Ruby Falls

Ruby Falls by Deborah Goodrich Royce 272 pages 

Author Deborah Goodrich Royce employs one of my favorite plot devices, dueling timelines, to create a gothic, atmospheric, creepy and unsatisfying tale.

Ruby Eleanor Russell is six years old when she and her father take a trip to Lookout Mountain, Tennessee. At one point in the guided tour, the guides have the lights go out, so the tourists can hear the waters of Ruby Falls. It is there, while standing within a crowd of people, that Ruby’s father releases her hand and disappears. He is never seen or heard from again. That event, as one can imagine, affects the rest of Ruby’s life with deep-seated abandonment issues.

Flash forward to 1987. Ruby now goes by Eleanor. She is a famous soap opera actress who was recently fired from her job after, I think, suffering from a nervous breakdown. Eleanor’s character was quite popular, and I really didn’t understand why they let her go.

Needing to get away, and I’m not sure why, Eleanor flies to Zurich, where she is sent by a letter her father left behind. I didn’t get it, but I was intrigued. There she meets a British aristocrat, Orlando Montague. For someone supposedly so wealthy, Orlando depends on her money for everything they need or want. After a whirlwind romance, they return to Los Angeles as a married couple.

There they buy a rose-covered cottage in the Hollywood Hills. Eleanor lands the lead in the movie remake of Daphne du Maurier’s “Rebecca.” It’s not just a remake---it’s a gothic remake. That aspect of the novel, the remake of one of my favorite films, led me to want to read this novel. Life is good.

As Eleanor immerses herself in the role, her private life becomes more and more weird. She fears she is suffering a relapse of the condition that forced the television executives to fire her, but she cannot be sure. She adopts a cat and meets the woman across the street, whom I swear is a ghost. 

Behind their home is a small building that they use for an office. Orlando runs his high-end antique business from there as he looks for office space. Then he begins to change. He becomes evasive and abusive, making secret phone calls and taking secret trips.

The last third of the book didn’t make any sense to me. I wasn’t sure if Eleanor was having a breakdown and/or if Orlando was a criminal, plotting his next move. Maybe both. The ending confused me, and left me wondering “huh?” 

Part of me wants to give this book two stars. However. I could not put it down. I was desperately trying to figure it out and was unsatisfied---okay outraged---when I turned the last page. But never once did I even consider not finishing it. Therefore, “Ruby Falls” receives 3 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.