Hasty Wedding

By Mignon G. Eberhart

On the day of her wedding, a bride's ex-lover is found shot dead.

In January, Dorcas Whipple was on the cusp of marrying Ronald Drew. One month later, she prepares to walk down the aisle, but Ronald will not be the groom after all. Her family decided he is unsuitable, a fortune hunter, and though Dorcas fought them, in the end she could not resist the pleas of her invalid mother. As she prepares to marry the steady, dependable Jevan Locke instead, she tries to put Ronald out of her mind. But when Ronald calls her the night before her wedding, she rushes to his side.

Resisting her passion, Dorcas refuses Ronald's final plea for her hand. The next morning, when he is found shot dead, Dorcas is the only suspect. If her wedding goes ahead, will the bride wear white, or pinstripes?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Head of Zeus
• Release date: Jun 1, 2014
• ISBN: 9781784084295

Mignon G. Eberhart

Mignon G. Eberhart (1899-1996) wrote dozens of mystery novels over a nearly six decade-long career. Born in Lincoln, Nebraska, she began writing in high school, trading English essays to her fellow students in exchange for math homework. She attended Nebraska Wesleyan University, and in the 1920s began writing fiction in her spare time, publishing her first novel, The Patient in Room 18, in 1929. With the follow-up, While The Patient Slept (1931), she won a $5,000 Scotland Yard Prize, and by the end of the 1930's was one of the most popular female mystery writers on the planet. Before Agatha Christie ever published a Miss Marple novel, Eberhart was writing romantic crime fiction with female leads. Eight of her books, including While the Patient Slept and Hasty Wedding (1938) were adapted as films. Made a Mystery Writers of America grandmaster in 1971, Eberhart continued publishing roughly a book a year until the 1980s. Her final novel Three Days for Emeralds, was published in 1988.

Reviews for Hasty Wedding

[ninieb-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A bit slow to get going, then it moves at a nice clip until the last scene when the denouement seems to take forever. But it’s sort of muddled at the end in the effort to delay naming the murderer as long as possible. I also did not care for the rather traditional romantic roles assigned to the lead characters.

[paradiseporch · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Although this isn’t a first in series, it was my introduction to this vintage-era author, an American contemporary of Christie, Marsh and Ellery Queen.This story is set in Chicago high-society in the 1930s and is a very matter-of-fact glimpse into that lifestyle, similar to early EQ novels. The puzzle itself is pretty standard, but entertaining. And the reader is thrown off to a slight degree because Eberhart wrote mainly stand-alone novels, so there was no knowing “good guys” from “bad guys” because of continuing characters.The past progressive verb tense (was taking, were talking) put me in mind of Christie’s Sad Cypress and was slightly irritating. Christie didn’t regularly use that, and perhaps Eberhart didn’t either.I have a few more Eberhart titles on my shelves so I’ll be reading at least those – and who knows where it will go from there?Read this if: you’re a fan of the society settings of early Ellery Queen novels; or you’re a Chicago fan and would enjoy a glimpse into the city in 1930s. 4 stars