The Unwedding is a thrilling, thought-provoking and heart felt who-done-it from Ally Condie that will entrap readers within the first few pages and keep them hooked throughout as Condie explores the pains of loss, rediscovering ones self and a closed-system, tight quarters, murder mystery.
From the blurb;
'Something old, something new.
'Something borrowed, something blue.
'Someone lost, someone wed.
'Someone broken, someone dead.
'Ellery Wainwright is alone at the edge of the world.
'She adn her husband, Luke, were supposed to spend their twentieth anniversary together at a luxurious resort at Broken Point in Big Sur, California.
'Now she's travelling solo.
'To add insult to injury, there's a wedding scheduled during her stay. But when Ellery discovers the body of the groom floating in the pool in the rain, she begins to realise that there is something more sinister going on.
' Before the police can arrive, a mudslide takes out the road to the resort, leaving the guests trapped. And when another guest dies, it becomes clear that everyone at Broken Point has a secret...
'Everyone including Ellery.'
The Unwedding is a book both for those who love a twisty crime mystery and for those who seek the opposite of a love story; for those who know the pains of divorce and separation. It is a book that screams 'You are not alone', and brings joy to the art of rediscovering yourself and finding the freedom and the happiness in remaking.
Condie wrote The Unwedding in the midst of her own relationship breakdown, and the heart of her experience can be felt in experiences of both Ellery and her best friend Abby. While Ellery is the epitome of the immediately after divorce emotions, Abby is the light at the end of the tunnel, and through both characters Condie speaks to her audience of the pain and joy that comes after separation.
Aside from both being divorcees Abby and Ellery share a dark history, buried in the plot, readers must piece together this shared experience that has left Ellery shaken and has made her the perfect person to be caught up in a murder mystery.
Thought Abby is not part of the trip to Broken Point her character remains an important clinch-pin in the story and in Ellery's confidence moving through it.
Condie skilfully crafts a strong cast of varied characters, each of whom has fully fledged background stories which come into play in meaningful ways throughout the book. Trapping this varied cast into a shared space, and unleashing a murderer upon them, Condie tightens the noose by making that shared space smaller and smaller, forcing our characters into even closer quarters, and making a relationship bloom among the cast, all the while keeping us blind to the suspects until the most important moment.
Fast paced and skilfully written The Unwedding is near impossible to put down, as it jolts us through the story, forcing us to piece together not only the crime that has rocked this holidaying community but also Ellery's past, what happened between her and her ex-husband Luke, and how all the characters fit together.
For Condie's first Adult Novel The Unwedding is a crowning success which will leave readers hoping for more from the author in this category in the future.
We give The Unwedding Five Stars
ISBN - 978-1-399-74320-4 Cover Price - £15.99 First Published in Great Britain in 2024 by Hodder & Stoughton Limited
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