This is my first book by Louise Douglas and I will definitely be reading more. A gripping murder mystery with intriguing characters that keeps you turning the pages and guessing till the very end. I read it in one sitting.

The Scarlet Dress is another gripping thriller from Louise Douglas. It is a duel time novel set in the present day and 1995. Alice Lang arrives at Severn Sands holiday park but never leaves. In the present day, human remains are found during building work on the old holiday park and it is time for Alice’s old friends to find justice for her.
I really enjoyed the storyline but felt the pace was a little slow at times. The characters were interesting, and their relationship with Alice was revealed in a way that made you question everyone’s involvement in her disappearance. Louise Douglas is an expert in creating and describing flawed people who add another dimension to her books.

25 years ago Alice Lang disappeared from a holiday park with only her scarlet dress found washed up on the beach. Years later, human bones are found whilst the land is being cleared for redevelopment. Marnie - the little girl Alice befriended all those years ago, and Will, the jealous man who fell in love with Alice must now confront the memories from that time, and try to figure out what happened to Alice all those years ago...

The book is a slower paced mystery than I’m used to, but it fitted the storyline well. However, because of this I found myself losing interest in parts and flicking through to get to something more exciting. 

The characters were fantastic, especially Marnie. I related to her as soon as we met her, and I loved reading the story from her perspective. As for the suspects in Alice’s death, I couldn’t figure out which one it was. They all had their own suspicious motives, the means and time to be responsible. 

The author has a genuine talent for weaving a story together and bringing the elements to life on the page. It was written beautifully with vivid descriptions that held the plot up when it felt a bit slow. 

Overall, a great and intriguing plot, but a little slower in parts. Marnie carried me through the story and made me connect to the novel on a deeper level. Thanks to Netgalley, the publisher and author, for a copy of this book to read and review.

I loved the setting with the down at heel holiday resort and the Big House over looking it all. A really interesting place to set a book and great way of bringing disparate characters together

This is my first book by the author Louise Douglas and I will be reading her other work. Thanks for a preview of this book to the author and the publisher and of course NetGalley.

For me this book did start out slow but when it gained its speed it really got going. The plot follows the disappearance of Alice, who vanishes but leaves her scarlet dress. Her body is never found so much mystery surrounds her vanishing act. Years later when the caravan park is sold some bones are found and this opens up the questions "could this be Alice".

I loved the detailed descriptions of the caravan park and the surroundings, very clear and I found myself imagining the scenes.

If you love a good murder mystery with a good plot and great characters then this is a really great book to read.

This is a slow-burning mystery but, far from a criticism, it is a huge compliment to the quality of the author’s writing that despite this, the reader is drawn in from the outset and eager to discover what really happened to Alice at the holiday park twenty-five years earlier.

The main characters are full of intrigue, particularly Marnie, who has suffered great grief and loss and who is now mute as a result. Isolated and mostly shunned by society, her story is pivotal to the plot and adds a definite element of intrigue as you wonder just how many secrets she holds of that fateful night.

Louise Douglas skilfully weaves between the past and present by detailing aspects in different chapters, with each one offering a glimpse of insight into how each character is linked to the story of Alice’s disappearance. This is not a dual-timeline story as such, but the past is instead explored through memories and recollections.

The descriptions of the area are particularly vivid, with the present day Severn Sands vastly different now to its heyday and this adds weight to the overall feel of the novel.

This is an exceptionally well-written mystery thriller and I’m already looking forward to reading more of Louise Douglas’ work!

Louise Douglas writes spine-chilling modern-day Gothic thrillers full of atmosphere, tension and intrigue and in The Scarlet Dress, she continues to cement her standing as a writer of extraordinary skill and talent who never fails to pen beautifully-written and wonderfully nuanced tales that keep readers riveted to the page.

In 1995, twenty-two year old Alice Lang had rented a caravan on a holiday park on the outskirts of the holiday resort Severn Sands. Alice quickly befriends a young girl Marnie whose father is the caretaker of the holiday park. With Marnie being shy, withdrawn and grieving the loss of her mother, Alice begins to look out for her and she soon takes the little girl under her wing. However, little does she realise that this singular act of kindness is going to have serious repercussions for her. Alice had attracted the attention of Will who has a very jealous streak. Will wants Alice all to himself and he is not about let anyone or anything come between the two of them. As tensions rise and Will’s jealousy reaches fever pitch, one evening a shocking turn of events take place that sees Alice vanish off the face of the earth. Nobody has seen hair or hide of ever since – except for her scarlet dress that had been washed ashore…

A quarter of a century later, the once thriving town is now dilapidated and rundown. Tourists no longer flock to visit Severn Sands and the owners, Mr and Mrs Villars, have passed their failing business onto their son, Guy, who wastes no time in selling the land for development. As the building work begins, the construction workers are shocked when they unearth human bones. There seems to be no doubt that Alice’s remains have been found. But what really happened to Alice Lang twenty-five years ago? Why was she killed? And will this decades-long mystery ever be solved?

Will and Marnie have always been haunted by what happened that summer and now that Alice has finally been found must dig deep into the recesses of their memories to finally uncover what really happened to the woman who had changed both of their lives forever. Will Alice Lang’s killer ever be found? Why was she killed and, more to the point, is the killer still at large willing to do whatever it takes to protect their dangerous secret?

Louise Douglas is a wonderful storyteller and The Scarlet Dress is a beautifully layered page-turner that works as both a thought-provoking and affecting contemporary drama and a psychological crime thriller. The Scarlet Dress deftly blends chilling twists and turns with heart-breaking pathos and emotional depth in a superbly written tale of lies, secrets and deceptions where nothing is as it initally seems.

A compulsively readable tale I simply couldn’t stop reading, Louise Douglas has struck gold with her latest novel, The Scarlet Dress.

Another stunning read from the exceptionally talented Louise Douglas! I love the way in which Louise creates such an atmospheric mystery, building the intrigue and suspense brick by brick. Her writing is always beautiful and multi-layered, her characters warm and relatable and the intriguing nature of the mystery makes this unputdownable.

Severn Sands, once a prosperous community with the holiday park bringing life and sparkle to the community is today dilapidated and uncared for. I loved the juxtaposition of the past and the future which we get to experience through flashbacks. It was interesting seeing Severn Sands in present time through Will’s eyes. The emptiness of Severn Sands is the perfect setting for the bleakness of emotions.

Will doesn’t seem to have changed much over the intervening years, stuck in a past that he obsesses over, he needs a resolution to enable him to move on. To be honest, I didn’t hold out much hope for him! I didn’t like him and even when a choice he makes gives some redemption, it didn’t change how I felt about him.

Marnie fascinated me. I loved her connection with animals and the creative workarounds she has in her business. She is such a strong character, putting herself in the face of danger without thought for herself. She’s a woman of action.

This story kept me guessing – I had a few suspects in my sights – and watched carefully for any nuggets of truth. When they come, they’re mostly dropped quietly but their ripples spread a long way!

I was there in the holiday park in that hot summer 25 years ago and I was swept away in the wintry weather of the present. I loved getting to know the characters and working out motivations. I felt a part of the community.

The Scarlet Dress was a page turner for me.

One to add to your reading list.

“The Scarlet Dress” is a gripping, slow-burn mystery that will glue you to the plot till the end.

To begin with, I enjoyed the author’s style of writing. The story starts slowly but gains momentum midway. I got invested in the plot once Will came into town and met Marnie. The author compellingly writes the story with multiple red herrings with numerous suspects.

Moreover, each of the suspects shows indications of hurting Alice or sharing secrets with her. What’s interesting is how people had a different opinion of Alice, even though they all bonded together. Furthermore, the ending turned out to be a shocking twist that I did not expect, making the story memorable. Similarly, I also loved the author’s writing style, where she alternates timelines through flashbacks of the characters.

The characters are unique, mysterious, and blend beautifully in the tale. Marnie and Will are dynamic in the lead. Marnie is a fascinating character, who doesn’t talk much, but someone that connects to you. It was interesting to see how their lives blended with Alice and how her death impacted them. Some of my favorite moments are when Will finds Luna or when Marnie finds the tin box. I also thought the author painted the imagery of Severn Sands in a beautiful yet mysterious way.

However, the only minor issues I had with the story were some unanswered questions. For instance, I don’t think we found out the reason why Marmie didn’t talk. As I previously mentioned, it took me a good 4-5 chapters to get into the story. But once I got past the initial chapters, I loved the story!

Apart from that, this was a great story that grew on me. Overall, “The Scarlet Dress” is a very slow-burn mystery that will entertain you.

What I enjoyed about Louise's writing was how she made the setting creepy without it actually being a creepy place. It was a wonderfully paced story that drew me in instantly and kept me intrigued until the very end

I always like a story that is set in the West Country and the blurb for this one really appealed to me. The story is set in a small seaside town of Severn Sands in the present day, a body is found on a building site and it is thought to be a young woman called Alice who went missing many years ago. Alice lived in one of the caravans in 1995 and her and Marnie and her built a friendship over this summer. Also part of the group that summer was Will Jones. Will is now a writer and hears that a body has been found he decides he must go back to Severn Sands to see if it is Alice. Also very much around that summer was Guy deVillars, he is older and as been away at University and he is looking for a distraction and Alice is it.

Marnie has also lived here all her life and her Dad, John was the caretaker at the caravan site that used to be at Severn Sands helping with the funfair. The campsite Channel View was owned by the the parents of Guy Edward and Camille, and John and him got on well. However, Guy decides with his parents ill health that it is time to sell the site for housing. Will really hates Guy and holds him responsible for Alice’s disappearance.

This is a really gripping read and there is a lot of mystery surrounding Severn Sands a declining seaside town in the winter is always a great setting for a suspenseful novel and this was definitely captured in this book. It really resonated with me living near the coast in Devon and seeing the small seaside towns being turned into exclusive flats and housing and the locals losing the ability to live and work where they have grown up. Setting is really important in this book and it really is so well written that you can imagine the bleakness of Severn Sands and the lives of its inhabitants. It is a meandering read that slowly and gradually uncovers what happened that summer. It

There is plenty of tension and Will has obviously been really affected by the past. When he returns the town is even more faded than he remembered, people also think that he may be responsible for Alice’s disappearance. Alice is the focal point of the story in the past and the present and how she changed the lives of everyone that summer and beyond. The red dress that is found in the estuary made people believe that Alice drowned but there is much much more to her story. They all have guilt and secrets and they are all about to be revealed.

I needed to keep on reading to find out the conclusion to this great story and what did happen to Alice. Although the pace is not as fast as some thrillers I really enjoyed it and the finale is really compelling.

4 stars ****

I really enjoyed Louise Douglas’s House at the Sea, so thought her new novel would be another great read. This is also one of those books that time hops into the past so we can learn something about the past, that illuminates the present and future rather like Kate Morton. Twenty-five years ago Alice Lang went missing in her favourite scarlet dress while renting a holiday cottage in the lively holiday resort of Severn Sands. She makes a big impression on two people: the holiday park’s caretaker has a quiet little girl called Marnie, who’s struggled since the death of her mother and Alice befriends her; Will’s mother runs the bar and he takes a shine to Alice, but his feelings become incredibly sinister as he becomes jealous of anyone he makes friends with. One evening Alice has gone missing from her caravan and is never seen again, only her scarlet dress remains.

Twenty five years later, the son of the owners has inherited the caravan park. However, with the business failing he decides to sell the land to a developer who wants to build executive homes. As they start to dig, they find a body. Is this the missing Alice? This possibility deeply affects Will and Marnie. They need to confront what happened all those years ago, to finally escape what happened and shake off the guilt they’ve been carrying. Marnie was the most intriguing character of the two for me. I have a friend with selective mutism so I was interested to see it portrayed here and it was done well. I felt like she’d gone through a trauma as a child and couldn’t trust people. She needed the animals she worked with and rescued because they felt safer. An animal’s love is unconditional and she could depend on them. It took me a couple of chapters to think ‘hang on this girl was only ten and lost both her mother and friend in just a few months’. That must have been impossible to process and potentially caused abandonment issues. I also felt for her father who never remarried. I wasn’t keen on Will though. He was protective of Alice, because he liked her, but I felt more control than protection. Did Will want Alice all to himself? He seems haunted, I found that the characters were strong and drove the story forwards. I loved the way the author kept characters emotions to the fore. We feel we’re getting to know them and their inner lives. Whereas Alice, at the very centre of the story, feels like an enigma. I never fully understood her motives and thought she was very possibly using people, being manipulative and not being honest with them. As the novel went on though, I started to understand her more and there was something behind her behaviour.
With all these different thoughts and questions going on, it can make the reader anxious or like they’re losing track, but the author has the skill to let me sit back and trust that she’s got it in hand. I know she has a plan and I’m in safe hands. She was also very clever in using the dual storyline. It wasn’t straight forward chronological order. The tale is like a river, flowing where it does and the reader has to follow the triggered memory or emerging secret. The brilliance of this is that it has an effect on the reader’s emotions. Just when you think you have something or someone worked out, everything can change with a different point of view. It’s challenging and forces the reader to think about the facts - what do we actually know to be true and what is supposition, opinion or lie?
I thought the sense of place was fantastic, We all know that seaside feel that changes with the season. In summer with all the shops open and the sun shining it looks inviting but with winter, the shutters are up and it’s grey and bleak. Here we see the decline of our seaside towns over the past twenty five years. More people go abroad and the seaside here is looking seedy and abandoned. There are even abandoned homes as the sea swallows the land inch by inch.
This was an interesting, emotional and thought provoking book. I really loved the writers gift for character and complex psychology. This was a great read,

A new author to me and my first by them, it won’t be my last. Bravo on the blurb, I was intrigued by the cover by the blurb blew me away I instantly wanted to read it. For me as a reader that is exactly how I want to be hooked. The author clearly had an idea of what story they wanted to write and it just flows seamlessly, with quick, punchy and captivating chapters that leave you wanting more. Well written characters, a beautiful location, a few red herrings along the way, I smelt a rat and I thought I had it figured out. A great read if you love suspenseful who dunnit books with a satisfying conclusion. I look forward to reading more from this author.

Twenty-Five years ago Alice Lang disappeared, presumed drowned, during a stay in Severn Sands. The only thing they found was her favorite scarlett dress. No one ever knew what happened to her including Marnie, the daughter of the park’s caretaker whom she had befriended, and Will, who’s mother runs the local bar and has been in love with Alice since they met. Years later, with the town dying, the owners of the holiday park she stayed in have passed and their son is selling it to a developer. When the land is being cleared, bones are found that unfortunately turn out to be Alice’s. What happened the day she disappeared?
This is another very slow burn mystery (there seem to be a lot of those lately, although that's not a bad thing). We learn about Alice mainly through the characters and their memories of her and what happened back in 1995. Several of these characters start as unlikeable. We do get a greater understanding for Alice and her personality through the memories and the secrets that come out.All of the characters are flawed and damaged in some way. There are many lies, secrets and guilty feelings that come up during the course of the story. So many secrets. I think Marnie was my favorite in the story and I absolutely loved her passion for animals. All in all this was a good story and one I for those who don't need a fast paced edge of your seat story but one that will still keep you reading nonetheless. I give this 3.5 of 5 stars and thank Rachel's Random Resources, Boldwood Books, and Netgalley for the review copy of this book. My thoughts and opinions are my own. #readingismymedicine #coffeedogsbooks #bookblog #bookreviews #bookstagram #blogtour #rachelsrandomresources #ipreview via @preview.app

Like a long, hot, summer's day, this book goes forever until it suddenly doesn't and you're staring at a gorgeous sunset, sad it's over but fulfilled all the same. Despite a slow start, I found myself enthralled by the slow unwinding of what really happened that fateful day Alice disappeared.

The two point of view characters are a fascinating study in contrasts. Will was passionately, jealously in love with Alice and her disappearance has clouded his judgement, fueled his career as a true crime writer, and poisoned his relationships ever since. He's not terribly likeable - he's an alcoholic who treats his girlfriend with a shocking lack of care, and his biases when it comes to Alice make him incapable of seeing the truth until it might be too late. Marnie, on the other hand, was a child when taken under Alice's wing who has grown into a defiantly different woman who prefers to keep most of the world at a distance. She knows more than she thinks but no-one ever thought to ask her. Her devotion to her animals and her daughter is almost jarring against Will's apathy.

The flashbacks are brilliantly written, interweaving the past and present seamlessly as the tragedy unfolds. Each chapter gave another crumb, another hint, until the breathtaking climax. You can't help but be drawn in.

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley; all opinions are my own.

This story is wonderfully complex. Character-driven, it draws the reader into a world of decay, deceit and death. The discovery of human bones years after a young woman disappeared reopens old hurts in a town that is a shadow of its former self. Marnie, a child at the time of the disappearance, still bears the emotional scars. Will, obsessed with the missing girl Alice, is drawn back to the dying town of his birth, feeling there is unfinished business.

The story gives up its secrets as it unfolds and undulates between the present day and 1995. There are unexpected twists, emotional moments and relentless tension that builds to the story's end. The setting is well created and complements the plot perfectly. This is a compelling story with many emotionally damaged characters, of which Marnie is my favourite.

This is an immersive story about ordinary people and extraordinary tragedy. It reads, like a Nordic noir set in the English seaside, an engaging balance of introspection and action it's a page-turner.

I received a copy of this book from Boldwood Books via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

Description
A chilling, unputdownable new novel from the bestselling author of The House By The Sea. Alice Lang was wearing her favourite scarlet dress when she disappeared twenty-five years ago, and her memory still casts a long shadow.
'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?


Review

The Scarlet Dress - the ebb and flow of emotions of a seaside community twenty years after the death of a young girl.

We follow the community after the discovery of bones belonging to Alice. And as readers we will not warm to all of the characters. I had a feeling of familiarity and liked the writing style of the author, though at about a third of the way through the feeling was that the story was not moving on. Later in the book I found myself reading whilst cooking tea and couldn't put it down. Once the story got going it galloped away, all tying up neatly.

A number of characters felt very focused in on, whilst there was a feeling that some crucial to the plot remained underdeveloped and distant - Mr deVillars and Marnie's father certainly fell into this category for me. Even Alice remained distant, and perhaps unlikable. She certainly seemed to be manipulating Marnie and others for her own gain. Will was another character that was difficult to warm to, he was consistently unreliable to the end, having let Marnie down as childhood friends and again at the culmination of the plot.

Having said that the style of the writing conjured up the images of the neglected holiday village, the town rundown and bleak in the winter. The coastal descriptions evoked images of beaches in Devon/Cornwall.

I have no doubt that the book will sell well, but its not the best written in the genre, preferring the agility and momentum of Erin Kelly or Lucy Foley, non the less i certainly wanted to see how the murder was solved and who was reponsible. It's a good read, perhaps not the best from Louise Douglas but reliable within its genre.

Rated 3/5
#TheScarletDress #NetGalley

Alice Lang rents a caravan in a park and befriends a shy little girl, Marnie, whose mother passed away several months earlier and lives with her father in the park. April gets to know others in the town and she is a very gregarious person.
Alice just disappears one day and the only thing they find is her favorite Scarlet dress along the shoreline. For years the question has been where is Alice? Her body has never been discovered. Then 25 years later the caravan park is sold and a development park is to be developed. Bones are discovered and now everyone thinks that these are Alice’s remains!
Who is responsible for the death of Alice?
The author does a majestic twisting through a maze of characters and questions and doubts about who and you will never guess until the ending as to why and who!

I would recommend this book to a friend!
I received a free advanced copy from NetGalley and these are my willingly given thoughts and opinions.

I have read one of Louise’s books before and I remember really enjoying it. I read the synopsis for ‘The Scarlet Dress’ and it certainly sounded like the sort of thriller I particularly enjoy. So without further ado, I grabbed a cup of tea, grabbed my Kindle and settled down for what I hoped would be a great read. I really enjoyed reading ‘The Scarlet Dress’ but more about that in a bit.
It took me a little while to get into this book but when I got ‘into’ the story that was it and I was away. I found the characters to be an intriguing bunch. I must have read too many crime thriller books because I suspected that each character was keeping something hidden that they didn’t want to be revealed. The pages turned over increasingly quickly as I became ever more desperate to see whether my suspicions would be proved correct or if I had the wrong end of the stick entirely. My Kindle wasn’t exactly glued to my hand but it might as well have been because it travelled everywhere with me. I soon reached the end of the story. I found ‘The Scarlet Dress’ to be an intriguing and compelling book, which kept me guessing and kept my attention from start to finish.
‘The Scarlet Dress’ is well written. Louise has one of those writing styles that is easy to get used to and easy to get along with. I love the way in which Louise has crafted an intriguing tale and she has skilfully weaved several twists and turns into the story. For me the story started off with a bang and then maintained a fairly fast pace throughout. I felt as though I was part of the story myself and that’s thanks to Louise’s very vivid and realistic storytelling.
In short, I really enjoyed reading ‘The Scarlet Dress’ and I would recommend it to other readers. I will be reading more of Louise’s work in the future. The score on the Ginger Book Geek board is a very well deserved 4* out of 5*.