THE BRIDESMAID
CATE QUINN
Sourcebooks Landmark (non-affiliate Bookshop.org link)
$9.99 ebook, available now
Rating: 3.5* of five
The Publisher Says: From the acclaimed author of The Clinic comes a pulse-pounding thriller about a society wedding turned deadly, for fans of The Unwedding.
The Kensingtons invite you to the society wedding of the decade. There's just one hitch. You might not make it out alive.
When a celebrity bridesmaid is murdered weeks before an exclusive society wedding, forensic attorney Holly Stone is drafted as an unlikely undercover replacement. As she works to unpick the lives of the notoriously private Kensington family, glamour-averse Holly discovers a new worst enemy in bridezilla Adrianna. Heir to a multimillion dollar fortune, Adrianna is set on throwing the event of the decade, and she won't let anything get in her way.
But beneath the veneer of poise and sophistication, Adrianna and her bridesmaids have secrets worth killing for.
As the wedding day gets closer, it's clear that one of the five hand-picked bridesmaids has committed murder—and a destination wedding is a perfect place to strike again. Soon, Holly finds herself on the playground of the rich and famous, but if she wants to find answers, she'll have to make it out alive.
I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.
My Review: Like The White Lotus, do not go into this read expecting to deal with consensus reality. This is what Robin Leach meant decades ago when he'd sign off his show with "champagne wishes!" As long as that's what you're in the mood for, and lists of brand names and trendy, spendy doodads and gewgaws don't bore you (they do me) you'll do fine with this competently executed mystery plot.
Up to the Big Twist, I was fine with it because I was in the mood for some escapist reading. A bridesmaid being murdered (pretty gruesomely) and the people getting married just...going on with the wedding was not my breaking point. It truly was the Big Twist that made my eyes roll so far back I saw my brain.
No, I won't tell you what it was. The Spoiled Spoiler Stasi are not nice to those who do not play by their rules. I'll comment that, despite my response to it, I genuinely did not see it coming. I guessed who it would concern, but not what it was, hence my elevation of the read out of the Burgoines into the regular reviews...I was surprised, and that earns an author points from me.
Did I believe any of it could happen? No. But that's true of all murder mystery stories: There is no way in hell they could happen as described. It's why we call the art form "fiction." So dive in, ye souls weary of the muck and sludge of Reality, partake of shiny expensive trinkets and glossy, dust-free surfaces! We need escape and amusement as much as uplift and engagement.
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