I think this is a really good book for those that like a detailed story with their mystery. I enjoyed the mystery in this book and the relationships of those with Alice.
This was a twisty mystery that had me guessing who could have done it and with so many angles it could have been anyone in the book!
I took it down one rating because there was A LOT of back story and I just didn’t feel it was necessary.

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those who lived and worked on the camp site this disappearance has lain heavy, particularly for Marnie who was then a withdrawn ten year old, and also for nineteen year old Will who had a crush on Alice.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.

Quite often, the books you love the most are by far the most difficult to review. I’ve sat at my keyboard several times today, thrown down a few phrases, tried to link them together – but I’ve really struggled to capture quite how this book made me feel. I’d usually start with a little about the story, but someone’s already sweat blood over that for the book’s cover, and I think it’s enough. But there are two distinct timelines, the 1995 disappearance of Alice Lang (presumed drowned, leaving her scarlet dress behind), and the present day discovery of her bones – I guess that makes it a murder mystery. And read at that level, it’s certainly a compelling story – perhaps a little slower than some might like, but picking up pace in the final furlong when all its pieces begin to fall into place.

But this book is so much more than that. The timelines don’t alternate in the way you might expect, a straight telling of the then and now, but swirl and eddy and flow – secrets begin to emerge, you think you have everything worked out, only for that certainty to disappear again when you find yourself moving in an entirely different direction. When you add to that the simmering undercurrent of passion and jealousy from the 90s story and the complexities of the characters in the present day – impacted by the legacy of the past, and the truth that even they aren’t entirely sure of – it becomes a story that challenges and excites, and something very different indeed. While the reader might flounder at times when trying to get a grip on the facts, the author always holds the threads of the story extraordinarily firmly – you feel you are in the hands of someone entirely in control, and the writing is exceptional.

It’s very much a character driven story, but Alice herself I thought remained something of an enigma – at first I’d decided she was manipulative, using people for her own ends, playing with their emotions, but she was rather deeper than that, driven by something quite different. Marnie’s a fascinating character – a very innocent child in 1995 involved in a maelstrom of emotion she couldn’t begin to understand, mute in adulthood perhaps as a result of that childhood trauma, finding solace in her love for dogs who’d survived traumas of their own. Family relationships feature heavily, and are beautifully handled – Marnie’s father and the mother whose loss adds rawness to the early story, her relationship with her own daughter. And then there’s Will – difficult to like, perhaps the one who really does use people, driven to uncover the truth but sometimes afraid of what might emerge when he does, haunted by guilt about so many things that he struggles to cope with it or find redemption. The characters emotions are always near the surface and draw you further into the story – this is a book you feel, that you become part of, rather than simply reading.

A word for the book’s setting too – the bleakness and seediness of a seaside town in February, past its prime, sad and neglected, in contrast to the holiday mecca it once was. It’s all part of what creates the book’s unique atmosphere – the mud flats, the shifting sands, the abandoned homes, the sad memories.

I will admit that this book took me far longer to read than I expected – I was enjoying it too much to rush, relishing the carefully chosen words, the nuances of the characters and their relationships, lingering over some of the uncovered secrets and letting them sink in before moving on, not wanting to miss a carefully crafted moment. Just in case I haven’t said it clearly enough, I really loved this book: I think it’s the author’s best writing yet, a stunning read, and I recommend it most highly.

(Review copied to Amazon UK, but link not yet available)

An unearthed skeleton, a missing girl, a woman made mute by grief - this haunting story explores a 25-year-old mystery when the body of Alice Lang is dug up by developers of a run-down old funfair. Suddenly old memories are stirred - not least for Marnie Morahan, the funfair caretaker’s daughter, who was ten when Alice disappeared. The older girl had befriended the motherless youngster and the trauma of losing her has left Marnie mute. She recalls little of the day Alice disappeared, but the shock of the discovery of her friend’s remains – and the now undoubted fact that she was murdered – shakes her mind awake as she gradually remembers snippets of the past.
Will Jones, writer of true-life crime books, is determined to solve the mystery. He has a vested interest, as he was once in love with Alice, and believes he knows who is responsible for her murder.
As he and Marnie piece together the past, a chilling haunting story emerges of lies told and secrets kept - will they unearth the truth, or become the killer's latest victims?
With themes of fractured families, friendship, jealousy, guilt, revenge, justice and redemption, there is a lot to explore in this story. Marnie and Will are both strong characters, and Alice comes alive in their memories of her – a bright happy girl, despite her troubled past.
There’s plenty description in this story – an abandoned funfair, a bleak estuary, a rundown cottage, are all described in minute detail, as are the minutiae of the main characters’ day-to-day lives, now and at the time of Alice’s disappearance. Though this adds to the atmosphere of the book, it does slow down the pace and dilute the suspense somewhat, and I’d have liked a little more action around the middle of the story.
But a really good murder mystery doesn’t just rely on plot – it needs strong believable characters and an atmospheric setting, and The Scarlet Dress has all of the above. It’s an excellent murder mystery, brimming with issues for readers to continue to ponder once the final page is turned.

An intriguing murder mystery. This is the first book I’ve read by this author and I will be reading her other work!

I particularly loved the descriptive imagery of the location. Anyone who spent their childhood holidays on caravan parks would have immediately been transported back there!

Slightly predictable ending but I think that is just the danger of murder mysteries.

I felt like I wasn’t wholly invested in this book and that I couldn’t get into that “just can’t put this down” frame of mind. But that could have also been down to external factors.

I did think there was a very slow build up and a very fast ending. I thought the last chapter felt like the author just wanted to be done with it, and rounded everything up into a few paragraphs. I would have liked the final chapters to have matched the pace of the rest of the book.

I would have also liked to have seen a lot more character development, especially with Marnie and the De Villars family. I really don’t feel I got to know them enough to feel emotive reactions towards them.

Thank you to NetGalley and Boldwood publishing for the advanced copy

I seem to be in the minority with this opinion but this book really didn’t do it for me. I started it and struggled, I was conscious I’d just read a book that I thought was amazing so thought maybe I was being influenced by that. So I put it down and read something else. Going back to it I still wasn’t drawn in.

There wasn’t a character that I particular liked or related to. I didn’t have any relationship with Alice, the girl in the scarlet dress who had been murdered 25 years previous. The thing that kept me going was that I did want to know what had happened and who was responsible. Everyone is Seven Sands was a potential suspect and was hiding something, I never particularly wanted it to be someone or hoped that it wasn’t someone.

That said, once I hit half way through it did get better, but it was a long hard slog to get to the half way point. I do usually like Louise Douglas but I didn’t feel that this was her best work. However, knowing what her books are usually like I won’t stop this book from reading her future releases

This was a really exciting story over all and Marnie's character was the best of it all. However, the start was a little bit slow for me and there were some parts that I really didn't understand.

I will give this book 4 stars.

The Scarlet Dress is a slow burner of a murder mystery that opens with bones being found on the land that used to be the holiday park Severn Sands. Who they belong to isn't a surprise but the fact that it is a murder is, for the last 25 years the locals all thought she walked into the estuary, leaving behind the titular scarlet dress.

One man Will Jones has been haunted by her loss and he's now a writer so he makes his way back, leaving the current girlfriend in the process, to revisit his teenage hometown and probe who killed Alice.

This was a book that I was drawn into from the very start with both the characterisation and location being beautifully painted in a whole array of hues. The fact that the plot was both sufficiently intricate and yet avoided the absurd was the icing on the cake.

I wholeheartedly recommend.

I’d like to thank Boldwood Books and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read ‘The Scarlet Dress’ by Louise Douglas in exchange for my honest and unbiased review.

When Alice Lang disappeared from the Channel View holiday camp at Severn Sands it was thought she’d drowned as her scarlet dress was found floating in the estuary. Twenty-five years later the DeVillars family have sold the holiday camp for redevelopment and human bones are dug up by the workmen. Will Jones fell in love with Alice from the first time he met her and on hearing that her remains have been found he returns to Severn Sands. Will thinks Guy deVillars was the last person to see Alice and most likely responsible for her death whereas the locals think Will was. Guy disputes Will’s claims and Will can’t remember what happened as he was drunk but he knows he couldn’t have harmed her as he loved her, so if neither he nor Guy killed Alice then who did?

‘The Scarlet Dress’ is a well-written novel with an absorbing plot and interesting characters especially Marnie who’s unable to speak since Alice’s disappearance and comes over as a genuinely nice person, but I found it all just a bit slow and laborious especially at the beginning where I thought there was too much unnecessary description. The further I got into the story, though, the more involved I became until the end which became involving, where Marnie and Will reveal the identity of the perpetrator and the reason behind Alice’s death.

An enthralling mystery that begins when human bones are found at the former holiday park in the town of Severn Sands. They are deemed to belong to 23 year old Alice Lang who disappeared one night nearly a quarter of a century before. The only trace they find of Alice is the scarlet dress she was wearing, left behind at the edge of the water. This leads the investigators and town’s people to believe she drowned and her death may have been by suicide. Now that they’ve found her bones and old investigations are re-opened. Marnie Morahan and Will Jones are both haunted by memories of their times shared with Alice.

Marnie’s character is complex. Losing her mother at a young age, her father too deep in his own grief to give the attention to Marnie that she needs is befriended by Alice. When Alice disappears, Marnie suffers again and loses the use of her voice. Will Jones was in love with Alice. The loss of Alice after their summer affair devastates him. The circumstances from their brief time together and Alice’s disappearance affects his relationships going forward, his chosen profession, she torments his thoughts.

Marnie and Will need to figure out what really happened to Alice. We are introduced to other inhabitants of this atmospheric holiday town. There are lies, there are cover-ups, there are many people who may have done Alice harm but who and why? Secrets are unraveled and the truth is waiting to be known.

Louise Douglas draws you in with her words. Her descriptions of the town give a disquieting feeling and sets the mood for the duration of the book. You can clearly picture the characters, they are so well described.

I enjoyed this book and kept reading it long after I needed to get on with other things but that’s when you know you’ve got a good book isn’t it, when you struggle to put it down.

Thanks to Netgalley and Boldwood Books for providing me with an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

The way the author tied the story together was fantastic. I was not a fan of Will’s characters but Marnie’s made up for it. The story was a little slow to start but had a wonderful spellbound ending. Thanks for sharing.

The Scarlet Dress
by Louise Douglas

Ehh, I was excited to read this book but it just felt forced. I do not recommend this one at all.

An emotional thriller with skewed characters and a mystery quarter century old. The past events are interspersed evenly in the story without creating a break. The main character Marnie and her animals are likeable while Will comes out as someone with relationship handicap. The personal story of Marnie is not mentioned. The suspense slowly unravels through the backstory. Though the initial part of the story has some repetitive passages, this is rectified later on. A good read

Haunting and suspenseful!
What a totally different and interesting story! So many times I caught myself second guessing what the outcome was going to be. Even when not reading it, I would ponder where it was going.
Louise Douglas has a way to weave a story that pulls you in and won’t let you go. I look forward to reading more books written by her.
The Scarlet Dress is a murder mystery/psychological drama that you will have difficulties putting down.
Many thanks to NetGalley, the publisher and author for the opportunity to read this book for my honest opinion. All opinions expressed are my own.

Thank you to Netgalley, Boldwood Books and Louise Douglas for this ARC in return for my honest review. Having only recently read The Secrets Between Us, I was eager to read another book by Louise. I loved the vivid descriptions of the landscape and the care in which the characters were portrayed. A beautiful crafted mystery, the story is slowly eeked out. I found myself really caring about Marnie and Alice, I read this in a couple of days as I was eager to find out what happened to the girl in the read dress. I'm docking one star though purely because I'd like to have found out about Lucy's father and how she came to be purely because Marnie was such a closed person, so I think there was some potential to add an additional element to that story.

As the title suggests,  a scarlet dress forms the crux of the story. Alice,  a young woman,  arriving alone at a small countryside town,  is lost for several years. And during a recent construction job,  her bones are discovered and it is confirmed that she was murdered back then. 

Who killed Alice and for what reason forms the suspense element of the story. But the emotional backbone to the story is provided by those people whose lives were changed irrevocably because of her death.There are a many number of people whose lives were touched by her's, particularly that of Marnie and Will, the principal characters.

The suspense part of the story worked well for me and I couldn't put down the book till I found out who was the murderer (I did have my suspicions and they proved to be right). The way the author told the story in the point of view of various characters whose lives intertwined with Alice helped to build the suspense well and made the story interesting to read as well. 

And then we have the characters themselves. What we find here are real,  flawed,  human people. They make mistakes, some behave abominably and every single one of them have secrets. Their dynamics and relationships formed a wonderful backdrop for the narration. But I must say,  one aspect of Will's character seemed to ring false with me. The fact that he still hasn't come out of his feelings for Alice doesn't work for me. If the author had tried to explore the psyche of losing someone suddenly at a very impactful age, the attempt fell a little short of what was intended. 

The narration is another aspect which I took some time to get used to. It seemed a bit abrupt initially,  the way the narration skips between the points of view of various characters. Still,  it doesn't take away anything from the story but rather adds to it's pace.

Overall,  it is an engaging thriller that will not allow you to put it down. You can definitely give it a try if you like to read a good suspense with good emotional gravity.

This is a slow burning murder mystery, that doesn't always work for me but Louise Douglas' writing is so engaging and beautiful I couldn't help but be sucked into the story...it also helped that the further I read the more the tension ramped up. Douglas writes with such confidence and compassion about difficult subjects and I enjoyed how it was very character driven.

Told not so much as a dual timeline but with some memories of the past...which are equally gripping. Having recently read the authors book "In Her Shadow" I was looking forward greatly to this one and in no way did it disappoint. Beautifully written and a real page turner I found it a fabulous read.

This was my second book by Ms. Douglas and I am so looking forward to reading more of her novels...a wonderful writer with so much talent that the book had me hooked from the first page. Thank you for such a brilliant story.

I also must add that I love the covers of these new releases/re-releases.

Alice Lang was wearing her favourite scarlet dress when she disappeared twenty-five years ago, and her memory still casts a long shadow. This is a very chilling book with a hint of horror and suspicion that does get you gripped from the start. It is very dark in places but does keep you in suspense. The perfect read for dark, cold nights, well written and I would happily read more from the author.

The Scarlet Dress is an atmospheric at times chilling book that will hook you in from the beginning.

Slowly you meet the characters who were there 25 years ago when Alice simply just disappeared and now her body has surfaced

The Scarlett Dress is a great mix of characters from the nice to the not so nice.

Everyone in Severn Sands seems to have a secret and that secret turned out to be deadly.

Will and Marnie want to solve what happened to Alice but someone does not want them to know.

The pages go by quickly.

Louise Douglas is a great storyteller that hooks you in.

Thanks to NetGalley and Boldwood Books for an intriguing read.

It’s twenty five years since Alice disappeared. When her red dress was found at the waterside everyone assumed that Alice was a troubled young woman who took her own life. It’s only when the caravan park, where she made her home was being redeveloped that some bones are found. Do they belong to Alice? Marnie has been mute since the death of her mother and Alice’s disappearance. The discovery of the bones makes headlines and Will, Alice’s boyfriend and lover, who continues to hold an obsession with her returns to his childhood home. Has he returned because of guilt, revenge or simply to uncover the truth. Will Marnie and Will rekindle their childhood friendship and uncover the truth. This psychological drama will keep you turning the pages to discover the truth. Perfect for a dark evening by the fire.