Dorothy Cannell: Bridesmaids Revisited (USA 2017)

From the Publisher:
In this "entertaining gothic tale" (Chicago Sun-Times) that "reads like Wuthering Heights on steroids" (Publishers Weekly), amateur sleuth Ellie Haskell gets caught up in the drama of a trio of ancient spinsters-and the ghosts of murder past.

"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 childhood friends, known collectively as "the bridesmaids." Ellie once asked her mother where the nickname came from and her mother replied, "It's a long story, best forgotten." After all, 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, expecting to set the record straight. What she gets is a life-changing journey into the unknown, from a séance and a hidden diary to a mysterious death that took place more than fifty years ago.

Dorothy Cannell: Bridesmaids Revisited. An Ellie Haskell Mystery. Random House Publishing Group, ISBN: 9780399180385 (February, 2017), 2 MB (ca. 293 p.), $5.99.

Dorothy Cannell: Bridesmaids Revisited (USA 2001)

From the Publisher:
"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.

Dorothy Cannell: Bridesmaids Revisited. An Ellie Haskell Mystery. Penguin, ISBN: 0141001860 (June, 2001), 246 p., $5.99.

Dorothy Cannell: Bridesmaids Revisited (USA 2000)

From the Publisher:
"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 these friends of her grandmother's, known collectively as "the bridesmaids": as the start of a nursery rhyme she made up as a child. Back then, she asked her mother why they were called "the bridesmaids" and her mother replied, "It's a long story, best forgotten." So Ellie stored that memory away like an old black-and-white photograph. After all, every family has its secrets.

It's a wet and windy morning at Merlin's Court and the now fully grown-up Ellie is looking forward to relaxing with a cup of tea before she begins her redecorating. Her husband, Ben, has taken the children to a new "family camp" called Memory Lanes. But Ellie wasn't expecting this: a letter from those mysterious bridesmaids, after nearly thirty years of silence.

The bridesmaids have written to inform Ellie that her grandmother Sophia wishes to make contact. This might have been heartwarming news but for one small detail: Sophia died many years ago. "Now that would tend to put a damper on things," says Ellie's redoubtable housekeeper, Mrs. Malloy, upon hearing the news. The bridesmaids want Ellie to visit them at the Old Rectory, and claim that Sophia has some startling news. Mrs. Malloy is eager to join Ellie, hoping to avoid an unwelcome reunion with a former husband who failed to return home after being sent out for a pound and a half of stewing steak. So, with Mrs. Malloy in tow, Ellie sets out on a journey that will produce a foulmouthed parrot, an old diary, and a séance. And the discoveries she makes open a door that Ellie must enter to solve a murder that took place more than fifty years earlier and that will change her life forever.

This is Dorothy Cannell's eleventh mystery. Her others include The Trouble with Harriet, The Spring Cleaning Murders, The Thin Woman, Down the Garden Path, and the Agatha Award nominee The Widows Club. Born in England, she now lives in Peoria, Illinois.

Dorothy Cannell: Bridesmaids Revisited. An Ellie Haskell Mystery. Viking, ISBN: 067089205X (June, 2000), 242 p., $22.95