I just finished The Juliet by Laura Ellen Scott. I knew I was in for a great mystery novel based on all the buzz I’d heard but I didn’t know how perfect this literary mystery novel would be for me in particular. It’s a gender bender of the highest order! I don’t want to give anything away so I’ll leave it with my Amazon review:
The Juliet is a masterful blend of stories of the unfortunate owners of the ‘cursed’ gemstone called The Juliet tied together by the gemstone’s most recent owner, retired cowboy actor Rigg Dexson. The cowboy actor currently resides at the Mystery House in the former mining town of Centenary, NV. The story jumps from the gilded age on the east coast to 50’s LA noir to Centenary when it was a boom town in the early 1900’s. Laura Ellen Scott masterfully weaves all of these settings plus a few more and the characters that inhabit them into a fantastic narrative expertly striking upon the perfect details for each specific time in history allowing the reader to effortlessly follow The Juliet on its journey through time as the gem seems to discard one owner in favor of the next — never changing hands without some terrible consequence for the former owner. It felt like I was reading Tarantino mixed with Eleanor Catton. Scott has written perfectly violent and enthralling literary mystery.
I highly recommend getting The Juliet at your earliest possible convenience!