Customer Reviews

The Scold's Bridle (G K Hall Large Print Book Series)

5 star:		(24)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I discovered Walters by accident about 4 years ago when I found a copy of "The Sculptress". I loved it and I haven't enjoyed anything quite like it until now.

The Scold's Bridle is wonderful. The characters are dark, complex and quirky. You are never really sure that you know any of them. And yet you can't stop reading about their predicaments. This book was impossible to put down. I think Walters has some of the best mystery characters I have ever read.

I did figure out "the murderer" about 2/3 through the book, so I can't give it 5 stars. But the story alone is terrific. Buy & read this book you won't be disappointed!

The Scold's Bridle is one of Minette's best! When the old lady that everyone in Fontwell hates dies a myesterious death in her bathtub - people breathe a sigh of relief.

Not so for her doctor Sarah Blakeney, she sees more to the death than meets the eye and takes it upon herself to discover the truth behind Mathilda Gillespie's gruesome death.

What the reader finds beyond the main plot is ingenious writing, rich characters and wonderful story telling. This is one page turner that I tried desperately not to read in one sitting - I really wanted to savor it.

All in all a fabulous book!

The Scold's bridle was winner of the CWA crime novel of the year, and after reading it, there is no doubt in my mind that it is worthy of its accolades. An old, crotchety shrew is found dead in the bathtub. Her wrists horribly slit, pills in her bloodstream, and an antique scold' bridle clasped firmly on her head. A medieval device used to silence nagging women in days of your...All signs point to suicide but for the contraption clamped onto her face, and the protagonist Sarah, her doctor, who said the old woman was emotionally stable. The reader is treated to many twists and turns as the police investigate the small town - only to find out that seemingly everyone had some motive to kill her, as she was entirely dislikeable. Enter the estranged and highly disgruntled family all looking for a share of the considerable family fortune, and you have a sure-fire method of staying up all night waiting for answers.

Read this book for hours of unbridled suspense, but don't do it on a night when you have to get up early, as you won't be going to sleep.

Relic113

The only thing that could possibly rival this book for the number of psychiactric problems per page would be a copy of the DSM-IV manual.

Walters clearly has a formidable intellect and develops characters that are complex studies in human behavior. The individuals in these pages are not shallow charicatures, nor are they what first meets the eye. No, the problem isn't Walters' ability to develop characters. It's her choice of characters to develop.

The real problem in this book is that Walters has given us almost nobody likeable. Some we come to pity, but none that we truly come to like. And when at long last we learn the identity of the killer, it feels less like a finale than a let down. The book, as one other reviewer has noted, is over-plotted. It comes across as too clever for its own good.

Here's a quick cast of characters. See if you can find anyone huggable in the lot:

* Dr. Sarah Blakeney: Sensible, attractive, and slightly overachieving physician, liked by most everyone in town. Slavish devotion to husband - a world-class skirt-chaser and free-loader. Would be a poster child for one of Dr. Laura Schlesinger's books on smart women who stay enmeshed in stupid relationships.

* Jack Blakeney: Sarah's husband. If he had his own line of clothing, it would be a black t-shirt that read "it's all about me." Spoiled, artistic snob who can't sell his paintings because "the world doesn't appreciate his genius," and believes monogomy would be a betrayal of his "inner hedonist."

* Tommy Cooper: local police detective. Nice enough fellow, and unexpectedly bright underneath a plain brown wrapper. But counsels a confused teenager to get an abortion which is somehow supposed to endear him to us for his remarkable sensitivity, insight, and modern sensibilities. Yeah, right.

* Mathilda Gillespie: Wealthy b**tch. Not much more to say here. Universally disliked by the entire town, her daughter, and her grand-daughter.

* Joanna Lascelles: Mathilda's daughter. Heroin addict and hooker. Abysmal mother. Physically gorgeous. Psychologically hideous.

* Ruth Lascelles: Joanna's daughter. Nervous, disrespectful, 17-year old going on 30. Spoiled materially - starved emotionally.

* Gerald Cavendish: Mathilda's uncle. Sexual predator. Village idiot.

* James Gillespie: drunk. Closet homosexual. Mathilda's estranged husband.

* David Hughes: Ruth's "boyfriend." Gang leader. Theif. Rapist. Pathological liar.

Shall I continue? I trust I've made my point. Now, imagine 300+ pages filled with the antics of this crowd when Mathilda dies and bequeaths her entire estate to Dr. Blakeney rather than her own offspring.

Walters takes what could have been an interesting mystery and wraps it with so many layers of truly unlikable characters that the real mystery here is how the book succeeds at all. It does quasi-succeed, but primarily in spite of this, not because of it.

Perhaps her other books are better - this is my first - but I just can't award this one too many stars. She is clearly capable of very good, highly intelligent writing. But the subject matter chosen here is about as depressing as it gets and the plot is full of too many "do you think he knows that we know he thinks we know" type convolutions.

Scold's Bridle is my favorite of all Minette Walters books. Her characters aren't totally sympathetic, or good, or evil for that matter. You never know who to root for or who to hate, in the next plot twist a good guy becomes bad or vice versa. There is alot of suspense and action in these novels, and Ms. Walters really makes the reader think. These are not mindless quick mysteries, although I read them quickly. Read them all, so far there isn't a bad one in the bunch!

This was the most enjoyable mystery I have read this year. What makes it exceptional is the slow introduction of characters and how the reader gets to know them through other people and also through the action. In movies, one knows who the bad guys are-- they are always smoking. The bad guys are quickly and easily labeled so that we can get on with the movie. However, in "The Scold's Bridle", as in real life, the characters do not stick to their good or bad labels. This humanizes them and humanizes the protagonist because in real life we are often blinded by our first impressions and prejudices. The character development and the complex and page-turning mystery makes this book a good read. I also read Ms. Walters' other books and enjoyed this one second to "The Ice House".

Intelligent and provocative story which offers insights into people's motives and behaviour. The cast of characters is interesting, and the writing (including changes in voice) was quite good. This mystery kept me turning the pages well into the night!

Elements of this book are terrific; a great setting; cast of characters and Minette's attention to detail. But unfortunately Minette chops and changes between protagonists leaving the reader with no character to root for and is prone to make her characters contradictory - they serve the plot line rather than act as you would, in truth, expect them to behave.
The overall effect was disappointing; with such a clear story world there should have been more for the reader to enjoy.

Minette Walters, The Scold's Bridle (St. Martin's, 1993)

A woman is found dead in her bathtub, wrists slit, with a medieval torture device strapped to her head, a garland of flowers straight out of Shakespeare wrapped around it. Did she commit suicide, or did she have help?

Sounds like the basis for a bang-up mystery, no? Combine with one of today's hottest mystery writers, Minette Walters, and you have a surefire recipe for success. And yet, something doesn't quite gel. I'm not sure what it is, really, but The Scold's Bridle lacks the twists and turns of The Breaker, the wicked humor of The Ice House, and the subtlety of The Sculptress. While it's still a decent mystery and keeps the pages turning, it seems a cut below average for Walters. ***

When elderly Mathilda Gillespie is found dead in her bathtub in a ghastly parody of Ophelia, a scold's bridle on her head ("a primitive instrument of repression" used to "curb the tongues of nagging women in the Middle Ages"), her demise is first ascribed a suicide but later amended to murder by an enterprising policeman, Detective Sergeant Cooper of the Dorset Police. Leaving behind an avaricious daughter, Joanne Lascelles and granddaughter, Ruth, who have every expectation of assuming Mathilda's family inheritance, it is a great shock when the woman's latest will bequeaths the entire estate to GP Sarah Blakeney- "the only person... who came to her without prejudice and took her as she was"- who has only treated the deceased for chronic arthritis for the past year. Suddenly the truly unsavory Lascelles women are dependent on Sarah's goodwill to receive any remuneration, the town reeling with gossip about the physician, patients assuming Sarah is complicit in the old woman's death.

Besides dealing with her damaged reputation and the unreasonable demands of Mathilda's daughter and granddaughter, Sarah must also confront a whimsical, philandering husband, Jack, an artist who paints "personalities" instead of portraits and is a sly observer of human nature. Their relationship complicated by Jack's self-important genius and Sarah's inherent lack of confidence as a wife, Jack's familiarity with the deceased increases the subtleties of a plot rife with deception and cynicism. Deftly constructing some truly unlikable characters, Walters nevertheless provides a compelling story, part of the fascination the depravity of some of the major players. The image on the scold's bridle dominates the novel: the ramifications of the device and its symbolism in modern times (keep her quiet at all costs). Even worse is the abuse endured by the vulnerable, Jack outraged by the brutality of his gender and Sarah's groping for a resolution to a frightening moral dilemma.

Salted with homilies, much of the pleasure of this book is discovering Walter's appreciation of the foibles that bedevil her characters. An avid fan of the vagaries of human nature, Walters writing, for all that it is in the mystery genre, is blissfully sophisticated, while at the same time pragmatic and to the point. A gifted storyteller, this author cannot fail to entertain, a fountain of wry observation on man's inhumanity to man and occasional bursts of altruism. No matter the topic- in this case child abuse, incest and the pain wrought of family dysfunction- the author plunges beneath the surface of our expectations, revealing the complexities of her tormented characters and the generosity and confusion of unlikely protagonists. Like vintage wine, such novels are meant to be savored, filled with astonishing events and profound insights. Within two titles, The Ice House and The Scold's Bridle, Walters has found a willing addict, her fascinating characterizations and diabolical plots absolutely compelling. Luan Gaines/2007.