Blood Orange by Harriet Tyce

I love a good psychological thriller. Over the years I’ve read a fair few of them and they often have one thing in common: you don’t want to put them down. Blood Orange was no different, with twists and turns that kept me guessing.

Allison may be at the top of her career, defending her first murder case in court, but her personal life is a mess. Her marriage is falling apart, her relationship with both her husband and daughter is strained, she’s having an affair with a colleague and her drinking is out of control. No matter how much she tells herself she’ll only have one, she can’t help drinking more and more. Madeleine is the woman accused of murder, a seemingly clear cut case; she woke up covered in blood, her husband brutally stabbed to death. But she can’t remember what happened and all the evidence points to his past abuses of her and his son.

One thing that I found really interesting were the parallels in this story between Allison and Madeleine; they were incredibly similar in so many ways. At first it seemed obvious that Allison was out of control and drinking too much, but as the story went on, I began to wonder about her husband Carl and how he treated her; something just didn’t seem right. It was this that kept me turning the pages more than anything else; there must be something unusual going on to account for Allison’s behaviour and situation.

There were plenty of twists and turns in the story; some incredibly shocking ones. If I had one criticism it would be that at times the book was very melodramatic, but then I think it needed to be in order to keep up the pace and shock level for the reader. Each of the characters had their own flaws, some more serious than others.

A shocking, dramatic, quick read; one that will definitely absorb you for a good few hours.