Book Review: Blood Orange

Domestic suspense gets a topical update in Harriet Tyce's Blood Orange, a complex, dark tale of a criminal barrister navigating the world of misogyny and murder in the #MeToo era. Her central character, Alison Bailey, is more grey than your typical protagonist, imbued with traits that make her far from likeable. As much as she is successful in her profession, her personal life is falling to pieces, what with her drinking problem and a clandestine affair with a senior legal partner making it worse. Carl, her psychotherapist husband who specialises in male sex addiction, puts up with her neglectful ways, or so we're led to believe, but as her marriage slowly disintegrates and a murder case consumes her time, Tyce paints a convincing portrait of women stuck in toxic relationships, while also exploring themes of domestic abuse, violence and addiction with admirable attention to atmosphere, characterisation, and suspense. The truth, when it's revealed, is a shocker, a stunning reversal that puts everything in fresh light. It's not wholly satisfying, nor there is a consistent through line that hints at what's bubbling underneath before it all comes to a close in the way it does, but disturbing it surely is.