About the Book

Blood Oranges, My Love is the final anthology of dark crime reads from F.E. Birch following on from Bowl of Cherries and Rather Like Marzipan. Most of the stories have been placed in competitions or previously published and span from 2006 – present. They are quick reads and contain criminally insane themes involving family drama, fraud, childhood memories and trauma, bereavement, grooming, alcoholism, spontaneous combustion, ghost stories, disability, and a bit of vengeful murder. There’s also a handful of lighter, kinder, more upbeat reads, should you wish to find them.  

If you like your stories dark, devious and deliciously criminal, then you’ll love them!

About the Author 

F.E. Birch is an ex-cop from the North East but she’s not a Geordie. She is a prolific short story writer with a trail of pseudonyms and publications behind her. With a penchant for dark, deep and the disturbing, her crimes are rarely cosy. She has self-published two collections of competition winning short stories and her debut novel, She’s Not There was published early 2023 by Red Dragon. She is also published by Harper Collins (2013) with stories about being an undercover cop …

With a bendy EDS body, GSOH and a tad clumsy, she wears many hats and loves wigs. Her friends call her Effie.

What I Thought 

This is a rather melancholy selection of stories which creep into the darker corners of society. They are beautifully British and touch on the topics outlined in the synopsis above so please do check for triggers before reading. 

They are also wholly human and full of emotion, whether that emotion is rage or suffocating loss. 

We have a mixture of flash fiction, short stories and a couple of poems. The length for most was spot on but there were a few that although were perfect as they were made me desire more. That took me into their world and made me want continued insight into the daily lives of these characters. 

F. E. Birch’s take on write what you know reflects the work she has done and I am sure there was some therapy in expelling some of these. The author note for Elegant in Black is illuminating. 

I had a visceral reaction to some of these tales. Red, Red Nails and a Webcam made me cringe so hard for the character as I twigged out just before they did what was going on. Expect the Worst was a hard read but I recognise the truth of what it portrays. 

The story that features spontaneous human combustion (I won’t say which one to avoid spoilers) bought me back to my younger years where the fear of this happening seemed oddly ever present. Can anyone remember why? Was it the X-Files or something before? 

My favourite story was Twenty-Eight Pairs of White Socks which was so very moving. A tale of childhood struggle and trying to heal the intergenerational trauma. 

After reading this I will definitely look to pick up more of the author’s work and I am very intrigued to see what she can do with a novel length story. 

For full disclosure Effie and I met virtually quite a few years back on an online writing group. I received a gifted e copy of the book via Heather Fitt for the purposes of taking part in this blog tour. Opinions above are my own. Check out the rest of the tour which starts today to see what everyone else thought.