Customer Reviews

Shadows in Scarlet

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I just finished reading Shadows in Scarlet. What a fun read! It was fast paced, I didn't want to put it down. Romance and mystery with a few surprise twists all rolled in together. I'm a colonial history buff and completely enjoyed the connection to America's formative years. Would love to read more novels of this type!

I remember reading "Ashes to Ashes," "Dust to Dust," and "Garden of Thorns" when they first came out, and enjoying them very much. I haven't seen anything from Carl in quite some time, and actually did not know she was still writing. It was a pleasant surprise to see more books offered for such reasonable prices on the Kindle, but I was disappointed in "Shadows in Scarlet." It is in a somewhat dated modern gothic style, which I still enjoy, but the first half seemed to drag on and on without really going anywhere. There was a lot of exposition, and establishment of characters. The story picked up about midway when the location changed to Scotland, and it became a much better book. The writing style is similar to modern gothics by Elizabeth Peters/Barbara Michaels, but the pacing is slower and the characters are less engaging. It was ultimately worth the discounted Kindle price, but it was generally disappointing.

I saw one of Ms Carl's books in another mystery series at the library. I had my Kindle with me so I checked at once to see how reasonably priced her books were on Amazon-- very reasonably. I bought this one because I had enjoyed a visit to Historic Williamsburg last year and thought it might be fun to read a behind the scenes story with a ghost.

The author spends some time on the build up. I liked the fact that she made the historic interpreters sound as lame when they are delivering their lines in character as most of them do in real life. This is far more like a traditional romantic suspense novel than a current genre romance. Some sex but the story isn't overloaded with it. (OK, I'll say it out loud, it's not an erotic romance.) But it is a fun mindless read and at the Kindle price well worth buying for about 8 hours of entertainment.

I would recommend this one to someone who enjoyed Barbara Michaels' early ghost stories such as Ammie, Come Home or Mary Stewart's Touch Not The Cat or even (blast from my past) Noami A. Hintze's The Stone Carnation

P.S. Thought I should add that this was first published in 2001 so some technology references are dated.

Although I had some problems with details James' ghost, it was critical for the plot. This is a classic gothic, with a bit more sex, full of atmospheric detail, good dialogue, and suspense that builds to a exciting final confrontation. This was a very delightful book, overall, and one lover's of the gothic genre will enjoy.

Amanda Witham is a graduate student working Virginia's Melrose Hall. She doesn't enjoy the heat of her authentic 18th century clothes, but she does enjoy playing the part of Sally, the plantation owner's daughter, while she takes tourists around the house. Everything is running smoothly until the archaeologists find a skeleton buried in the garden. That same night, Amanda sees a ghost in the hall and knows that it is James Grant, a dashing British soldier who mysteriously disappeared right before a local battle. Suddenly, Amanda finds herself searching for James Grant instead of working on her thesis. It is true that she hasn't had a boyfriend in a long while, and who can turn away such a dashing and handsome man? Amanda finds herself romantically involved with a ghost - a ghost who wants to return to his native Scotland.

As Amanda flies to James' ancestral estate, which was inherited by his cousin upon his death about 150 years ago, Amanda has no idea what to expect. She certainly doesn't expect the charming Malcolm, who is the spitting image of James. She also doesn't expect to find such a disparity between James' version of his death and his cousin, Archibald's account. Amanda begins to suspect that James is not quite the hero he has made himself out to be. And, as she falls in love with Malcolm, she knows that she will have to find a way to exorcise James - or join him in the afterlife...

This was a very entertaining paranormal mystery with great characters and a wonderful setting. I enjoyed learning about the Scottish regiments based in Virginia during the Revolutionary War and about that time period in general. The author has a knack for slipping historical background information into the story without boring the reader, which was wonderful. The characters were good - very strong and easy to empathize with. I also enjoyed the sudden plot twist and Amanda's growing suspicions about James. My only complaint with the book, aside from the cost, of course, was that the ending was quite abrupt. There is a lot of action packed into the last 50 pages or so, which was quite startling considering the slow build up to James' appearance at the beginning of the book. I would have liked to have seen more time in Scotland and more time between Amanda and Malcolm, rather than falling back on the old 'love at first sight' routine. Still, it is a well written book with a nice little mystery that fans of Carl will enjoy and people who have never read anything by her should be excited to discover!

Amanda Witham enjoys wearing the eighteenth century garb while working as a tour guide at Williamsburg, Virginia's Melrose House even with the unbearable heat wilting her. To Amanda, her job enables her to live history and provide some joy to visitors.

Archeologists discover two-century-old bones in the nearby garden of Melrose House that prove to be the remains of James Grant who was thought to be allegedly buried in Scotland. That is a surprising find, but pales to what happens next to Amanda as the ghost of James visits her and persuades her to uncover the truth about his untimely death. Amanda agrees and travels to Scotland where James is supposedly buried in his ancestral home. As she begins to fall in love with her apparition visitor, Amanda finds herself embroiled in his past that could lead to her present demise.

This engaging paranormal romance contains time travel and suspense elements intertwined seamless to create a dynamite plot. The story line is fun and captivating especially seeing the world through the idealistic eyes of the audacious, adorable Amanda. Lillian Stewart Carl furbishes an engaging tale that entertains readers while enticing the audience to elicit more novels like SHADOWS IN SCARLET and a previous work, MEMORY AND DESIRE, from this talented author.

Harriet Klausner

I made myself read this book since I had requested it from the library on an inter-library loan. Really this book was so bad and so difficult to get through, I would not recommend it to anybody. I thought from the reviews that I read on Amazon that this would be a great ghost story but I was very disappointed.

The writing is silly, juvenile, amateurish; words can not describe how poorly written this book is. Pages are devoted to how the protaganist closes up the historical mansion each evening. Amanda is an intern who gives historical tours of a historic Williamsburg mansion and each evening she checks the windows, checks the rooms, checks this, checks that - this is described in minute detail in every chapter.

Then a ghost appears in the Williamsburg estate. Amanda promptly has sex with said ghost. I can not tell you how absolutely ludicrous this scene was.

There are adjectives galore in this story and ridiculous attempts at metaphors. The book is crammed with adjectives; in fact, if it weren't for all the adjectives used for inane descriptions, probably 140 of the 240 pages could be eliminated.

Here is one of the many ridiculous lines in the book: "Fortunately the band spaced the rough tumble fast dances with slow ones, letting a little oxygen leak back into the carbon dioxide content of the room." This sentence is supposed to describe a romantic dance but somehow seems to take one into a chemistry class. The story abounds with such drivel. I could go on and on but since this ridiculous book went on and on and on... I will stop here and just say - DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCE waste money on this mess.