SCARLET IN BLUE

A suspenseful psychological exploration about a mother and daughter on the run from a dark and dangerous past who land in a small town that holds the key to ending their fugitive lifestyle, as well as a coming of age story about the connection between art and madness, love and music, and the power of magical thinking.

Fifteen-year-old Blue Lake is a budding pianist who resents her mother Scarlet's nomadic lifestyle. She yearns to settle in one place so she can live a normal life, play music, have friends. But Scarlet, a talented painter, is on the run from a phantom man. A man she insists is chasing them, though Blue has never seen him. It isn't until 1968, when they arrive in the small beach-front town of South Haven, Michigan, that Blue's wishes begin to come true. She makes a good friend, falls in love, and can finally play piano. Everything seems to be going fine - until Scarlet kills the man she believes has been hunting them.

Forty-six years later, Blue, now a pianist for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, is leaving practice for her lunch-time walk past the Art Institute when she's startled by the announcement of a new exhibit. Highlighting the effects of chemistry on Impressionist masterpieces, the exhibit triggers memories of her mother and the long ago murder. Memories that Blue has spent a lifetime trying to forget.

Told through the alternating voices of Blue, Scarlet, and Scarlet's psychoanalyst, Henry, Scarlet In Blue is a story of a mother and daughter's enduring love, the ramifications of past abuse, and the art that holds their lives together.

Jennifer Murphy holds an MFA in painting from the University of Denver and an MFA in creative writing from the University of Washington. She is the recipient of the 2013 Loren D. Milliman Scholarship for creative writing and was a contributor at the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference from 2008 through 2012. In 2015, her acclaimed debut novel, I Love You More (Doubleday, 2014), won the prestigious Nancy Pearl Fiction Award. Her love of art led her to start Citi Arts, a public art and urban planning company that has created public art master plans for airports, transit facilities, streetscapes, and cities nationwide. She hails from a small beachfront town in Michigan and has lived in Denver, Charlotte, Seattle, and Charleston. She currently lives in Houston, Texas.