Reviews

After a painful divorce, Ellery Wainwright decides to vacation alone at the luxurious Resort at Broken Point in Big Sur, California, for what was supposed to be her twentieth-anniversary trip with her now ex-husband. Ellery is yet to come to terms with the end of her marriage and a wedding being held at the resort doesn’t make it any easier. In a shocking turn of events, Ellery discovers the body of the groom in the hotel pool after it was assumed that he had absconded leaving his fiancée at the altar. With inclement weather trapping them inside the resort, the wedding guests and other travelers are cut -off from any help from the outside and after another member of the wedding party is found dead under mysterious circumstances, Ellery and her new friends Nina and Ravi join the search for the killer - not an easy task with a hotel full of guests among whom are people with secrets they would kill to protect. Complicating matters further are rumors of missing items from the resort’s renowned art collection indicating the presence of a thief as well as a murderer. Ellery is desperate to get go home to her children, but with no way out of the resort and with a killer in their midst, she struggles to keep it together as she is drawn into a complex web of lies, secrets, murder and deception.

I’m a fan of Agatha Christie mysteries and I loved The White Lotus, so when a book is described as “The White Lotus meets Agatha Christie”, you can’t blame this reader for going in with high expectations.

Let me begin by saying that I loved the premise, the atmospheric setting and the suspenseful vibe and liked that the author wove Ellery’s personal journey into the murder mystery narrative. The novel is well-structured and I thought that beginning each chapter with a brief description of a card left for the guests daily featuring a quote, a brief weather forecast and details about one piece of artwork featured in the in-house collection was a nice touch. I could sympathize with Ellery and did like how the author addressed themes of loss, family, trust, grief and healing. I enjoyed the first half of the novel but was more than a tad disappointed as the narrative progressed. Firstly, I didn’t find any of the main characters particularly interesting (in fact I liked a few of the supporting characters more) and one particular detail (or omission, to be precise) annoyed me to no end. Moreover, plot development in the second half of the novel left a lot to be desired. As far as the “mystery” goes, the plot became convoluted and long drawn, the twists felt contrived for the most part, and the ending was overall unsatisfying. I couldn’t wait for the book to end, eventually losing interest long before the final reveal.

Though there were aspects of the story I did like, I had hoped for a more engaging mystery and that’s where The Unwedding by Ally Condie fell short for me. However, many have enjoyed this novel more than I did and I would request you to read other reviews before making a decision about reading this one.

Many thanks to Grand Central Publishing for the digital review copy via NetGalley. All opinions expressed in this review are my own.