The Juliet - Softcover

Scott, Laura Ellen

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1945502002 ISBN 13: 9781945502002

Publisher: Pandamoon Publishing, 2016

Synopsis

"Ah, the wild west, where the men are tough, the women are trouble, and the emeralds are cursed."

THE JULIET is a novel that braids the history of a cursed emerald called The Juliet with the story of an ailing, retired cowboy actor who comes to Death Valley to search for her. Rigg Dexon, best known for his role as Holt Breck in the classic but controversial seventies Western, Gallows River, holes up for months in a shack known as the Mystery House, until he is driven out of seclusion by the record breaking wildflower bloom of March 2005 that draws swarms of tourists to the desert. After an intense encounter with an ardent fan named Willie Judy at a local bar, Rigg impulsively signs over the deed for the Mystery House to her in a gesture straight out of one of his corny films. But Willie, a rootless, unlucky young woman from a family of short-lived dreamers, takes it as a sign: Dexon wants her to find the Juliet, now that he's too frail to continue his search. What Willie doesn't know is that Dexon is giving away everything that's precious to him, following the advice of Holt Breck: leave like you ain't coming back. When Dexon's gift turns out to be the scene of a crime that implicates Willie in drug trafficking, she tries to cover it up, only to be drawn into the chaotic wake of The Juliet.

Interspersed with the story set in 2005 are episodes from The Juliet's twisted history as the emerald changes hands over the span of a century, leaving a wake of murder, theft, and madness until she is seemingly lost in the 50s. However, when a 1970s cereal company promises that the prize inside the box is a fragment of a treasure map that might lead to The Juliet's whereabouts, her legend is re-ignited, helped in no small part by the cereal's spokesman, none other than Rigg Dexon.

About this title

About the Author:

Laura Ellen Scott is the author of several novels including Death Wishing, a comic fantasy set in post-Katrina New Orleans, where dying wishes have started to come true. Her second novel is The Juliet, a western about the 100 year history of a cursed emerald that may or may not be lost in Death Valley during the great wildflower bloom of 2006. Currently she is writing the second book in the New Royal Mysteries series set in a fictional college/prison town in Ohio. The first New Royal Mystery, The Mean Bone in Her Body will be released in late 2016, and it's about what happens when a liberal arts program joins forces with the corrections industry to offer a unique crime writing program. and will be released in late 2016. Born and raised in Northern Ohio, Laura now lives in Fairfax, Virginia and teaches creative writing at George Mason University.

Review:

"As rich, varied, and vivid as the wildflower bloom in Death Valley, The Juliet gives us a panorama of lives desperate to be reinvented and, in that most American story, drawn west for one final chance. Scott's characters' good luck may be fleeting as those rare flowers, but the thrill of following them into the desert lasts through the very last page and beyond."-Steve Himmer author of The Bee-Loud Glade, Fram, and Scratch "Laura Ellen Scott writes like...well, like Laura Ellen Scott and nobody else. If you've read her before, you know exactly what I mean and would probably offer your firstborn to read her first novel. If you haven't read her: get ready for a brilliant, heady, wild and funnier-than-hell ride through one of the weirdest minds in all contemporary literature."-Amber Sparks, author of The Unfinished World, The Desert Places, and May We Shed These Human Bodies "Toward the beginning of The Juliet, we're introduced to a character who is "a dull knife trying to slice the world open to see if there was anything interesting inside." Sadly for her, Laura Ellen Scott has already cracked that world and scooped out all the interesting bits. Scott sifts out the oddities, the quirks, the unpolished stones in our lives, and makes them charming and beautiful--true precious gems. Her ability to continuously evoke wonder and delight in the dark side makes her one of the freshest and most original voices in fiction today."-Tara Laskowski, author of Bystanders and Modern Manners For Your Inner Demons "Unleashing an ensemble of quirky characters rivaling an Altman film, the always wicked and never predictable Laura Ellen Scott gives us The Juliet--a novel about legend, danger, and desire that is as wonderfully alarming as wildflower season in Death Valley." -Paula Bomer, author of Inside Madeline (An O Magazine "Titles to Pick Up Now" selection), Nine Months, and Baby & Other Stories

About this edition

• Publisher: Pandamoon Publishing
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 1945502002
• ISBN 13: 9781945502002
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 258