Ally Condie had a major hit years ago with her young adult Matched trilogy, and has been a mainstay of the children’s and young adult lists since. The Unwedding marks her adult debut, an entry into the crowded thriller/crime field. Happily, The Unwedding is a winning effort, infusing one of the most traditional of crime sub-genres—the locked room mystery—with a subplot of grief and coping through tremendous loss.
The Unwedding is about two weddings, or rather two marriages. Ellery's happened twenty years ago, a milestone anniversary she should be celebrating at the ultra-luxe Big Sur resort with her husband Luke. That was before Luke surprised her with a divorce request and moved out with of the family home, with instructions not to call him. Ellery does not want to be in Big Sur—she misses her kids back in Colorado—but at the urging of a good friend (and a desire to ensure her ex doesn’t bring his girlfriend on the non-refundable trip) she determines to enjoy sunrise yoga and spa treatments in spite of her loneliness. But of course, there’s a wedding happening at the resort. Ben and Olivia are not a couple interested in staging astronomically priced nuptials for their own sake, but Olivia’s influential mother insists on a glamorous ceremony at her favorite resort. Already under strain, the wedding party is an odd one, Ben’s frat-boy groomsmen clashing with other guests and Catherine making clear her disapproval of her daughter’s choice of groom. The storm clouds break metaphorically at the dusk wedding when the groom fails to show up, and in reality when a terrible storm sparks landslides that cuts the resort off from the outside world. And then Ellery discovers a body floating in the hotel pool.
Being stranded where unexplained deaths are happening, even if it’s at a really nice resort, is awful enough, but Ellery’s grief over her marriage and the guilt from a terrible accident years earlier makes it almost unbearable. As Ellery is the only guest at the resort who didn’t come with someone, she’s in a unique position: everyone tends to talk with her or take her into their various groups, making her the default amateur detective. And when another ‘accident’ happens, it becomes even more imperative that she finds out the truth. The more she listens and observes, the more she realizes that she’s far from the only one there haunted by deep sorrow. ut is grief enough of a reason to kill?
Condie does a good job getting at the nuances of motive with The Unwedding, a level of detail that doesn’t do anything to detract from the propulsive plot and memorable setting that are the usual hallmarks of thrillers. Her characters fall a little flat at times. Ellery is well developed as the lead, but most of the other characters tend to be either a little too good or bad to be three-dimensional, particularly right at the end. Still, The Unwedding is a strong entry among thrillers, and would be a good choice for fans of Ruth Ware and Lucy Foley. Christine Lakin delivers a great performance on the audiobook version, adeptly giving voices to numerous characters.