Scarlet In Blue: A Novel

"Part mystery, part coming-of-age story, and part tragedy, Scarlet In Blue, by acclaimed novelist Jennifer Murphy, traces the lives of a mother and daughter who, because of their fugitive lifestyle and the pain that overshadows it, share a dependence anda love so strong neither can imagine life without the other. Fifteen-year-old Blue Lake is a budding pianist who resents her mother Scarlet's nomadic lifestyle. She yearns to settle in one place so she can live a normal life and play her music. But Scarlet, a talented painter, is on the run from a phantom man. A man she insists is chasing them. A man who means to kill them. Blue has never seen this man and questions whether Scarlet, who is slowly going mad, has hallucinated him. It isn't until 1968, whenthey arrive in the small beach-front town of South Haven, Michigan, that Blue's wishes begin to come true. She makes a good friend, falls in love, and can finally play piano. Everything seems to be going fine-until Scarlet kills the man she believes has been hunting them. Forty-six years later, Blue, now a pianist for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, is leaving practice for her lunch-time walk past the Art Institute when she's startled by the announcement of a new exhibit. Highlighting the effects of chemistry on Impressionist masterpieces, the exhibit triggers memories of her mother and the long ago murder. Memories that Blue has spent a lifetime trying to forget. Told through the alternating voices of Blue, Scarlet, and Scarlet's psychoanalyst, Henry, Scarlet In Blue is a story of a mother and daughter's enduring love, the ramifications of past abuse, and the art that holds their lives together. In its depiction of the bonds between mother and daughter, this novel is reminiscent of Janet Finch's White Oleander and Celeste Ng's Little Fires Everywhere. In its exploration of the fraught psychological puzzle of the past, it calls to mind Gillian Flynn's Sharp Objects"--
Told through alternating voices, this page-turning story follows Blue and her artist mother Scarlet as they finally settle down in a small Michigan beachfront town where Blue thrives as her mother prepares to escape the shadow of her traumatic past, no matter what the cost.
A beautiful and gripping psychological novel about a mother and daughter who, after a lifetime on the run from a dark and dangerous past, land in a small Michigan town that may hold the key to ending their fugitive lifestyle. For Blue Lake’s entire life, she and her mother, Scarlet, have been on the run from HIM—the man who Scarlet, a talented and enigmatic painter, insists is chasing them. But now, at fifteen years old, Blue has begun to resent the nomadic life that once seemed like an adventure, increasingly unsure what to make of the phantom pursuer she’s never seen. She only yearns to settle down in one place, to live a normal life.   When Scarlet and Blue arrive in the beachfront town of South Haven, Michigan, it seems that Blue’s wishes might finally come true. She makes a good friend, is falling in love for the first time, and has found a piano teacher who recognizes her budding talent. But even as Blue thrives, she cannot shake her worry about her mother, whose eccentricities and art are only becoming increasingly difficult to understand. Scarlet, meanwhile, has very different intentions for their stay in South Haven. It was no accident that she brought them there and, with the help of the psychoanalyst she’s sought out, Henry, she is determined to find a way to finally escape the shadow of her traumatic past, no matter the cost.   Told through the alternating voices of Blue, Scarlet, and Henry, Scarlet in Blue is a page-turning story about the ramifications of past trauma, the way art can hold our lives together, and, most of all, the enduring bond between mother and child.