The Vanished Bride
By: Bella Ellis
Published Year: 2019
Publisher: Berkley
Pages: 304
Summary (Provided by Goodreads): Before they became legendary writers, Charlotte Brontë, Emily Brontë, and Anne Brontë were detectors in this charming historical mystery...
Yorkshire, 1845. A young wife and mother has gone missing from her home, leaving behind two small children and a large pool of blood. Just a few miles away, a humble parson's daughters--the Brontë sisters--learn of the crime. Charlotte, Emily, and Anne Brontë are horrified and intrigued by the mysterious disappearance.
These three creative, energetic, and resourceful women quickly realize that they have all the skills required to make for excellent "lady detectors." Not yet published novelists, they have well-honed imaginations and are expert readers. And, as Charlotte remarks, "detecting is reading between the lines--it's seeing what is not there."
As they investigate, Charlotte, Emily, and Anne are confronted with a society that believes a woman's place is in the home, not scouring the countryside looking for clues. But nothing will stop the sisters from discovering what happened to the vanished bride, even as they find their own lives are in great peril...
First Impressions
Bronte sisters as detectives? Count me in! When I first read the description that sounded so cute and I couldn’t pass it up. To be honest, the cover isn’t my favorite. I would not have been drawn to it on the shelf.
What I thought
Charlotte, Emily, and Anne stumble across a mysterious disappearance that involves one of Charlotte’s old friends. It seems as though no one is going to go looking for the missing woman, so they decide to take it upon themselves to become detectors and find out what happened.
I think I would’ve liked this book more if it was a Young Adult novel with the Bronte sisters being a little younger. I couldn’t quite get behind the sisters being in their 20s and running around trying to solve a murder. The other issue I had was that it seemed as though being a detective was a new field, yet the Bronte sisters understood the need for someone to have a motive and a lot of other classic detective tropes.
The story alternated chapters told from the perspectives of each sister, yet I didn’t find them to be very different. It seemed like when the chapter was from Emily’s perspective, for example, but if all the sisters were in the scene, it didn’t focus on Emily’s thoughts or views.
I kept waiting for the story to find it’s rhythm, but it just didn’t do much for me. Again, I think if the girls were younger it might’ve been a bit more believable for me. The curiosity getting the best of them and trying to escape from the boredom of their lives. I also found the mystery to be predictable which always knocks a story down a bit for me.
The story wasn’t terrible, and I enjoyed a lot of aspects of it. But there were still some kinks to me that need to be worked out. The mystery wasn’t a page turner and there were some things that needed to be streamlined. I think maybe a few books down the road that maybe they will find their rhythm, but for now, the Bronte Sister’s Mysteries are not for me.