The Scarlet Dress

<h2>The latest chilling unputdownable novel from the Richard & Judy bestseller.</h2><p><strong style=color: rgba(36 33 30 1)>Alice Lang was wearing her favourite scarlet dress when she disappeared twenty-five years ago and her memory still casts a long shadow.</strong><em>'The past was like water. Once the tide turned you couldn't hold it back.'</em></p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p><strong>They need to find out what happened to Alice. Who killed her? And why?</strong></p><p><strong>Praise for Louise Douglas</strong></p><p>'A brilliantly written gripping clever compelling story that I struggled to put down. The vivid descriptions the evocative plot and the intrigue that Louise created which had me constantly asking questions made it a highly enjoyable absolute treasure of a read.' Kim Nash on <em>The Scarlet Dress </em></p><p>'A tender heart-breaking <strong>page-turning </strong>read' Rachel Hore on <em>The House by the Sea</em></p><p>'The <strong>perfect combination </strong>of page-turning thriller and deeply emotional family story. <strong>Superb</strong>.' Nicola Cornick <em>on The House by the Sea</em></p><p>'Kept me guessing until the last few pages and the <strong>explosive ending </strong>took my breath away.' C.L. Taylor author of <em>The Accident </em>on <em>Your Beautiful Lies</em></p><p>'Beautifully written <strong>chillingly atmospheric </strong>and utterly compelling <em>The Secret by the Lake</em> is Louise Douglas at her brilliant best' Tammy Cohen author of <em>The Broken</em></p><p>'<strong>A master of her craft</strong> Louise Douglas ratchets up the tension in this haunting and exquisitely written tale of buried secrets and past tragedy.' Amanda Jennings<em> </em>author of <em>Sworn Secret</em></p><p><br></p><p>'A clammy atmospheric and suspenseful novel it builds in tension all the way through to the <strong>startling final </strong>pages.' <em>Sunday Express S Magazine</em></p>