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Blood Orange by Harriet Tyce review – smart #MeToo noir

A criminal lawyer navigates a murky world of misogyny and murder in this dark debut

I f Amazon reviews are to be trusted, the character trait most admired by readers – even readers of novels where torture, rape and violent death are so much feature wallpaper – is likability. Harriet Tyce would consider this pure denial: what people really want from crime thrillers, suggests her smart debut, a #MeToo domestic noir, is much murkier and more debasing.

Tyce shows her protagonist in the moral greyscale she knows makes her more relatable. Alison is a successful London-based criminal lawyer whose drink problem doesn’t seem to affect her professional capabilities. We are introduced to her as she’s getting wrecked in the pub after work, then going on to a club where she tearfully accuses her colleague Patrick, a vicious but charismatic shit with whom she is having an affair, of flirting with a younger woman. She then heads back to her chambers to have blurred-lines sex with him on her desk (“no don’t stop don’t stop, stop it hurts”). Patrick leaves. Alison blacks out and is found there the following morning by her unsmiling husband, Carl, and six-year-old daughter, Matilda.

Our sympathy shifts to Carl – but wait. Carl is an appalling self-righteous prig, a psychotherapist specialising in male sex addiction. Tyce has impish fun with this; I snorted at the moment when Carl earnestly steers Alison away from their sitting room because a member of his men’s group is having a “breakthrough”. His misogynistic rage expresses itself in myriad petty little ways, from gaslighting to parental showboating and wincing when he tastes food Alison has cooked (the kitchen being, he considers, his domain).

As Alison’s marriage disintegrates, along comes a work opportunity – her first murder case. A wealthy woman, Madeline, repeatedly stabbed her sadistic, coercive husband in the bedroom of their Clapham townhouse. But there’s more to the case than meets the eye. For one thing, Madeline’s behaviour around Alison is decidedly odd and boundary-crossing. Then there are the anonymous abusive texts Alison starts receiving and disturbing revelations about Patrick that threaten to derail both the case and their relationship. A former lawyer herself, Tyce brings her fictional world to dark, unsettling life. An arguably off-key bit of plotting towards the end threw me slightly, but fans of Apple Tree Yard and The Girl on the Train will love the atmosphere of clenched ambiguity Tyce sustains so well.

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Books , Fiction , Thrillers · July 3, 2020

Blood Orange – is it worth all the hype? | Book Review

A review of Blood Orange by Harriet Tyce, an easy to read yet captivating psychological thriller that darkly explores lust, jealousy and revenge. With elusive mysteries, twists and turns, Blood Orange will have you devouring the pages until the very end.

I got into a bit of a reading rut over the last couple of weeks as I had been trying to read two books at a time. 

I KNEW I needed a thriller to kick me out of it! 

Having been SUPER excited to read Blood Orange after all the hype online, I was ready to dive in. 

On the cover of my copy there’s praise from Lisa Jewell ( you know how much I LOVED The Family Upstairs ) ‘ Utterly compelling I couldn’t put it down ’, and the Guardian ‘ Fans of Apple Tree Yard and The Girl on the Train will love this ’. Both comments were true for me too – I was a fan of both of those thrillers and I too couldn’t put this book down. 

But was it as good as everyone had said?

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What’s Blood Orange about? 

For those of you who haven’t heard about Blood Orange, it’s a psychological suspense / thriller novel following the main protagonist Alison, a barrister in London. She lives with her husband and daughter and her career is on the rise – she’s just been given her first murder case! 

Despite those positives, she’s drinking far too much ( think Girl on the Train ), having an affair ( think Apple Tree Yard ) and someone has started to threaten to expose these secrets. In addition to all this personal stuff, Alison’s new client seems to be set on pleading guilty of murder, but something about the murder case just isn’t adding up. 

Can Alison help her client, and help herself along the way? 

What’s Blood Orange like to read? 

I read Blood Orange in just three sittings. It’s easy reading and I love reading books like this, devouring page after page, wondering what will be unearthed next.

The book touches on many potentially triggering topics including toxic relationships, gas lighting, domestic abuse and unhealthy relationships with alcohol. The narrative is pacy and has you second guessing how the story is going to unfold, whilst turning page after page.

One of my favourite things about books being set in London is being able to visualise where the characters are, another reason why I loved Apple Tree Yard too. 

A hard part of the reading this book are the encounters with a few, unlikeable characters. Alison herself drives me mad as she pushes thoughts of her family to the back of her mind during moments with her lover. Then there’s her lover. An annoyingly smart and smug guy, who to be honest sounded like a total wanker.

Not liking the characters can make for a frustrating narrative in places, especially as I felt so irritated by Alison’s affair! Although this part of the story was essential, it does make you feel so uncomfortable at times.  

In summary, I did enjoy Blood Orange – the twists in the story had me hooked and I was eager to know how Alison was going to get herself out of her mishaps along the way.

As a warning the story does delve into particularly tough and negative relationships, both in the murder case and in Alison’s personal life. A great domestic thriller, but I’ve knocked off half a star from 4 to 3.5 because of how frustrated I got with Alison. Don’t let that stop you delving in though!  

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July 3, 2020 at 7:50 am

“An annoyingly smart and smug guy, who to be honest sounded like a total wanker.” Hahaha my favourite line. I’ve seen Blood Orange floating around and now I definitely think I’m gonna pick it up. I love a good pacey thriller too 🤩.

July 13, 2020 at 7:51 pm

haha you’ll know what I mean when you read it!

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Submitting a book for review, write the editor, you are here:, blood orange.

Midway through BLOOD ORANGE, a riveting thriller by English barrister Harriet Tyce, Alison finds herself with a few spare moments before going to sleep. “I read for a while,” she informs readers, “a thriller about a toxic marriage in which everything is breaking down, and I smile. That’s not us anymore.” I’m uncertain what one would call this literary moment, but I won’t worry, as it’s an appropriate description of Tyce’s first novel. Appropriate, that is, until all hell breaks loose and readers experience a wild journey through the marriage of Alison and Charles. Along the way, Alison battles in the Old Bailey, the English criminal court, as she defends Madeline Smith, who has admitted to murdering her husband and would love to plead guilty.

While many may already be aware of how British and American lawyers differ, a brief primer is required in this review. In Great Britain, the legal system has barristers and solicitors. Generally, barristers prepare a case for trial, while solicitors perform the actual courtroom maneuvers. Alison is a solicitor, and she works with her barrister, Patrick Saunders, in her defense of Madeline. Readers of legal fiction are familiar with characters similar to Alison, the broken-down trial attorney who drinks far too much, attends to family matters far too little, and struggles with a life and career that is careening towards disaster. The major difference here is that the individual in question is a woman, but that really does not change the calculation.

"The final confrontation between Alison and Charles becomes a roller coaster ride of plot twists and emotional highs and lows that will have readers wondering how exactly the story will end."

The Smith case will be Alison’s first venture as lead counsel in a murder trial, which obviously is a giant boost to her legal career. But there are some difficulties ahead. Patrick is more than her barrister, he is also her lover. Their client conferences and strategy sessions frequently end in romantic liaisons --- in chambers, train bathrooms and other sordid locations. Alison often finds herself placing her daughter, Matilda, and her family life second to her assignations with Patrick. Attempting to assuage Charles, a part-time psychotherapist and stay-at-home dad, she turns to wine and gin for comfort --- obviously a dangerous mix.

In her debut, Tyce has told her story in a fashion similar to John Grisham, who knows how to write courtroom fiction. Grisham’s characters are often attorneys, but the legal cornerstone of the plot is typically not as important as the mystery or thriller portion of the book. In BLOOD ORANGE, Alison could be a physician, accountant or advertising executive, and the suspense aspect would be equally mesmerizing. The courtroom scenes are certainly well-written and legally sound, but they are only a subpart of the plot. This is not meant to be a criticism; many legal-themed novels do not focus on the courtroom.

As Alison and Charles battle through the difficulties of their marriage, and as other surprising events are introduced into the story, the murder case facing Madeline is almost forgotten. The final confrontation between Alison and Charles becomes a roller coaster ride of plot twists and emotional highs and lows that will have readers wondering how exactly the story will end. But end it does, and as BLOOD ORANGE comes to a conclusion, there will be some questions to ponder. Tyce has left a few thoughts and issues on the table that hopefully will be resolved in future novels.

Reviewed by Stuart Shiffman on February 22, 2019

Blood Orange by Harriet Tyce

• Publication Date: April 28, 2020
• Genres: Fiction , Psychological Suspense , Psychological Thriller , Suspense , Thriller
• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
• ISBN-10: 1538762749
• ISBN-13: 9781538762745

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Blood Orange Book Review

Title: Blood Orange Author: Harriet Tyce Type: Fiction Published: 2019 Pages: 324 TW: Violence, abuse, graphic sexual descriptions, rape

“The affair for me was solace and escape, a relief because I was wanted and not pushed to the side.” 

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!

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3 Predictable, Unoriginal, Fast

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Blood Orange: A Novel

• By Harriet Tyce
• Grand Central Publishing
• Reviewed by Bob Duffy
• February 22, 2019

A bad-girl barrister tries to find justice before it’s too late in this formulaic thriller.

The debut novel Blood Orange hews closely to certain creaky conventions of the Girl on the Train school of popular fiction. By day, its married heroine, Alison Bailey, is a workaholic, briskly competent criminal barrister in the English court system. After hours, she’s a fall-down drunk entangled in an adulterous and abusive affair with the senior solicitor supervising her cases.

Forewarned is forearmed. Throw in with Alison, and you will likely careen from admiration to guarded empathy to gut-clenching alarm as she totters from chambers to pub-culture London to dank back-alley love nooks.

Married to a sententious fussbudget of a husband, with a young daughter, Alison falls a tad short on the attentive-mother scale, as well. Still, she’s not unaware of her shortcomings and regularly resolves to cut back on the drinking, ditch the boyfriend, and pull the young-professional-mum thing together.

As the novel opens, her lover-supervisor, slick and bespoke, has assigned Alison a murder case to defend — her first. It centers on a posh socialite, mother to a teenage boy, who’s charged with stabbing her husband. Problem is, the defendant — despite some evidence to the contrary and Alison’s sharp but fading instincts — stubbornly insists that she did it.

We’ve already seen Alison in cringeworthy action. So, like many readers of the successful-woman-gone-astray genre, we’re invested, if a little begrudgingly, in Alison’s prospects for reform. And because there’s so much at stake — both in the courtroom and in her story arc — we can’t help but suspect that she will, despite setback after apparent setback.

True to the blueprint, Blood Orange chronicles Alison’s emergence from a dispiriting miasma of missteps and self-doubt, handsomely paying off our empathy. If this is a spoiler, it’s a trifling one, given the predictable narrative formula to which this clearly talented writer has yoked herself. After all, she’s got a chart-topper to write, not a literary lodestar.

Even so, author Harriet Tyce deserves credit for telling Alison’s story with admirable attention to atmosphere, characterization, and suspense. She vividly depicts the English court system, which may be new in its intricacies for American readers — as well she should, having herself spent nearly a decade as a criminal barrister.

Tyce also orchestrates Alison’s Sisyphean exertions to recover with a skillful command of narrative suspense, never teasing us with the temptation to give up on her as misfortune keeps snapping at her heels.

All in all, the author’s female characters are keenly observed and compellingly portrayed. They speak with authentic cadences. There’s nothing off-key or forced in their language, even when they’re lying. This is equally true of Patrick, Alison’s despicable supervisor, who comes to face his own personal and legal challenges as the story unfolds.

On the other hand, Alison’s husband verges on the stereotypical. He’s at least as deplorable as Patrick, but there’s something rigidly formulaic in the way he acts and talks, coming across like a smarmy refugee from the Lifetime Channel’s catalogue of passive-aggressive — and outright aggressive — husbands and lovers.

But despite the bitter circumstances arrayed against her heroine, Tyce pulls off a gob-smacker of a reversal in Blood Orange ’s final moments. It elevates this book from seamy law-office melodrama to respectable thriller.

Bob Duffy is a Maryland author and working consultant in branding and advertising.

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Reviewing ‘Blood Orange’ by Harriet Tyce

Title: blood orange, author: harriet tyce, genre: crime, thriller, mystery, my rating: ★★☆☆☆.

Goodreads Synopsis:

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…

General Thoughts | Non-Spoiler

There are plenty of reasons why I was intrigued by this book enough to buy a brand new copy, and now I’m wishing I’d waited to pick up one from a charity shop when they inevitably start flooding the secondhand shelves. I love a good crime thriller, and you can usually rely on Tesco’s 2 for £8 deal to have a decent selection. However, this one misses the mark by a long shot for me. It wasn’t awful and I don’t regret reading it, but it didn’t live up to the rave reviews.

The story itself was compelling enough to keep me reading until the last page, but the pace was all over the place, none of the characters were likeable in any way and the protagonist (if you can call her that – Alison was her own worst enemy 99% of the time) has one of the most childlike, unrelatable and, most annoyingly of all, stupid   narratives I think I have ever read. There was no character development and her problems only resolved because things just sort of happened around her. The story was perfectly fine – I feel like the author only wrote this in the hope of it being made into an ITV drama – but the execution, unfortunately, felt far too amateur.

Full Review | Contains Spoilers

The thing about  Blood Orange is that I didn’t hate it, but I did strongly dislike a number of elements to the book while I was reading it. The more I think about it now, after finishing reading, the more I find myself making allowances and almost convincing myself that I enjoyed it more than I did.

It’s never a good start when you actively dislike the narrator, even if that’s an artistic decision on the author’s part. Alison is a top lawyer who excels in her field; she’s also married to a man named Carl and is mother to her six-year-old daughter Matilda. On the surface, she appears to have it all held together, but the reader knows better. She is an apparently barely-functioning alcoholic and is engaging in an affair with her colleague Patrick. It’s a good set-up for a compelling, problematic protagonist – makes bad decisions but you’re rooting for her at the same time – but Alison is so unlikeable. I don’t think it’s deliberate decision either because she doesn’t become more likeable as the story progresses. There were moments in the book where I literally shook my head in disbelief because Alison had been so stupid; and on top of that, it felt as though the author was trying to portray these stupid decisions as something anyone would do. For example, when she’s playing hide and seek with Matilda and she closes her eyes for 100 counts and lo and behold, Matilda goes missing. Who didn’t see that happening!!

As I mentioned earlier, one of the most frustrating things about Alison’s lack of character development is the fact she has absolutely no effect on the resolution to her problems. She isn’t crafty or clever and she doesn’t even put two and two together until it’s right in front of her face when she comes home to find Carl close to hanging himself while getting his rocks off. She never questioned why, when out with her friends, she can hold her drink about as well as the next person, but when she’s at home or just with Carl, she will only have two or three drinks before completely blacking out and forgetting the entire night. She supposedly an excellent lawyer and can’t work out that her husband is drugging her? She can’t recognise the symptoms of someone waking up the next morning after being date-raped? I find that very hard to believe and not in keeping with how talented Alison is at meant to be at her job.

Speaking of her job, at the beginning of the book Alison is assigned her first murder case. To be honest, this was one of the drawing points for me in buying this book. I love a good murder (not literally, but ya know) and I was looking forward to picking apart the mystery and maybe seeing a bit of action or gore when getting into the end. There was plenty of gore; Tyce apparently took great pleasure in trying to shock the reader with mentions of blood and stab wounds (and even blowjobs on piss-soaked train floors, but that’s a whole different category of unnecessary) but this added nothing to the story or even to the atmosphere. I never believed for a second that Madeleine was capable of killing her husband and the author’s heart wasn’t in trying to make me think she was. The ‘twist’ was fairly easy to put together and it wasn’t particularly shocking. I didn’t guess the ending but I think the reason for that was that the twist wasn’t deftly referred to – the hints were almost too subtle, in favour of repetitive descriptions of blood-soaked bedsheets.

Overall, it’s not a high-scoring one and, honestly, I wouldn’t recommend reading. As I said, I didn’t hate it – I feel like the medium just wasn’t right. I really get the vibe that the author is just hoping for an ITV Drama adaptation and the story just doesn’t bode well with the format of a novel. It’s a shame because I’ve read a lot of rave reviews. I wouldn’t be surprised if I see an advert on telly for TV programmes to look out for in the new year with this as its main feature and, if that’s the case, I will be watching. I feel like the story could have been so much more satisfying and artfully depicted, even with Alison’s abhorrent character, but this just doesn’t gel with me.

Have you read Blood Orange ?

Juliet | 27 | UK Overgrown emo kid who laughs at her own jokes.

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Review – Blood Orange by Harriet Tyce

Posted September 13, 2019 by Heather B in Reviews / 0 Comments

An electrifying debut thriller for fans of Anatomy of a Scandal, Apple Tree Yard, and Gone Girl. 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.... A disturbing, toxic and compelling novel that explores the power of fear and desire, jealousy and betrayal, love and hate, BLOOD ORANGE introduces a stunning new voice in psychological suspense.

Guys. I need a good mystery! I had high hopes for this one, but like so many recently, it fell short.

Alison is a barrister in London. She’s allegedly smart, resourceful, and good at her job, but, frankly, I see no evidence of that in this book. The blurb claims she has “…a doting husband, adorable daughter, and career on the rise….”, but as far as I can tell none of those things are true. Her husband isn’t doting. He’s gaslighting her, constantly putting her down, telling her she forgot to do something he was supposed to do, drugging her and then telling her that she got drunk and embarrassed them both. The fact that she would have 1 glass of wine, then he would make her tea or bring her water, then she’d wake up in the morning after blacking out and listen to his “disappointed” stories of her antics, was eye-rollingly ridiculous. Once is “I mean… I guess I drank more than I thought.” Over and over and over is an issue of a different sort.

And to be clear – Alison drinks too much. She’s often drunk. Which makes it even more insane that she just accepts that when she’s at home, and only when she’s at home or out with her husband, she blacks out after 1 drink. Nightly she goes out with co-workers and drinks bottles of alcohol, and has no problem remembering the night, but at home, she can’t have a single glass without blacking out? And never thinks anything of this? It’s difficult to suspend disbelief for this.

And a career on the rise? She’s having an affair with her boss, who actually treats her even worse than her husband does, that she’s constantly calling off and then putting back on. It’s interfering with her work, interfering with her marriage, and she’s such a mess she doesn’t see any of it.

The mystery of her case is pretty clear from the minute it starts. Anyone who reads mysteries will figure it out instantly. It’s not hidden, it’s not mysterious, it’s not intriguing.

Then the ending, and the solving of all of Alison’s problems comes out of nowhere. It’s so out of nowhere that I had to reread it a couple of times to be sure I wasn’t missing something and that I was reading it correctly. It’s just so out there and there are no hints of it anywhere.

This is Harriet Tyce’s debut, and while she’s technically a good writer, the story itself was so convoluted and, frankly, boring, that I don’t know if I’d read her next one.

About Harriet Tyce

Harriet grew up in Edinburgh and studied English at Oxford University before practising as a criminal barrister for the next decade. After having children she left the Bar and has recently completed with distinction an MA in Creative Writing – Crime Fiction at the University of East Anglia. Blood Orange is her first novel.

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Blood Orange

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By Harriet Tyce

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• Contemporary Women
• "Intriguing....A surefire bestseller!" Iris Johansen, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Shattered Mirror
• "BLOOD ORANGE kept me frantically turning the pages, desperate to know what would happen next. A superb, compulsive read!" Tess Gerritsen, New York Times bestselling author
• "BLOOD ORANGE is destined to be a debut that everyone is talking about in 2019. Dark, original and utterly compelling, I could not put it down. And what a twist at the end!" Lisa Jewell, New York Times bestselling author of Then She Was Gone
• "In BLOOD ORANGE, Harriet Tyce brings a new layer of visceral, addictive dark to domestic noir. Obsession, revenge, lust and murder play out on the pages as a female barrister tries to hold her life together while her personality tries to tear it apart. At once shocking and riveting, I simply couldn't stop reading. Bravo!" Sarah Pinborough, New York Times bestselling author
• "A classic thriller with complex and compelling characters." Clare Mackintosh, nationally bestselling author of I See You
• "A fantastic debut. Dark. Twisted. I read it in one heart-stopping sitting!" Robert Bryndza, #1 Wall Street Journal bestselling author of The Girl in the Ice
• "A dark and disturbing domestic noir." Louise Jensen, USA Today bestselling author
• "Combines sharp spare prose with a gloriously twisted plot--I read this in one heart-pounding, furiously angry sitting." Emma Flint, nationally bestselling author of Little Deaths
• "BLOOD ORANGE is a brilliant marriage between psychological suspense and legal thriller. The debut novel of the year. It's a stunning portrayal of both one woman's fight for justice for an accused murderer-and of a life spinning out of control. Harriet Tyce is now on my 'must read' list." Jeff Abbott, New York Times bestselling author
• "Gritty and compelling, BLOOD ORANGE drags you right into the hearts of the flawed characters and their stories from the get go. A book that will keep you up all night." Kate Hamer, bestselling author
• "This brilliant debut from Harriet Tyce has it all." Rachel Abbott, 3 million copy eBook bestselling author of Only the Innocent
• "It was all brilliantly done. Writing, plotting, characters--wonderful and deeply satisfying, devour-in-one-sitting stuff!" Lucy Mangan, Guardian and Stylist columnist and author of Bookworm: A Memoir of Childhood Reading
• "A promising debut... A page-turner that drives to a shocking and satisfying ending." Publisher's Weekly
• "This debut novel by a former barrister displays the pacing skills and smooth prose of a seasoned author, as suspense builds to a stunning climax. Keep your eyes on Tyce." Booklist
• "Chilling debut...beautifully crafted...A domestic thriller that twists and turns down a dark rabbit hole of suspense toward an explosive ending that will stick with readers long after they turn the page." The Big Thrill
• "BLOOD ORANGE caters to [a] growing craving to dissect people's hidden impulses, [with] a staggering finale that is guaranteed to leave readers shocked." Palm Beach Post
• "A serious contender for best debut of the year." CrimeReads.com, Best New Thrillers
• "Outstanding...The story of a marriage, of the point where love can turn to hate and how a person must regain her own sense of self. Obsession is a dangerous thing." South Florida Sun-Sentinel
• "The plot of this engrossing first novel is as audacious as anything you'll read this year." Toronto Star

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Harriet Tyce

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Blood Orange Paperback – Illustrated, April 28 2020

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• Print length 352 pages
• Language English
• Publication date April 28 2020
• Dimensions 13.59 x 3.05 x 20.57 cm
• ISBN-10 1538762749
• ISBN-13 978-1538762745
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• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Grand Central Publishing; Illustrated edition (April 28 2020)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Paperback ‏ : ‎ 352 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1538762749
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1538762745
• Item weight ‏ : ‎ 272 g
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 13.59 x 3.05 x 20.57 cm
• #145 in Divorce & Separation Law
• #2,025 in Legal Thrillers (Books)
• #6,052 in Psychological Thrillers (Books)

About the author

Harriet tyce.

Harriet Tyce was born and grew up in Edinburgh. She graduated from Oxford in 1994 with a degree in English Literature before gaining legal qualifications. She worked as a criminal barrister for ten years, leaving after having children. She completed an MA in Creative Writing – Crime Fiction at UEA where she wrote Blood Orange, the Sunday Times bestselling novel, winner of a gold Nielsen Bestseller Award in 2021. It was followed by The Lies You Told and It Ends At Midnight, both also Sunday Times bestsellers. She lives in north London with her family and two dogs. Follow Harriet on Twitter and Instagram @harriet_tyce

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Book Review: Blood Orange by Harriet Tyce

By: Author Laura

Posted on Published: 5th January 2022  - Last updated: 12th April 2024

Categories Book Reviews , Books

Blood Orange by Harriet Tyce is her debut thriller. But does it live up to the hype? Find out in my Blood Orange book review.

Blood Orange Book Summary

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….

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Blood Orange Book Review

Alison is a successful criminal barrister in London and, after many years of hard work, has just been given her first murder trial.

It’s a curious case – a wife and stay-at-home mum kills her rich husband one night in a drunken rage.

Except, she doesn’t seem to remember actually killing him and says she woke up when the cleaner came the next day, covered in blood.

Despite this, she’s adamant she wants to plead guilty.

As Alison interviews her client, she realises that there’s a lot more to this murder story than she initially let on, and disturbingly Alison starts to see some similarities between her client’s accounts and her own marriage.

Whilst it might look like Alison has an idyllic little family – caring, stay-at-home Dad, beautiful daughter, nice home, something is a little off.

Alison has a serious drinking problem and she’s been having a torrid affair with a solicitor that she works with. The same solicitor that instructed her on this murder trial. 

Blood Orange is a really easy read and I was instantly sucked into Alison’s story.

What’s interesting here is that Alison’s personal life is cleverly intertwined with the murder trial she’s working on, which builds up suspense as you keep reading.

She’s an unreliable narrator as when she’s not at work, she’s often found at the end of a bottle. As a result, her personal life is spiralling out of control.  

Part of the ending is obvious really early on, which is what frustrated so many other readers, but the specific details about how it’s all going to end were a bit of a twist.

The last few pages are the most exciting and I did find myself gaping at the book as I turned each page. A lot of time is spent setting up different plot strands, which all collide and come to a head at the end.

However, what’s a little disappointing is that it’s all over rather quickly and some plot points are underdeveloped. 

As a lawyer myself, I appreciated the discussions about the murder trial and case, which I found quite interesting. As the author is a former barrister herself, it makes sense that these details would be spot on. 

Overall, I enjoyed this book and found myself staying up late to keep reading. I can see why some people loved it, and others hated it. I’m somewhere in the middle.

The comparisons to The Girl on the Train don’t help as the books clearly have some overlap, but the former is a better novel and already so famous.

Although Blood Orange wasn’t quite as creepy or eerie as I’d hoped for a thriller, there were certainly a few shocking moments. I’d describe this as an entry-level thriller as if you’re read a lot of them, you will easily see what’s coming.

However, if you’re not all that familiar with the genre, this is a good way to get yourself started.

Buy Blood Orange by Harriet Tyce : Amazon | Blackwells | Waterstones | Bookshop.org UK

Blood Orange Book Quotes

“Because the last time I looked at the law on murder, it seemed pretty clear-cut that sticking a knife into someone repeatedly is pretty damn illegal. If you’ll pardon my pun.”

“We don’t need drink to be pleasant.”

“Her accounts have been inconsistent, the conferences with her trying and over-emotional. But in her position, what would I have done differently?”

“Madeleine used the phrase as a mother. It’s never a phrase that goes anywhere good, usually crowbarred in to justify some particularly conservative or repressive piece of thinking. I’ve always tried to avoid thinking about myself as a mother.”

Blood Orange Book Club Questions

Please do not read the below if you have not yet read the book as it will contain spoilers.

There is a brilliant list of Blood Orange book club questions on the author’s website, with two pages of thought-provoking questions. Here are some that got my brain ticking:

• Do you like Alison? Do you find yourself sympathizing with her? Why or why not? Did your feelings toward Alison change through the course of the novel?
• What do you think Matilda’s feelings are toward her parents? Does she like being left alone with Carl? With Alison?
• Aside from his relationship with Alison, we learn that Patrick was prepared to break the law by lying in court to help Madeleine. Do you think this was the right thing for him to do?

Click here for the full list of Blood Orange book club questions .

Have you read Blood Orange by Harriet Tyce? What did you think about it?

If you liked this post, check out these: 9 Books Like Gone Girl 17 Addicting Books to Read Book Review: Luckiest Girl Alive Book Review: Tampa by Alissa Nutting Book Review: Before I Go To Sleep by S J Watson Book Review: Into the Water by Paula Hawkins

Editor of What’s Hot?

Favbookshelf

Friday 21st of January 2022

After reading the review which i absolute loved, I am quite excited to read the book. You make the book seem so interesting with the quotes that you mentioned.

Blood Orange by Harriet Tyce book review – a tense and uncomfortable mystery

Blood Orange was a book I picked up after asking my social followers which of the books from a selection they suggested I read alongside Malice (review for that coming soon). My partner said she’d read it and remembered it being good, so I was quite excited for it.

Please note that this article contains affiliate links – this means if you choose to purchase any products via the links below, I will receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. These affiliate links do not affect my final opinion of the products.

Blood Orange focuses on Alison and everything that goes wrong in her life. She’s got a doting husband, a kind and adorable daughter and her career seems on the rise as receives her first murder case. However, she’s having an affair with a colleague which, compounded with the fact her career is taking up much more of her time seems to be ruining her home life too. But a lot more also seems to be going on.

Blood Orange plot – 4/5

Blood Orange is one of those books that has you guessing throughout every page as to what is coming next and where it’s going to end up. It’s got a plot that makes you judge characters and double-guess absolutely everyone.

The plot is just juicy enough to keep you turning the pages, however, you do have to stick with it. Having constantly been told “it gets good” I may have gone into this book expecting more from the first third. However, other than the obvious drama of an affair, not a huge else is really going on. Yes, there’s some horrible tension, some poor choices from Alison and some growing nervousness but other than that, it’s essentially a woman going to work and sneaking around her husband’s back.

However, I promise you – things do pick up. Without any spoilers, there are darker moments that start not to make sense to Alison and it’s very interesting to see how the characters change around her which, once you’ve finished the book and then look back, make perfect sense.

Blood Orange characters – 3.5/5

Blood Orange focuses almost solely on Alison – showing you all of the story through her eyes. This builds on the tension throughout the plot and also allows you to build an understanding of Alison as a person. She’s someone with very little confidence, but someone who is clearly very good at her job. She seems somebody who is very lost. The affair she is having is not because she is cruel or doesn’t love her husband anymore, it appears she is having one because she is seeking love and passion to help her escape from the constant problems her life brings at her.

In Blood Orange , there are themes of abuse. Again, without ruining the plot, there are two forms of abuse quite evident throughout the book. To make some of the characters seem more abusive and even more obscene, sometimes I felt like the author had them react, say things and act in a way that just seemed a little over the top. There are also clear moments where outside parties can see the abuse happening and do nothing about it, once again taking my immersion away. I felt a couple of lines were forced. However, I am incredibly lucky to have never been in these situations and so this may just be my naivety.

Blood Orange by Harriet Tyce overall book review – 4/5

Blood Orange has a fairly slow first third but quickly picks up the action and tension which leaves you flipping the pages to find out what’s going on. It’s a book that explores two different forms of domestic abuse in a mature way, leaving you feeling uncomfortable quite often. The final third will leave you shocked and you’ll do well to guess it. Blood Orange is an easy thriller that if you’re into your down-to-earth mysteries you’ll likely enjoy!

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Blood Orange Paperback – Illustrated, April 28, 2020

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• Print length 354 pages
• Language English
• Publication date April 28, 2020
• Dimensions 5.35 x 1.2 x 8.1 inches
• ISBN-10 1538762749
• ISBN-13 978-1538762745
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• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Grand Central Publishing; Reprint edition (April 28, 2020)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Paperback ‏ : ‎ 354 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1538762749
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1538762745
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 9.6 ounces
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.35 x 1.2 x 8.1 inches
• #12,028 in Murder Thrillers
• #13,538 in Psychological Thrillers (Books)
• #38,011 in Suspense Thrillers

About the author

Harriet tyce.

Harriet Tyce was born and grew up in Edinburgh. She graduated from Oxford in 1994 with a degree in English Literature before gaining legal qualifications. She worked as a criminal barrister for ten years, leaving after having children. She completed an MA in Creative Writing – Crime Fiction at UEA where she wrote Blood Orange, the Sunday Times bestselling novel, winner of a gold Nielsen Bestseller Award in 2021. It was followed by The Lies You Told and It Ends At Midnight, both also Sunday Times bestsellers. She lives in north London with her family and two dogs. Follow Harriet on Twitter and Instagram @harriet_tyce

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Blood Orange: The gripping, bestselling Richard & Judy book club thriller Kindle Edition

A LESSON IN CRUELTY , the jaw-dropping new thriller from bestselling author Harriet Tyce is available to pre-order now. '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

• Print length 353 pages
• Language English
• Sticky notes On Kindle Scribe
• Publisher Wildfire
• Publication date 21 Feb. 2019
• File size 1631 KB
• Page Flip Enabled
• Word Wise Enabled
• Enhanced typesetting Enabled
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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... I did it. I killed him. Alison's client stabbed her husband; she wants to plead guilty. And yet something about her story feels off... I'm watching you. I know what you're doing. Someone knows Alison's secret. Someone who wants to make her pay for what she's done, and who won't stop until she's lost everything.... Bold, provocative and compelling, Blood Orange introduces a stunning new voice in psychological suspense.

From the Back Cover

About the author, product details.

• ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0791HFBVX
• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Wildfire (21 Feb. 2019)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• File size ‏ : ‎ 1631 KB
• Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
• Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
• Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
• X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
• Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
• Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
• Print length ‏ : ‎ 353 pages
• 301 in Crime, Thriller & Mystery Adventures
• 479 in Psychological Thrillers (Kindle Store)
• 565 in Psychological Thrillers (Books)

About the author

Harriet tyce.

Harriet Tyce was born and grew up in Edinburgh. She graduated from Oxford in 1994 with a degree in English Literature before gaining legal qualifications. She worked as a criminal barrister for ten years, leaving after having children. She completed an MA in Creative Writing – Crime Fiction at UEA where she wrote Blood Orange, the Sunday Times bestselling novel, winner of a gold Nielsen Bestseller Award in 2021. It was followed by The Lies You Told and It Ends At Midnight, both also Sunday Times bestsellers. She lives in north London with her family and two dogs. Follow Harriet on Twitter and Instagram @harriet_tyce

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Book Review: Indigenous author explores charged issue of blood lines in his debut novel `Fire Exit’

This cover image released by Tin House shows “Fire Exit” by Morgan Talty. (Tin House via AP)

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Morgan Talty has followed up on the success of his prize-winning story collection “Night of the Living Rez” with a poignant first novel that explores the charged question of what constitutes identity — family or tribe?

“Fire Exit” is narrated by a white man named Charles, who lives across the river from the Penobscot Nation in Maine. For years he has watched from afar as Elizabeth, the child he fathered with a Native woman, grows up on the reservation with her mother, Mary, and her Native stepfather, Roger. He longs to tell her the truth about her paternity, but Mary insists on keeping it a secret.

Charles’ desire is driven in part by a history of mental illness in his family. When the novel opens, his mother, Louise, who has suffered for years from bouts of severe depression, is also exhibiting symptoms of dementia. She is at risk of losing any memory of their shared history as a family, a history that Charles wants Elizabeth to know.

Sadly for Charles, biology has been destiny. The son of a white mother and father, he was raised on the reservation by Louise and her second husband, Fredrick, a Native man. But at age 18, he had to leave the reservation because of a tribal law that barred anyone who was not Native from living on the land. It was that same law that prompted Mary to tell him, after she found out she was pregnant with his child, “The baby can’t be yours.”

Charles, however, has little use for the complicated, controversial “blood quantum” rules that many tribes use to keep track of citizenship, which are based on the idea that the amount of “Indian blood” in an individual can be quantified. Despite his racial identity as a white man, he feels connected to the people and the land where he grew up. “It was Fredrick’s love that made me feel Native. He loved me so much that I was, and still am, convinced that I was from him, part of him… That was how I felt about Elizabeth.”

The conflict between Mary and Charles comes to a head when Elizabeth, who has grown up to be a deeply troubled young woman, goes missing and Charles is enlisted to help find her during a nor’easter of epic proportions. It is a gripping ending to a thoughtful, heartfelt exploration of what it means to be part of a family and a community. Is it a matter of blood, biology or simply the bonds of love?

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