Book#257, International Collection, Themes: The Unreliable Narrator / The Gothic House / Cold Case / The Show Must Go On, Keywords: Dartmoor, Shakespeare, Othello, Repressed Memory, Unreliable Narrator, Stage Actress, Cold Case, Murder Mystery, Gothic Suspense, Atonement
She played the innocent for so long, she started to believe the performance.
Ivy Douglas is the toast of the London stage. A trans woman who fought for her place in the spotlight, she is celebrated for her portrayal of Shakespeare’s heroines. But when a cryptic note appears on her dressing room mirror—Dartmoor holds your cue—Ivy walks away from her career to confront the one scene she could never perfect.
Eleven years ago, in a lonely house on the moors, Ivy’s mentor and lover, Rebecca, was strangled. The case went cold. Ivy rebuilt her life on the foundation of a “lucky escape.” But as she returns to the house to sift through the wreckage of the past, the props begin to move. A veil appears on a chair. Rosemary is left on the doorstep. And a new note whispers: Remembrance is a choice.
Caught between a suspicious detective, a grieving husband, and a gardener who knows too much, Ivy stages a desperate reading of The Merchant of Venice to trap the killer. But as the lines between the play and reality blur, Ivy must face a terrifying question: Is she the detective in this story, or is she the villain she has spent a decade forgetting?
(A haunting, lyrical thriller about the masks we wear, the lines we cross, and the terrible mercy of memory.)
[CONTENT WARNING] Contains themes of: Murder/Strangulation, Suicide Attempt (Hanging), Repressed Memory/Trauma, Gaslighting (Self-inflicted), and Prison Life. The ending is redemptive but not a traditional “Happy Ever After.”
Heat Level (1-5) 1 (Atmospheric / No Erotica) (There is no on-page sex. The tension is entirely psychological and emotional. The backstory involves a sexual relationship, but it is remembered through the lens of grief and guilt. This is a “Clean” read in terms of smut, but “Dark” in terms of psychology.