📖 Blog Tour ~ The Scarlet Dress by Louise Douglas

 

📖 Excited to be on today's blog tour 📖 

Boldwood Book
18 February 2021

My thanks to the publishers for my ecopy of this book
and to Rachel's Random Resources for my invitation to the blog tour

The past was like water. Once the tide turned, you couldn't hold it back.'

In the long, hot summer of 1995, twenty-two-year-old Alice Lang rents a caravan on a holiday park on the outskirts of the lively holiday resort of Severn Sands. She befriends Marnie, a shy, damaged little girl whose father is the park's caretaker and whose mother died a few months earlier. Will, whose mother runs the bar, falls in love with Alice, and is unbearably jealous of anyone else she sees. Tensions rise until one evening Alice disappears from her caravan. She's never seen again, and only her scarlet dress is found washed up on the shore.

A quarter of a century later, the town is run down and nobody comes there anymore. Mr and Mrs deVillars, former owners of the holiday park, have passed the failing business onto their son Guy, who promptly sells the land for development. Builders clearing the land to create an expanse of executive homes uncover human bones. It has to be Alice.

Will and Marnie’s lives were entirely shaped by what happened that summer, and now Alice has been found, they must struggle to pin down their memories, to escape the secrets of the past, the lies they told and the unbearable guilt they're both carrying.

They need to find out what happened to Alice. Who killed her? And why?

📖 My thoughts..

The holiday resort at Severn Sands is once again the subject of scrutiny when human remains are found when the holiday camp is being demolished to make way for a housing development. Twenty five years earlier the mysterious disappearance of twenty two year old Alice Lang caused a similar upset when she left her caravan on the holiday park, never to be seen again. For those who lived and worked on the camp site this disappearance has lain heavy, particularly for Marnie who was then a withdrawn ten year old, and also for nineteen year old Will who had a crush on Alice.

The story then introduces us to the grown up versions of Will and Marnie, both have been damaged by what life has thrown at them and over the years they have each carried a burden of doubt and guilt. Both characters are extremely complex, I found Marnie quite fascinating, she's a gentle soul, far more comfortable with animals than she is with people, and yet there's a hidden depth to her which the author cleverly brings out as the story develops. It took me a while to warm to Will, he has sharp edges which hide his vulnerability, but the role he played in the mysterious events at Severn Sands a quarter of a century ago are crucial to the plot.

As the story progresses the author gradually reveals more about these two central characters and as the events of the summer of 1995 come sharply into focus so a fascinating story, with lots of twists and turns, is gradually revealed.  This clever author succeeds in building the tension quite slowly and there's an underlying edginess which at times gives the story quite a sinister feel. I especially enjoyed how the holiday resort became a character in the story, this quiet place, so down on its luck, has kept its secrets well hidden for far too long.

The Scarlet Dress is beautifully written as we have come to expect from this talented author. I flew through the story in the space of one sitting as I didn't want to give up until I knew the secrets of the scarlet dress and the role that both Marnie, Will and the other lead characters played in this compelling story.

About the Author

Louise Douglas is the bestselling and brilliantly reviewed author of novels including The House By The Sea and Missing You-a RNA award winner.The Secrets Between Us was a Richard and Judy Book Club pick. She lives in the West Country.

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**Blog Tour** The Secret by the Lake ~ Louise Douglas

Jaffareadstoo is delighted to be today's host on the

The Secret by The Lake Blog Tour

Black Swam (Transworld)
November 19 2015

When The Secret by the Lake opens, in 1931, we have a tantalising glimpse into something which happened in the past before going forwards to 1961, to a time thirty years later when Amy is the treasured nanny to Viviane, and is living with Alain and Julia in an idyllic location in France. Peaceful summers spent on the French coast and in an apartment in an affluent suburb of Paris come to an abrupt halt when Amy is recalled home to care for her grandmother. But tragedy doesn’t end there and Amy is soon needed again, this time to care for Viviane in very difficult circumstances. Reservoir Cottage, in the village of Blackwater, in Somerset is now home to Viviane and Julia, it’s a place where heartbreak and misfortune sit awkwardly on the edge of a lonely expanse of water, and the darkness of the water, mirrors the forsaken atmosphere of Reservoir Cottage.

What then follows is a deliciously creepy novel, which looks at the dynamics of family secrets. It’s a story of lives lost and of the tangled webs of malice which have been allowed to fester and which continue to twirl and dance in long forgotten shadows. In many ways, it is a profoundly sad book, and I won't enlighten you any further on that matter, but underneath the malice is a far gentler story, that of Amy's burgeoning attraction to Daniel, a young man of principle, who offers hope in dark times.

There is no doubt that Louise Douglas has the ability to take the reader by the hand, and believe me, a comforting hand to hold is very welcome during parts of this unhappy story. And as you embark on an adventure that feels so authentically real, you have to occasionally tear yourself away from the words on the page and look up to see the sky and the clouds scudding by, just to reaffirm that normal life is still going on around you. It’s been a long time since I read a book that had such a prowling malevolence which gets under your skin and creeps into the corners of your mind and really plays with your thoughts, until you can’t help but be completely taken in by what is unfolding on the page before you.

This is now the sixth book that this talented author has presented for our delectation and for fans, like me, she can’t write them quick enough. If you haven’t allowed yourself the pleasure of reading one of this fine author’s books, then you could pick any one of her stories, open it at random and read a page and if you don’t want to go back to the beginning and read more, well, I would be very surprised!

Best read with....a large glass of Tanqueray Gin ...and a comforting packet of cheese and onion crisps.

For your delectation...

    

About the Author

Find Louise on her website
Follow her on Twitter @LouiseDouglas3
And find her on her Facebook page

My thanks to Louise Douglas and Kim Nash for the kind invitation to join in with this exciting

Blog Tour.

And to Jan at BeadyJansBooks for her kindness in passing on her proof copy of this book.





~***~

Review ~ Your Beautiful Lies by Louise Douglas

Transworld
2014

Annie Howarth is living what should be the perfect life. She is married to William, who is a high ranking police officer in the South Yorkshire force; they have a beautiful daughter and a lovely home. On the surface life is good, but this is 1984 and the miners strike is in full swing and for the small mining communities of South Yorkshire, life is about to change forever. When Annie discovers that her former lover has returned to town after a ten year absence, a sense of restlessness starts to pervade and she finds that old memories run deep. When scandal threatens, Annie is haunted by the repercussions which follow.

The story is absorbing, entertaining and beguiling in equal measure. Annie’s story resonates and you very quickly become involved in her life, her family and share her simple joys and in the overwhelming dilemma of her life. There’s never a lull in the narrative, never a moment when the writing doesn’t draw you into situations which are plausible and realistic and which, undoubtedly, make you sit up and take notice. The restlessness of a community at odds with itself is well demonstrated and the agitation and unease of people living through an extraordinary time is shown in the almost indolent nature of the narrative and which reflects how the story is allowed to develop.

This author never puts a foot wrong and I know that whenever a new book beckons I am in for a real treat and that as soon as I start to read the first page, the outside world ceases to exist and I become lost in a plot which keeps my attention from beginning to end. I started to read Your Beautiful Lies at six o’clock on Friday evening and didn't look up until the book was finished in the early hours of Saturday.

It was a Friday night well spent.

 About the author

My thanks to NetGalley and Random House UK, Transworld Publishers for my copy of this book.