The Red Dress: Old Secrets Brought to Light, by Deobrah* Edmisten (independently published, 2022, 315 pp, $10PB, Young Adult [or historical or romance]) Review by Skye Anderson
Despite such an unusual, unsettling cover, all I can say about The Red Dress is wow!
What a Page Turner!
So glad I started this so late one evening that I didn't really get 'into' it before lights out. However, the next day I finished it in one setting - The Red Dress is the kind of book you just can't put down!
Prolific author Deborah Edmisten successfully alternates short chapters set in contemporary times (during the COVID-19 Pandemic) with incidents before the Civil War when slavery was commonplace. Arabella owns a very very old (c. 1845) house in the Ohio countryside and, out of boredom one day decides to clean out the attic, finding a blood-stained red dress. Later, she finds a mysterious secret room with a bed, a man's suit, a couple of photos, a couple of letters. (But she doesn't find them all at once, thus prolonging the suspense.)
Being during the Pandemic, Arabella discusses the finds with her next-door neighbors (with six feet of separation, of course) and, over several days, they hypothesize what could explain the items as more data surfaces. Bringing in family and away-friends to help with the genealogy search, Arabella and friends concoct several possibilities, some with dead-ends.
With perhaps too many characters, some violence, and a love story perhaps more for adults than for young adults, along with a not-surprising yet possibly unexpected ending for Arabella, the pre-Civil War secret room involvement will take the reader along for an exciting ride. Readers will know just a bit more than Arabella and friends who sometimes take a wrong turn.
*the author's name may be spelled Deobrah as on Amazon or Deborah as in the book
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