Blood Orange by Harriet Tyce

Blood Orange by Harriet Tyce is a gripping thriller with twists and turns galore. Straightaway we are plunged into a murky and somewhat questionable world. My immediate response was to flee. It was a novel that promised to be dark and I wasn’t sure I wanted that from a book at this point in time. I was looking for a light-hearted read, perhaps a romance. Alas, It was too late.  I was hooked from the first page. I had to know what was going to happen in this shocking crime thriller.

Jealousy And Violence

In the opening pages we meet Alison, a successful criminal lawyer, who instead of going home to her daughter and husband, is getting blind drunk after work in a pub. She’s getting jealous because the man (Patrick) she is having an affair with is paying a younger woman attention. This all ends with Alison having rough sex with Patrick in her chambers. The sex with Patrick is almost violent and the lines become blurred. She asks him to stop, he doesn’t. Alison then blacks out and is found by her husband and six-year-old daughter the next morning. It’s certainly a novel that kicks off with a bang.

The husband – Carl - is who our sympathies lie with at first.  Alison clearly has a problem with drink. It might not be derailing her career, but her home life is like a train crash in slow motion. At first it appears to be Carl who’s holding everything together. He’s raising their daughter almost single-handedly, he works from home, fitting his hours around the school run and it’s him who does the cooking etc. When their friends come round for lunch, Alison embarrasses him by getting drunk. But as the novel progresses our sympathy for Carl wanes and we start understanding a little more why Alison behaves the way she does.

Secrets And Stalkers

The fault in the failing marriage clearly doesn’t land squarely at Alison’s feet. Carl soon reveals his true colours. Patronising, whiny, insecure, unloving and arrogant. You soon start to question what kind of person Carl is. There’s something about him that doesn’t sit quite right.  He doesn’t seem to want to help Alison. If anything, he seems to be deliberately pushing her buttons and gaslighting her. Plus, he runs some sort of male support group from their living room and Alison is not allowed to know anything about it. Never trust secretive clubs that run behind closed doors and refuse entry based on gender! It soon becomes clear that Alison isn’t the only one keeping secrets. This is a marriage full of dark secrets. When Alison tries to make an effort with their marriage and child, Carl constantly undermines her. Before long you can see why Alison is turning to the bottle and having an affair. Alison might have many flaws, but she’s very aware of them. She’s soon the person we are rooting for. We want her to win.

As her marriage continues to unravel, Alison takes on a high-profile murder case. On the surface it seems that this is simply a case of a wife (Madeline) murdering her husband. However, we soon realise there is more to the case than first appears. As Alison tries to get Madeline to open up and reveal more about what happened the night she apparently stabbed her husband, the more Alison realises Madeline is hiding. As a reader you can’t help but draw parallels with Madeline and Alison. Madeline was stuck in a mentally and physically abusive marriage and could see no way out. Is this also the case for Allison? Will Alison find her way out?  The case also sees Alison working more closely with Patrick but it’s now that Alison starts receiving vile anonymous texts telling her to leave Patrick alone. The person behind the texts seems to know exactly where Alison has been and when, someone is stalking her.

As the novel progresses there are many twists that will leave you questioning who and what to believe. You may find yourself guessing some of the twists but that doesn’t detract from what is a really addictive read.

Does Alison win though?