Blood Orange by Harriet Tyce

                                          

Hardback: 324 pages                                                                                       
Genre: Psychological Fiction
Publisher: Wildfire, Headline 2019
Source: Amazon
First Sentence: First, you light a cigarette, the smoke curling in on itself and up towards the ceiling.
Favourite Quote: The affair for me was solace and escape, a relief because I was wanted and not pushed to side.
Review Quote: Blood Orange is glittering and fierce and resolutely unsentimental, a glorious bonfire of a marriage thriller. The Irish Times.
Main Characters: Alison, her husband Carl and her lover Patrick.Setting: London
My Opinion: I thoroughly enjoyed this novel but it was not the strong psychological thriller I was expecting from the pre-publication hype it was given.
For me it read as a dark domestic life drama centred around the main protagonist Alison. A successful barrister who has just been given her first murder case. Her personal life is a mess as she tries unsuccessfully to balance home life, marriage, a racy affair and the pressures of her career.
There are some great twists and turns with an ending that momentarily left me quite shaken, though in retrospect should not have done so!
Recommended to anyone that likes a page turner, however you must be prepared for lots of domestic violence and sexual abuse which can be rather disturbing.


 Precis Courtesy of Amazon:

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....

Author Profile:

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    Photo courtesy of Amazon


Harriet Tyce was born and grew up in Edinburgh. She graduated from the University of Oxford in 1994 with a degree in English Literature before gaining legal qualifications. She worked as a criminal barrister for ten years, leaving after the birth of her first child. She completed an MA in Creative Writing - Crime Fiction at UEA where she wrote Blood Orange, which is her first novel.


Photograph and Biographical Information courtesy of the following sites:

Amazon Author Page     Goodreads - Author Profile  Harriet Tyce - Author Offical Website

Twitter Account - Harriet Tyce

The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides

                                    


Hardback: 339 pages                                                                                            
Genre: Psychological Thriller
Publisher: Orion 2019
Source: Bookshop
First Sentence: I don't know why I'm writing this.
Favourite Quote: “Remember, love that doesn't include honesty doesn't deserve to be called love.”
Review Quote: An excellent, slow-burning psychological thriller; sharp, clever and with a whammy that genuinely took me by surprise.
Main Characters: Alicia Berenson and Theo Faber

Setting: London, England

Literary Awards: Goodreads Choice Award for Mystery & Thriller and Nominee for Debut Novel (2019)

My Opinion: 

Although this is a debut novel from Alex  Michaelides, he has already written successful screenplays. This shows in the quality of his writing, with the storyline flowing perfectly from start to finish.

Alicia Berenson fatally shot her husband six years ago. She has not spoken since that tragic event, but her latest psychotherapist Theo Faber is determined to get to the bottom of the mystery somehow.

Well he does and the results were somewhat surprising, I was nowhere near guessing!  A very quick and easy read as one just keeps turning the pages wanting to know if Theo is going to be successful or not.

Recommended to anyone that wants to read a good story and enjoys a mystery.

 

Précis Courtesy of Goodreads:

Alicia Berenson’s life is seemingly perfect. A famous painter married to an in-demand fashion photographer, she lives in a grand house with big windows overlooking a park in one of London’s most desirable areas. One evening her husband Gabriel returns home late from a fashion shoot, and Alicia shoots him five times in the face, and then never speaks another word.

Alicia’s refusal to talk, or give any kind of explanation, turns a domestic tragedy into something far grander, a mystery that captures the public imagination and casts Alicia into notoriety. The price of her art skyrockets, and she, the silent patient, is hidden away from the tabloids and spotlight at the Grove, a secure forensic unit in North London.

Theo Faber is a criminal psychotherapist who has waited a long time for the opportunity to work with Alicia. His determination to get her to talk and unravel the mystery of why she shot her husband takes him down a twisting path into his own motivations—a search for the truth that threatens to consume him....


Author Profile:

                                           

Alex Michaelides was born in Cyprus to a Greek-Cypriot father and an English mother. He studied English Literature at Cambridge University and later got an MA in Screenwriting at the American Film Institute in Los Angeles. 

He wrote the film The Devil You Know (2013) starring Rosamund Pike and co-wrote The Con is On (2018), starring Uma Thurman, Tim Roth, Parker Posey and Sofia Vergara. The Silent Patient  is his first novel and is a Sunday Times, New York Times, Australian and Irish bestseller.

Photographs and Biographical Information courtesy of the following sites.

Goodreads - Author Profile     Amazon Author Page    Twitter - Alex Michaelides