Blood Orange by Harriet Tyce

Another day, another less than average thriller

⭐️⭐️

The blurb

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.

The Review

I am generally a fan of a domestic thriller. Anything with some psychological suspense is my book 'comfort food'. But this, this book...was like continuously biting on a lemon, being surprised at how bitter it tasted, and then forcing yourself to go back and nibble some more. That's how visceral my reaction to this book was.

There is not a single character in this book that I felt any compassion for. I'm a big fan of unpleasant characters, some of my favourite fictional characters are utterly heinous, but you have to have some small reason to root for them. The characters in this book are not only irredeemable but also, completely unbelievable.

My biggest issue was with our protagonist, Alison. I just refuse to believe someone that intelligent, with a career as a barrister, could make such dreadful decisions in her personal life. I do get that the two don't necessarily go hand in hand, but..... her husband is horrible to her, so she has an affair with someone who is perhaps even more loathsome? I'm just fed up of reading books where women seemingly go searching for pain and suffering, unless its justified by some kind of tangible mental illness that can explain this need to be constantly suffering at the hand of someone else.

The other thing I can't abide with is books that drag and repeat themselves. This book seemed to go on forever. It was just example after example of her making bad decisions and the men in her life being atrocious to her. The only chapters that moved with any pace were the last 2 and by then I just wanted it to be over.

Watching the drama of Alison's life unfold was like watching an unnecessary car crash in all its gruesome detail. I found it deeply unpleasant. Also, a warning - there are some really voyeuristic and detailed descriptions of some pretty rough (and in some cases non-consensual) sex, which just felt like they were added in to up the 'shock-value'.

I fell into the trap of reading this one, as there was a lot of hype around it being the 'next unputdownable thriller' (People should be fined for using that phrase anymore in the publishing world). It gets half decent reviews, but it hasn't broken any kind of mould for me and in fact just is a lesser version of similar thrillers that have gone before.