The Bride by Wendy Clarke
Genre: Psychological thriller, Suspense
Read: 8th November 2020
Published: 20th May 2020
★★ 2.5 stars
DESCRIPTION:
The moment Joanna told me she was engaged, I had this awful feeling that something was wrong.
We used to speak on the phone every day. Growing up I spent more time at her house than I did at my own. I’d always imagined what it would be like to see her get married, and now I didn’t even know her fiancé’s name.
She asked me to come and meet Mark and I intended to tell her to slow down. You can’t know someone for a month and be sure that you want to spend the rest of your lives together.
When I got to Joanna’s front door, only Mark was there. He was charming and gorgeous and nothing but nice to me, and I started to understand.
And then he told me that Joanna was missing.
MY REVIEW:
I like a good psychological thriller as much as anyone, particularly one that keeps me engaged from beginning to end with a thrill ride of emotions. However, THE BRIDE just didn't do that for me. I wanted to like it, I wanted to enjoy the ride, but it was a bit like driving Miss Daisy on a road to nowhere.
Alice has just come out of a relationship with the man she had planned to marry when she receives a text out of the blue from her childhood best friend Joanna announcing she has just got engaged and inviting her to come and meet her fiance. When? How about Saturday? OK, I'll be there! Now Alice hasn't seen or heard from Joanna in quite some time and it's not until she has arrived and met the said fiance that we find out just how long it has been.
So Alice sets out early Saturday morning from her Brighton home she had once shared with Drew (cue a few more sobs and self flagellation) and makes the journey to London. She arrives, not at the beautiful home she had envisioned Joanna now living in, but an abandoned deserted and somewhat creepy collection of buildings known as Black Water Dock. Surely Joanna doesn't live here? But then she sees the signs for New Tobacco Wharf, the address she has for her friend. However, this is no Canary Wharf.
OK, so as soon as Alice drives into the underground carpark, cue creepy music because it's dark. And by now we have come to the conclusion multiple times that Alice is terrified of the dark. However, the lights are sensor controlled and as soon as she drives in, they come on. The lift, however, is another matter. So she climbs the six flights to Joanna's floor, rings the apartment buzzer and comes face to face with Joanna's fiance, Mark.
Alas, despite coming all this way for answers Alice discovers all that awaits are more mysteries and uncertainties. Joanna, it seems, is away on a course. So why would she invite Alice up on a weekend she knew she was going to be away? It all seems a little suspect and as nice as Mark appears to be, something is amiss. Tired from her 3 hour journey and getting lost along the way, Alice reluctantly decides to stay the night before making the journey back home to Brighton. But Mark manages to convince her to stay when he reveals that Joanna is actually missing and has been for the past three days. Why has he not informed the police? Did something sinister happen to her friend and is Mark somehow involved?
When the police are finally called two days later, the truth as to how long it's been since Alice has seen Joanna comes to light. Ten years. So then why, after all that time, would she suddenly drop everything (not that there was that much to drop) and make the long journey to see someone she hasn't seen nor spoken to in ten years? And why, after all that time, would Joanna text her simply out of the blue? And would both women really have the same mobile numbers after ten years? I know I have had the same one for the past 12 years but not everyone does.
But that's not all that's suspect in this rather strange but twisted tale. Despite the vastness of these showroom apartments of New Tobacco Wharf, only three of them are occupied. Eloise on the 4th floor who is a little eccentric and someone else who is hardly ever in residence. So much so we never meet them. But then there is wild-eyed random squatting in one of the empty apartments who frightens Alice with his vicious insults and abuse. And then there is Derek, hired as security, sitting in his cubby hole surrounded by monitors of every nook and cranny of the building...who seems to turn up uninvited and leers at Alice, making her uncomfortable. Who are these people? And do they have something to do with Joanna's disappearance?
But then Alice finds the key to a locked drawer in her room and is shocked to discover it is filled to the brim with photos of her. Some on her own and some with Joanna. Why are they here? And what do they mean? Is Mark hiding something? Does he know what really happened to Joanna?
And then the police inform them that a body has been found. Is it Joanna?
A somewhat unlikely plot, THE BRIDE is as eye-rolling as it is baffling. The characters were unlikeable and impossible to relate to that it made it difficult to care what actually happened to them. From the beginning Alice came across as needy and flaky with no real direction. She starts her journey on a plane returning from Corfu and seeing her father to returning to the home she shared with her fiance to being dumped to receiving a text from Joanna to jumping in her car and making the 3 hour drive to London to...what exactly? I didn't see how her journey from Corfu and the playout of her relationship falling apart had anything to do with the story. These are things that could have been mentioned as a backstory...why did they have to play out? I saw no purpose in them. Not to mention that Alice herself was so whiny and flaky I could not like her at all. As for the other characters, a question mark hung over them all as to their involvement in the mystery so it was impossible to get a take on any of them. Added to that, Alice was so jumpy her perspective couldn't be trusted either.
As the story moves on, it is clear that something is amiss...as the narration deliberately leaves you with that sense. But then again, Alice is such an unreliable narrator it's hard to know what to believe. But we do get to hear another voice besides Alice further in when we then hear from Joanna. So what secrets will she reveal?
In summary, THE BRIDE is a claustrophobic thriller that you will either like or you won't. There is an element of suspense but the problem is the story moved with such a glacial speed at the beginning with too much left unresolved in the end. There are a few twists, some of which give you whiplash and leave you wondering what really is the truth?
Overall, THE BRIDE had a lot of potential but falls short in the end.
I would like to thank #WendyClarke, #NetGalley and #Bookouture for an ARC of #TheBride in exchange for an honest review.
MEET THE AUTHOR:
From a young age, Wendy loved writing stories, but it wasn’t until the small primary school she was teaching in closed down that she started writing seriously. Enrolling on an online writing course, it was the first time she’d written since school, and she loved it so much that after the course finished she was left feeling bereft. Until her tutor suggested she try sending her stories to women’s magazines. Since then, she has had over three hundred stories published as well as serials.
With a degree in psychology, and intrigued with how the human mind can affect behaviour, it was inevitable Wendy would eventually want to explore er darker side. The idea of writing her debut psychological thriller came to her on a holiday in the Lake District.
Wendy is the author of four psychological thrillers. Her debut novel, 'What She Saw', was published in May 2019 whilst her second novel, 'We Were Sisters', was published in August 2019. Her third novel, 'The Bride', was published in May 2020 and her fourth novel, 'His Hidden Wife', is available on pre-order and will be published on 4th February 2021.
Wendy lives with her husband, cat and step-dog in Sussex and when not writing is usually dancing, singing or watching any programme that involves food!
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