The Juliet

During Death Valley’s great wildflower bloom of 2005, retired cowboy actor Rigg Dexon gives a rootless woman a gift that will change her life forever: the deed to The Mystery House, a century old shack long thought to be the hiding place of a legendary emerald known as The Juliet. Willie Judy remembers Dexon from cereal commercials she watched as a kid, but now she’ll spend the next seven days searching for the truth about him, the house, and herself, as the history of The Juliet reveals the American Dream’s dark side—one that is corrupt, bawdy, and half insane.

"As rich, varied, and vivid as the wildflower bloom in Death Valley, The Juliet gives us a panorama of lives desperate to be reinvented and, in that most American story, drawn west for one final chance. Scott's characters' good luck may be fleeting as those rare flowers, but the thrill of following them into the desert lasts through the very last page and beyond."-Steve Himmer author of The Bee-Loud Glade, Fram, and Scratch

"Laura Ellen Scott writes like...well, like Laura Ellen Scott and nobody else. If you've read her before, you know exactly what I mean and would probably offer your firstborn to read her first novel. If you haven't read her: get ready for a brilliant, heady, wild and funnier-than-hell ride through one of the weirdest minds in all contemporary literature."-Amber Sparks, author of The Unfinished World, The Desert Places, and May We Shed These Human Bodies

"Toward the beginning of The Juliet, we're introduced to a character who is "a dull knife trying to slice the world open to see if there was anything interesting inside." Sadly for her, Laura Ellen Scott has already cracked that world and scooped out all the interesting bits. Scott sifts out the oddities, the quirks, the unpolished stones in our lives, and makes them charming and beautiful--true precious gems. Her ability to continuously evoke wonder and delight in the dark side makes her one of the freshest and most original voices in fiction today."-Tara Laskowski, author of Bystanders and Modern Manners For Your Inner Demons

"Unleashing an ensemble of quirky characters rivaling an Altman film, the always wicked and never predictable Laura Ellen Scott gives us The Juliet--a novel about legend, danger, and desire that is as wonderfully alarming as wildflower season in Death Valley." -Paula Bomer, author of Inside Madeline (An O Magazine "Titles to Pick Up Now" selection), Nine Months, and Baby Other Stories