Blood Orange Book Review

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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!