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Ellery’s alone at an upscale resort in California’s Big Sur. She was supposed to be with her husband on a 20th-anniversary celebration, but his decision to end their marriage left her reeling and without a partner for the getaway.
She is trying to make the most of it — the resort is to die for, the setting is gorgeous. But mostly she’s grieving and taking a lot of breaks to cry. And to make things harder, a wedding is taking place during Ellery’s stay. New beginnings for them, endings for her.
But not long into the vacation, Ellery is distraught to find a man floating in the pool. It turns out to be the would-be groom. Before the police can get to the resort to investigate, a storm comes in to the area. A mudslide takes out the road, isolating the guests at the resort. Just as Ellery and a couple of other guests who have befriended her start to talk about some amateur investigation into what happened to the groom, another person is found dead.
And there’s the perfect setting for a murder mystery. There’s a limited number of guests and staff, meaning a limited number of suspects (and potential new victims). There’s no way to get help, and the situation gets more and more dire. Will our sleuths figure out who the killer is? Will anyone get out alive? Will Ellery just be able to get back to her kids, whom she misses so much?
As a mystery/thriller/suspense book, The Unwedding isn’t anything special. It’s a decent effort in a new genre and for a new audience by Ally Condie, who’s previously written mostly dystopian YA. I’m not at all sure why Reese Witherspoon chose it for her book club. But good for Condie. I’ll be curious to see if she writes something else in this genre or goes a different direction with her next book. I would recommend a number of other really great mysteries before this one, but at least it’s clean, and that’s definitely an achievement for a celebrity book club pick.
Rated: Mild. (Maybe borders on moderate) Profanity includes around 25 instances of moderate profanity, about 30 uses of mild language, and a couple of instances of the name of Deity in vain. Violence includes a couple of deaths, with some blood but nothing horrific.
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