By Terri Schlichenmeyer

 “Scarlet in Blue” by Jennifer Murphy, c.2022, Dutton, $27, 373 pages

The portrait is beautiful, but drab.

Once vivid and vibrant, the colors have become fugitive pigments – gone, lost, having left the canvas through exposure over decades. Now, you can only imagine the jeweled tones of the subject’s gown, the richness of her hair, the glint in her eye, but you can’t see them. As in the new novel “Scarlet in Blue” by Jennifer Murphy, it feels as though something important is missing forever.

When her mother had said it was time to go, fifteen-year-old Blue didn’t bother to argue. This race was the same as the last escape was the same as the run before, but she didn’t expect to land in snow country. It was cold in South Haven, Michigan.

Every time, every move, she hoped things would be different. Maybe her mother would settle down and let Blue make friends, fall in love, have a dog like a normal teenager. Maybe her mother wouldn’t see “HIM,” an invisible man who was part of her mother’s illness. Maybe they could live in the real world for once.

Scarlet never walked, she twirled when she moved, hands above her head. People might have thought she was eccentric – she painted in the dark and destroyed her own canvases, and her palette came from natural sources – but they bought her works anyway, didn’t they? After all, she was a world-renowned painter with a gallery and shows in New York City, and she had famous friends! Moving around wasn’t her first choice, either, but she had to protect Blue from HIM. 

This trip to South Haven, and the revenge she’d find... that would fix all the problems.

When his wife Lily died, Dr. Henry Williams knew he’d never love anyone the same way again, and so his attraction to his new patient, Scarlet, made no sense. Yes, she was intriguing and mysterious but she was also in need of psychoanalyzation. He was obsessed with her, but he couldn’t figure out why. Why did she choose him to be her doctor?

Layer by layer: that’s how the Masters created their paintings. It’s how author Jennifer Murphy presents her “Scarlet in Blue.”

The first layer will put you on edge: Murphy starts her tale with tension and the admission that there’s been a murder, but decades ago and there’s no mystery in that. Uniquely, readers aren’t particularly urged to solve anything. Instead, we’re pulled sideways, tucked into Blue’s life and her growing fears and frustrations, while we watch Scarlet dive out-of-control. And here comes another layer: her relationship with Henry has a distinctive feel of an old-time movie with clever distractions to make you sometimes forget that murder.  

No worries: Murphy blends it in at just the right times, making it bleed into the rest of the story until the picture comes clear. 

Set in the early 1960s, this is a noir movie lover’s book. It’s for fans who don’t quite want a mystery to read. Just put “Scarlet in Blue” in your lap and color yourself sunny yellow..