The Wedding Murders by Sarah Linley
| The Wedding Murders by Sarah Linley | |
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| Category: Thrillers | |
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Reviewer: Sue Magee
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| Summary: Pure escapism and a great read with an ending to take your breath away and make you reconsider EVER going to a wedding. | |
| Buy? Yes | Borrow? Yes |
| Pages: 368 | Date: February 2022 |
| Publisher: One More Chapter | |
| External links: Author's website | |
| ISBN: 978-0008495831 | |
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Libby Steele was hoping to get a permanent job with the newspaper and the case she was covering was her big chance. It was even more important to her than the celebrity wedding she was to attend the following day with her ex-rock star boyfriend, Matthew. She was leaving her seven-year-old son, Patrick with her sister, Emma, and heading off to a grand manor house hotel in the North Yorkshire countryside. Daniel Acroyd, television presenter and former member of the rock band was marrying Vicky and Libby suspected that the wedding wasn't quite as high-profile as had been suggested as there was no ban on photos or phones.
Still, it was a chance to have a weekend away and to meet the other members of the band. Matthew had been made wealthy by pop music but he never had anything to say about the time that he, Simon, Amir and Daniel lived the life of pop musicians, travelling the world and taking advantage of all it had to offer. We're going to hear quite a bit about what happened, though - we get to read excerpts from Untold Story by Simon Greene. He warns us that he's an unreliable narrator - but he's the best we've got about that time.
Then, one of the wedding guests goes missing.
Despite his warnings, Simon gives us an excellent picture of exactly what it's like to be in a band. Don't believe that it's a good life, because what Simon tells us about the lifestyle is backed up by Matt's story too: there were times when he'd much rather have been back home in Huddersfield. He was only sixteen when the band was formed and just about to sit his A levels when they were signed by a record label. Sarah Linley brings the life - and the fears - off the page brilliantly. It should be compulsory reading for any teenager who thinks it's the life for them. You'll feel the pressures of showbusiness in the nineties: I understood the downsides of being a celebrity as never before.
The band, as you'll begin to understand, don't want Simon's book to be published. There's something which they're all hiding. Libby's confident that Matthew will tell her what it is once they're back home but then the cracks begin to show in their relationship, despite the eighteen months which they've spent together. She's hurt when he doesn't congratulate her on her first-ever front-page story and shocked when he displays his derision about her job.
I did enjoy the book. The characters came off the page exceptionally well. I so wanted Libby to succeed: she hasn't had the easiest start in life but she's made a great job of bringing Patrick up and has worked hard at her job. She loves Matthew but despite his insistence that he's a one-woman man and he wants Libby and Patrick to move into his seven-bedroom house with him, she needs her independence. As for marriage, she wants to be certain and money isn't going to sway her. She's perhaps just a little too keen to investigate when she thinks something is wrong - but then she is' a journalist.
This was my first Sarah Linley book but it won't be my last and I'd like to thank the publishers for making a review copy available to the Bookbag.
If this book appeals and you still think weddings are a good idea, you really ought to read The Guest List by Lucy Foley.
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