Review: A Psychological Suspense Thriller
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 04 27, 2012
The Truth About Scarlet Rose is a story about a once beautiful burlesque stripper, who has a dark psyche, deep hidden secrets and a penchant for getting what she wants at all costs. The reader first meets Sylvia Dalton, aka Scarlet Rose in the prequel Scarlet Sins. In the prequel, Sylvia Dalton is a beautiful Montreal born girl, who has had a hard life and was desperate to escape from her very dysfunctional family. At sixteen years old, she devised a plan to get pregnant by her boyfriend, and she assumed that he would go along with her plan and marry her. Unfortunately, she gave up her virginity to a boy that had wanted to wait but gave in to her feminine wiles, only to refuse to marry her because he thought that they were too young, and he wanted his bride to be a virgin. Pregnant and without any support system, Sylvia runs away to Toronto, where at seventeen years old she gives birth to her baby daughter Fiona in a home for unwed mothers. When they try to force her to give up her daughter for adoption, she leaves the home and rents a room, becoming a cocktail waitress in a nightclub to support herself and her baby. While working at the Lux nightclub she becomes fascinated with the burlesque dancers, and is discovered by Carlo, an entertainment agent, who introduces her to the burlesque / stripper world and gives her the stage name of Scarlet Rose. Scarlet Rose is a beautiful woman, she always had wanted to be famous, and the stage provided that for her, she was adored and sought after by all the men who came to see her perform. Now eighteen years old, Scarlet Rose falls in love with one of her admirers, Charlie Reynolds, an older man twelve years her senior. She moves in with Charlie within a few months of meeting him, and eventually marries him when she becomes pregnant with her second daughter, Suzanne. Married life is anything but rosy for Scarlet Rose, she finds out that Charlie is a gambler, heavy drinker and womanizer. Unhappy and bitter, she turns to murder ...Fast forward to 1983, Sylvia is now a shadow of what she used to be. At the age of thirty-nine, her faded looks make her look fifty. The one thing that hasn't changed is her cold, hard, controlling, and ruthless personality. She has always put herself number one, while blaming her "ungrateful" children for everything that has gone wrong in her life. She has always used guilt to control them, her cruelty knew no bounds, and she was incapable of giving them love and compassion. Sylvia lives on welfare and the handouts from Fiona, her oldest daughter, who she made go into the stripping business when she was sixteen years old to help support the family. When Syvlia's ex-husband Charlie is found brutally murdered, his step-daughter Fiona is determined to find out who had murdered the man who she cared for and considered to be her best friend.Filled with suspenseful drama and more twists and turns then a roller coaster, the reader is taken on an journey into the dark side of deeply held family secrets, betrayals, greed, sex, drugs and murder that is one hell of a thrill ride.The Truth About Scarlet Rose is the type of dark murder mystery suspense thriller that keeps the reader turning the page as they try to put all the pieces of the puzzle together. This storyline is cleverly written, the reader is drawn into the dark psyche of a very troubled woman and her equally dysfunctional family. There are so many fascinating characters, each are complex and have interesting stories of their own, but the author masterfully interweaves the characters lives and pulls the reader into the story as they try to keep up with them through all the drama and suspense.The Truth About Scarlet Rose is a disturbing psychological thriller that will not disappoint hardcore mystery murder suspense thriller fans!Disclaimer: I received a Kindle edition of this book from the author for my honest review and participation in a virtual book tour event.