Bridesmaids Revisited: An Ellie Haskell Mystery [Mass Market Paperback]

Dorothy Cannell (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 2001 | Series: Ellie Haskell Mysteries

"Rosemary, Thora, and Jane lived at the end of the lane, one was thin, one was fat, and one was very plain." This is how Ellie Haskell remembers her grandmother's three friends, known collectively as "the bridesmaids." She had once asked her mother where the nickname came from and her mother replied, "It's a long story, best forgotten." Every family has its secrets.

Now, thirty years later, a letter from the bridesmaids arrives informing Ellie that her grandmother, Sophia, wishes to make contact. This might have been heartwarming news but for one small detail: Sophia is dead. Ellie sets out to visit the bridesmaids on what becomes a life-changing journey that includes a seance, a hidden diary, and a murder that took place more than fifty years ago.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A spectral summons leads to family secrets in Cannell's 11th beguiling outing (after The Trouble with Harriet) for British interior decorator Ellie Haskell. Ellie hasn't thought about her late grandmother Sophia's three bridesmaidsARosemary, Thora and JaneAin years. Then she receives a letter from Rosemary telling her that Sophia is trying to contact her from beyond the grave. With her saucy, uninvited helper, Mrs. Malloy, in tow, Ellie travels to the ancient Cambridgeshire village of Knells to investigate. She finds the people of Knells abuzz over the plans of social upstart Sir Clifford Heath, a rapacious financier, to buy up the town in order to turn it into a theme parkAapparently because he has a grudge against the community that snubbed him as a poor lad. From local gossip, Ellie learns that Sir Clifford has links to her own family, in particular the untimely, mysterious death of her mother. With its ancient setting, complicated story, mysterious old houses, hidden diaries, simmering passions, spooky emanations and love matches gone awry, the tale sometimes reads like Wuthering Heights on steroids. Still, Cannell's smooth narration and her appealing, smart-mouthed characters charm you into suspending disbelief. The result is a thoroughly delightful puzzle. Mystery Guild selection; 11-city tour. (June 15)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

Fans of Cannell's previous Ellie Haskell mysteries will not be disappointed with this one, which retains the author's sparkling humor and penchant for off-beat characters. Ellie, now a mother of three, sends her family off on holiday so she can finally tend to decorating their castle (the one she inherited, you recall, from her wacky Fester-ish uncle). But before she can pick up a paintbrush, she receives a letter from "the bridesmaids," three ladies who had been friends of her grandmother Sophia's. They claim that Sophia has a message for Ellie--the problem being that Sophia has been dead for half a century. Ellie visits the bridesmaids, and comes to realize that one among the slightly dotty trio may turn out be a murderess.

Several of the mystery's plot devices will be familiar to Cannell addicts: old family skeletons come to light, a hilarious gothic-novel-within-a-novel caricatures both "Jane Eyre" and "Rebecca," and at least one character turns out to have a long-lost twin.

But Cannell also tackles new Spiritualist ground here, undertaking themes of ghostly emanations, seances, and conjurings. (The bridesmaids feel a tad uneasy about invoking Sophia's spirit, and spend one very funny scene wondering if they should enhance their matronly attire with garlic necklaces or crucifixes.) Cannell effectively opens the door to the spirit world, and then gently closes it as the story's supernatural phenomena all turn out to have perfectly natural--albeit unlikely--explanations. She does leave the door just a tad ajar at the novel's close, acknowledging a spiritual "intuition" that remains unaccounted for. This mystery is rollicking good fun for a dark and stormy night. (Beliefnet, Sept. 2000) -- From Beliefnet --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 246 pages
• Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics) (June 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0141001860
• ISBN-13: 978-0141001869
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #858,971 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A magical cozy, June 16, 2000

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Bridesmaid Revisited (Ellie Haskell Mysteries) (Hardcover)

With her family away on vacation, interior decorator Ellie Haskell planned to redo their home. However, a letter from Rosemary Maywood shakes Ellie to her inner core. Rosemary claims that she is in contact with Ellie's deceased grandmother Sophia who desperately needs to speak with her. Rosemary, along with Thora and Jane, were called the bridesmaids when Ellie was a child, but no one would explain why they were nicknamed as such.

Feeling a bit foolish, Ellie travels to see Rosemary to learn what the woman is talking about. Her housekeeper Mrs. Malloy insists on coming too. Ellie and Mrs. Malloy go the Knells where she learns that a developer plans to turn the village into a theme park because he was mistreated as a youth. As she begins to unravel what the three bridesmaids want to tell her, Ellie begins investigating a half of a century old murder that could end up with a present day homicide, namely Ellie.

BRIDESMAID REVISITED is an interesting tale that reads like a well-written gothic who-done-it. The main characters are fully developed and the support cast brings the brooding atmosphere of the Knells to life. The mystery is humorously and enjoyably weird as expected from a Dorothy Cannel tale.

Harriet Klausner

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Dorothy Cannell Hasn't Lost Her Touch, July 23, 2000

By 

Ann E. Nichols (Sierra Vista, AZ United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Bridesmaid Revisited (Ellie Haskell Mysteries) (Hardcover)

Although I seldom read Gothics anymore, I read my share of them when I was young. Ms. Cannell serves up the standards: deep dark family secrets (one was easy to guess, but the others took me completely by surprise), great wrongs from the past that need to be set right, people being killed because they either KNOW TOO MUCH or could unwittingly REVEAL ALL. She didn't leave out the less-than-warm welcome the villagers give the innocent heroine. There's a seance! There's a governess who wanted her master who had the invalid wife. Ellie's life is mysteriously threatened. There's even a certain architectural feature no Gothic romance should be without. Of course, Ellie isn't the usual Gothic heroine because she's a wife and mother, but our author handles this trifling problem by packing Bentley and the kiddies off to camp. Mrs. Malloy and the faithful Tobias are similarly disposed of, leaving poor Ellie on her own. To trust or not to trust? Not only is that the question, but the answer could mean life or death to Ellie. I don't know if I'd go so far as to say that it's the best spoof of Gothics since Jane Austen's NORTHANGER ABBEY, but it's certainly a lot of fun. RANDOM COMMENTS: If you take 100 years as the human life span, then ages 34 through 65 are the middle, so yes, you are middle aged if you're in your forties (I will be 46 this year). Laughed at Mrs. Malloy's reaction to the reason Ellie has never spoken of her maternal grandmother. The chapter decorations are pretty. For someone who reads Gothics, Ellie took a bit long to become suspicious. I'd never heard the phrase "a friend of Dorothy" before -- what a polite way to explain. My instinctive reaction to the mentions of meat puddings and fish pie was YUCK! Then I remembered the teasing I gave a friend who refused to try chicken pot pie because "pies are dessert!" and decided to keep an open mind. With all the revelations in this book, Ellie and her kin are going to have to rethink their precise degree of relationship. I, for one, hope that Ms. Cannell doesn't fail to give us vain Vanessa's reaction in the next book. I'm sorry that Yan Nascimbene chose to give us a dustjacket illustration that's in keeping with the punny title. This book cries out for a traditional Gothic cover, preferably a nightgowned Ellie fleeing the Old Rectory in the pitch dark; with one window mysteriously lit in the forbidding house.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A FUN, FAST READ...I ENJOYED IT FOR WHAT IT IS., July 13, 2007

By 

D. Blankenship (The Ozarks) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Bridesmaids Revisited: An Ellie Haskell Mystery (Mass Market Paperback)

No spoilers here! Dorothy Cannell is a good story teller and certainly has a great sense of humor. With this 11th novel in the Ellie Haskell series, both traits come shinning through. Ellis in contacted by three ladies from out of her past that state her grandmother wants to contact her. Since Ellie's grandmother is long dead, this is of course a problem. Ellie and her ever present quirky house keeper set out for a visit and of course end up in a typical Gothic Setting with three very odd ladies. I it is sort of difficult to do much plot outlinging with Ms. Cannell's books as there are plots and subplots scattered throughout the work. To talk much about one leaves openings to spoil another for the reader. I did feel that the over all plot of this work was weaker than in some of the author's other works and, as another reviewer has pointed out, the book, at times, seemed rather rushed. That is okay though. I read these books more for the humor and characters than I do the story and the author has delivered again with this one. If you are looking for a fast, one evening read, that is rather enjoyable, then this one is for you.