Harriet Tyce Books In Order

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Anthologies

Harriet Tyce is an English author of mystery and thriller books best known for her a psychological thriller novel Blood Orange published in the US by Grand Central Publishing and in the UK BY Wildfire Publishing. The novel has been published in other countries including Estonia, Denmark, Czech Republic, Poland, Germany, Slovakia, Spain, Norway, Hungary, and Italy.

The author was born and raised in Edinburgh. She attended Corpus Christi College where she studied English before serving as a criminal barrister for the next ten years. After starting a family, Harriet Tyce left barrister and has since graduated with a Master’s degree in Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia.

Blood Orange

In her debut novel, Blood Orange Harriet Tyce has established herself in the league of all time bestselling authors of psychological suspense. If you’ve read The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins, or The Silent Patient by Alex Michael or any psychological thriller novel by some of the prolific authors you might want to check this book out.

Harriet Tyce’s novel could easily be classified as Exhibit A, to dispute any claim that domestic suspense novels are less gritty, less risky and less dark. Crack the spine on this book to enter a bleak world characterized by poor decision making, violence, and high doses of sexual danger that would make any reader consider celibacy.

Blood Orange tells the story of Alison Bailey, a United Kingdom-based lawyer the wife to Carl, mistress to Patrick Saunders and mother to Matilda. It’s clear from the beginning that Alison wants to end things with Patrick to make her marriage much better and be a better mom to her daughter- but the difference between desire and action can be at times be a wide chasm.

Unlike other novels you will read featuring lawyers, the author rejects any efforts to sugarcoat the stresses that lawyers face when working on different litigations at once. Even after the main character is awarded her first murder case, she is not spared of any other cases and the book documents some minor court appearances Alison must juggle around the demands of the murder case. As luck would have it- good or bad luck as one might put it, Alison’s mentor tasked with helping her prepare for this murder trial is none other than the man she wants to end things with- making any hopes that she can resist his approaches impossible.

Additionally, Alison is an alcohol addict, and she struggles with her drinking habits, and this positively contributes to her controversial choices. It can be quite frustrating for the reader to watch the main character struggle with addiction and compromise on the good things in her life as does Alison. She struggles with alcohol addiction and compromises on the good things in life, but the reality is that people always find ways to justify their actions, decisions, and choices even when those witnessing from a distance know better.

In this case, fans of domestic violence suspense novels will have no problems tracking whatever is happening to Alison in Blood Orange. Except that, instead of diminishing the suspense, the author manages to use this to dram up the tension the readers feel as each danger marches the heroine toward doomsday.

Harriet Tyce skillfully navigates the world of the blame game. The readers are only aware of Alison’s point of view, but within these views, there are lots of indications that no one in the story is making the right decisions. The only question is- whose decisions are actionable criminal and whose decisions are ill-advised?

Blood Orange is a thrilling feminist crime novel with a murder trial that revolves around domestic violence, there’s plenty of workplace sexual misconduct, controlling behavior that complicates almost every aspect of the relationships within the book and patterns of domestic abuse. Toxic masculinity is an issue that has been around since the world’s beginning and still affects the society today, and there’s no shortage of examining this ill in the society from every angle in this book. Harriet’s debut novel is a courageous and brutally realistic example of how destructive toxic masculinity is and how it can be hard to avoid becoming its casualty.

Harriet Tyce has done a fantastic job in creating the likable but flawed main character. Alison is the most flawed character you can probably get. While she’s a successful lawyer with a loving husband and a beautiful daughter, she is involved in an illicit affair with a man she can’t get out of her mind. Her first case in a homicide and has her on edge confused what skeletons her client is keeping in the closet, and soon it all starts coming down on her, and you know what people say, when it rains, it does pour, and our heroine is about to get drenched.

Do not be fooled; this is not your typical thriller novel. While the book does talk about the main murder case Alison is handling, the main storyline here is that of Alison and the problems she faces. Rather than Harriet Tyce focusing on a lawyer handling court cases day in and day out as the main storyline as you will find in many lawyer books, Blood Orange does the exact opposite. The different storyline beautifully connects into the main storyline. You will end up tuned with everything wanting to know what happens about the murder case and everything happening to Alison. What will get you addicted is the story behind the main story, how can a person undermine us and make us do things we don’t want to? It might sound twisted, but let’s face it, it’s a pure abuse regardless of who does it- man or a woman it’s always abuse.

Blood Orange is a thrilling, fabulous, entertaining but more to that it unsettles and disturbs the reader as well. The themes of passion, obsession, truth, relationships, extramarital affairs seeth in a claustrophobic whirlpool of compelling writing. The story also explores the power of desire, fear, betrayal, jealousy, hate, and love.

One Response to “Harriet Tyce”

1. Beverly Bealer: 1 year ago

   Love all your books! Please let me know when the next one comes out! Thanks!

   Reply