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The Scarlet Dress
- Narrated by: Imogen Church
- Length: 11 hrs and 17 mins
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The Scarlet Dress
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Summary
Alice Lang was wearing her favourite scarlet dress when she disappeared 25 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, 22-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 that 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?
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What listeners say about The Scarlet Dress
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 27-12-21
Great story
An unusual story, production slightly marred by an unusual reading style and mispronunciation of a characters name. However the story is gripping and you can’t help but continue to listen.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Tracy
- 16-06-23
The scarlet dress
This book Was ok, not as good as Louise Douglas’s usual books.
Struggled with this book, quite predictable and took some effort to finish.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Jellybean
- 07-07-23
Did not finish
Story seemed to go nowhere I gave up after 3 hours. I also wasn’t keen on the narration seemed a bit OTT
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Ms Henrietta R. Bond
- 20-04-21
A totally engrossing listen
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The death of a young woman is not an easy subject but is told with Douglas's usual warmth and deeply underpinning affection for human beings in all their flaws and peculiarities. Rich and poor, privileged and impoverished, her characters are never stereotyped by their situations but fleshed out, fully-rounded individuals. Douglas's main characters don't tend to lead glamorous lives but are brought alive by their individual passions and convictions. The two main characters in this novel - the silent woman who has lived on the edges of society and the self-centred, immature journalist who wants to.blame everyone but himself, demand our interest and empathy, even when their behaviour saddens or maddens the reader.
There are no happy endings in any of Douglas's books but satisfying outcomes which begin to repar the past damages which have shaped the communities and individuals she writes about.
Douglas writes with great skill about landscapes and her careful observation of nature and concern for animals shines through this book. i was intrigued by her informative and endearing descriptions of dog training.
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6 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- K. Bailey
- 19-04-22
Took a while to get into
Took a while to get into, but it’s worth staying.
Spoilt slightly by the narrator! Sometimes Imogen Church spoils the moment by giving what someone says the complete wrong emphasis. Particularly when she makes someone speak almost amusingly, comically, and a bit silly at a serious moment. It’s a shame that she does that.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Enyake
- 24-04-22
Wonderful compelling couldn’t stop listening!
Loved this story there was such depth to Marnie Will Alice and the other characters as well as the atmosphere with her cottage and the estuary - didn’t want the book to end, well done!
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 07-08-23
Better to have read than listened to.
I liked the story , it was something a bit different. Not as good as a previous Louise Douglas book, but gripping enough. However, the narrator was pronouncing words with such emphasis that it drove me mad , and spoilt the story for me. I had to rewind many times because I was distracted by the voice of the narrator, and lost concentration. Would have been better to have read the book. I could imagine the holiday camp and funfare, and that part of it really helped .
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- WAT
- 30-03-21
A compelling and complicated story.
This is a captivating listen. It flows with ease, winding its way through many twists and turns leaving the reader guessing at conclusions which are mostly red herrings. The characters are richly drawn and their interactions beautifully crafted and diverse. Very much enjoyed the audible. Well worth buying.
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4 people found this helpful
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Lynette
- 13-05-21
Really S*L*O*W 😴
It never really got started 😜 I fell asleep several times while listening to this. I didn't care about any of the characters and had the ending sussed in the first half hour
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4 people found this helpful
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Chris (UK)
- 14-07-23
Narrator mismatched to story.
Wrong narration style, perhaps better suited to provincial news reporting. The journalistic delivery, with overemphasis on some words and tone of exasperation in descriptive sections, did not really help the listener to develop a relationship with the characters.
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