTRIFYING DEBUT THRILLER FOR FANS OF APPLE TREE YARD AND ANATOMY OF A SCANDAL - INTRODUCING A STUNNING NEW VOICE IN PSYCHOLOGICAL SUSPENSE Alison has it all. A doting husband, adorable daughter, and a career on the rise - she's just been given her first murder case to defend. But all is never as it seems... Just one more night. Then I'll end it. Alison drinks too much. She's neglecting her family. And she's having an affair with a colleague whose taste for pushing boundaries may be more than she can handle. I did it. I killed him. I should be locked up. Alison's client doesn't deny that she stabbed her husband - she wants to plead guilty. And yet something about her story is deeply amiss. Saving this woman may be the first step to Alison saving herself. I'm watching you. I know what you're doing. But someone knows Alison's secrets. Someone who wants to make her pay for what she's done, and who won't stop until she's lost everything.... BLOOD ORANGE IS: 'Gripping' Daily Mail 'Sizzlingly addictive' Heat 'Glittering and fierce . . . a glorious bonfire of a marriage thriller' Irish Times 'A smash hit' Best 'A very impressive debut' Observer 'Complex and compelling' Clare Mackintosh 'Dark and disturbing' Louise Jensen 'A superb, compulsive read' Tess Gerritsen 'Gloriously twisted' Emma Flint

Luke Harkness

A tense book that I constantly wanted more from right up until the final third where it all started to kick off. Give it some time and this book will have you flipping the pages at a rate of knots!

Slight spoilers ahead  

Upon initially finishing the book, my mind was set on this being a 4.5-stars - mainly because the climax of the plot was satisfying and every character got an arc that felt rightfully deserved. However, the more time I've had to process the character development and the plot itself, it bought the book down to a 2.5-stars.

The first half of the book seems to be in an infinite loop of Alison's mistakes, guilt and her toxic relationship with her husband. It is of no question that the author repeated the same scenario in different settings to emphasize the lack of both Alison's control over alcohol and the slow deterioration of her relationship with her husband. But it could have been done in so many ways. After a point, it was just the author reusing the same plot that she had typed for a good chunk of the book. With no character development to be seen in sight, it felt more like a "Oh shit, here we go again". 

The synopsis sells itself as a struggling alcoholic whose anchor of hope turns out to be a client suspected of stabbing her husband. The book doesn't delve further into the murder, having taken a sideline when compared to the car-wreck that is Alison's life.

To top it all off, the threatening texts Alison receives only deters her for a chapter or two, where she decides that she will be more present in her daughter's life only for her to go back to Patrick and repeat her mistakes on a grander scale than before. 

The reader is led to believe that her life is moving in a positive upward trajectory (so much so you can almost forget how terrible Carl is) only for it to be a red herring. 

To the book's credit, the last 70 pages made up for the mess in the first half. Each chapter bought forth surprising revelations that alter every character's lives significantly and brings closure to several subplots. The multitude of smaller dramas along the way left me with disbelief at being misled by them.

Overall, there was a huge disjoint in my perception of what the book would be as opposed to what it was. The synopsis painted it as a story containing three over-arching subplots, however, only one of them was fleshed out properly, leading to slippery, poorly framed plots for the other two.

P.S. - were we supposed to believe Alison is good at her job? It was explicitly told to the reader quite a few times, however, just as the rule of "show, don't tell" goes, there was no evidence to back it up.

The men is this book we’re so toxic!!!! But I’m in love with the mother-daughter relationship in this book. It’s adorable 

Ruth Parker 

This started off strong but ended on a weak note. It was clear to me from early in where this was going - although I won’t lie it did deviate slightly at times. But the bad guys were obviously and the ending was too perfect, especially for such a disgraceful character.

Amy Brown 

** spoiler alert **
           4.5 stars. Had a good ending, the book brings you around to the main character who initially is very unlikeable and whose life choices are generally questionable. The real victim of the story is Matilda, I kept wondering how she would turn out having to grow up in those circumstances. Fortunately it's fiction!

Amy Buckle

I had seen this book a lot on Instagram and it had always intrigued me, not just because it has a great cover, but I’d also heard some good things. Blood Orange centres on Alison, a barrister who is assigned her first murder case at the beginning of the novel. She’s determined to make a good job of it, but behind the scenes, her marriage is falling apart, she finds herself a little too quick to pick up a drink after work, and she’s having an affair with a solicitor too. Still, she wants to get to the bottom of the murder, but when the wife of the victim (and confessed murderer) starts recounting what her marriage was like, Alison can’t help but see the similarities to her own. So with the hurricane of drama whirling in her personal life, will she still be able to keep a steady head at work and solve the case?

I’m disappointed to say, but this novel was just underwhelming. The actual case for a start, seemed to be interesting, but by page 39, I’d worked out the ending (*sigh*). And not only that, but all the other plot devices seemed to be taken from other famous thrillers? There’s a reason it’s recommended for fans of Girl on the Train… it basically has the same themes and unreliable narration, so I was a little disappointed by that.

Then we move onto the characters. Well, ALL of them were despicable in their own ways, not to mention thoroughly unlikable, and while I understand this was probably intentional, I find it really hard to relate or like a book when I can’t get onboard with a single one of its characters?! They did all fit well with the narration and tone of the plot, but they just weren’t my cup of tea!

And if that all wasn’t enough, there wasn’t really much of a plot. Most of the book focused more on Alison’s love life (that with her husband and the man she was having an affair with) and frankly, I got a bit bored of her thinking about sex – I would have much preferred some juicy gossip and clever detective work on the murder case!

As I said on my mini-review on Instagram, this book is fine, as long as you don’t read a lot of thrillers. If however, you do, this is a predicable and underwhelming narrative with unlikable characters and a pretty empty storyline. I hope that maybe this is just because its the author’s debut novel, but I hope to be more impressed with whatever she writes next!

Emily Booth &
Blood Orange by Harriet Tyce

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Emily Booth &Blood Orange by Harriet Tyce

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Join the club

Emily Booth &
Blood Orange by Harriet Tyce