Julia Madeleine
Non-series
Scarlet
Rose
Black Heart Books (Trade Paperback)
ISBN-10: 0-9808874-0-2 (0980887402)
ISBN-13: 978-0-9808874-0-2 (9780980887402)
Publication Date: April 2008
List Price: $15.95
Synopsis (from the publisher): When a wealthy Toronto business man is found tortured and murdered in a hotel room, his 22 year old stepdaughter, Fiona Dalton, must help police find the killer. Forced at the age of 16 into the adult entertainment industry by her own mother, Scarlet Rose, a washed-up alcoholic burlesque queen from the 1960s, Fiona navigates her way through the dark recesses of her family's history, uncovering shocking secrets that threaten to destroy her. All the while her mother becomes fixated on the only thing that truly matters to her: getting her hands on her dead ex-husband's money.
Review: Canadian
author Julia Madeleine’s debut novel, Scarlet Rose, reveals a seamy side
of Toronto that many Torontonians may not even know exists and others
will deny. It is a story of adult striptease joints where underage
girls are pressed into performing for patrons in “Perverts’
Row,” where drugs, alcohol and sexual favours are readily
available, and where turf wars over drugs result in even more
collateral damage for the dysfunctional family of “Scarlet
Rose,” a former striptease dancer, Sylvia Dalton, who, “At
the age of thirty-nine ... looked closer to fifty.” It’s a
story that begins and ends in violence and lingers in between with all
of the attributes of a classic noir novel.
In Madeleine’s dark story there are no master detectives, super
sleuths, or forensic specialists – only a 22-year-old
stepdaughter, Fiona Dalton, earlier forced into exotic dancing by her
mother, and now searching for the psychotic killer of her beloved
stepfather, wealthy glad-hander and good timer, Charlie Reynolds.
Instead of getting help from the local cops, she’s berated by
them and accused of having a sexual relationship with Charlie. Her
alcoholic mother’s no help, sponging from her for money and
groceries while hoarding family secrets about a long missing son,
Matthew, and railing about the ingratitude of Fiona whose father was a
years ago high school dalliance, 20-year-old Suzanne, who was
Charlie’s daughter, and 12-year-old Troy, sired by “a good
for nothing” named Casey after Charlie left when Fiona was only
nine years old. Suzanne left home once she hit fifteen and now runs
drugs from Vancouver to Toronto to New York City. Troy’s serving
detention time as an accomplice to grand theft auto, and Fiona’s
gulping down drugs and smoking pot, dancing in downtown Toronto, and
suffering a recurring dream of escaping from a pedophile who attempted
to kidnap her and someone else. Recently, an 18-year-old named Barry
King has shown up from northern Ontario claiming to be Charlie’s
son. But now, Charlie is dead, brutally tortured and gruesomely killed
and the cops have the grisly photos to show it. The usual suspects are
being interrogated. Those nearby are grilled at the station or at their
homes. But one, a homosexual bartender, can’t be questioned
because he’s found dead, and another, a drug czar, Damon Ventura,
is on a drug run to NYC where Suzanne is to meet him, confused and
conflicted over Ventura’s possible role in her father’s
death and her allegiance to her Vancouver drug running boyfriend.
Fiona’s conflicts are closer to home – ongoing ones with
her mother, of course, a couple of scary ones with Mario, the manager
of the Cabaret where she dances, when she fingers him to the cops as a
colleague of Charlie’s and Damon’s, and a final
heart-stopping one when she confronts Barry and her mother to tell them
that Charlie’s wealth that they’ve been coveting has
evaporated into bankruptcy proceedings. In the end, a memento Charlie
gave her when she was a child turns out to be her life saver as an
adult – that, and the just-in-time intervention by her
step-sister, Suzanne.
Through the recollections and reminiscences of different characters
Madeleine provides some relief for the bleakness of their lives. But
for most of them, even the party loving Charlie whose mother
“abandoned [him] like some hobby she didn’t have time
for,” real life is lived on Toronto’s seamier side,
Charlie’s even more so as it turns out. A characteristically noir
novel, Scarlet Rose, is
first-class in its genre. But be aware. As good as it is, it
ain’t no cozy.
Special thanks to M. Wayne Cunningham (mw_cunningham@telus.net) for contributing his review of Julia Madeleine and to the author for providing a copy of the book for this review.
Review Copyright © 2008 — M. Wayne Cunningham — All Rights Reserved — Reprinted with Permission
Have you read Julia Madeleine? How would you rate it?
Novels by this author …
Julia Madeleine
Black Heart Books (Trade Paperback), April 2008
ISBN-10: 0-9808874-0-2 (0980887402)
ISBN-13: 978-0-9808874-0-2 (9780980887402)
Omnimystery keywords for Julia Madeleine ...
Location(s) referenced: Toronto.
