All Dressed In White

The Bride Vanishes

All Dressed In White  is the second in the Under Suspicion series Mary Higgins Clark writes with Alafair Burke, the first being The Cinderella Murder (2104).                                                                             

In the book’s prologue, Amanda Pierce is happily preparing for her wedding, to take place at a posh resort, when she suddenly vanishes. The cops give up after a while, but her parents are devastated and need the closure that would help them get over the shock. There was no reason for Amanda to run away, though the tabloid media called her “"Runaway Bride.” If she was kidnapped there have been no trace of her for five years, if she was murdered, the body has not been found.

TV producer Laurie Moran does an investigative TV series, Under Suspicion in which they recreate and try to solve cold cases. When approached by Amanda’s mother Sandra, who never gave up the search for her daughter, Laurie and her boyfriend, Alex Buckley, a defence lawyer who is also the show’s anchor, decide to do an episode on this case. They gather together the whole to re-enact the wedding scene at Palm Beached Grand Victoria Hotel. The groom, Jeff Hunter, who was prime suspect, mainly because he inherited his dead fiancee’s money, is just about rebuilding his life with Amanda’s best friend, and wants his name cleared.  Amanda’s father Walter Pierce, estranged from his wife, her sister Charlotte, who was jealous of her, her brother Henry, the maids of honour and the groomsmen all collect to short for the show.

Secrets and long held grudges spill out, and obvious lapses in the investigation exposed. The passage of time may have dimmed memories of the incident, but also uncovered things the cops did not bother to follow. Bill Walker, the wedding photographer, recalls that the police never questioned his intern, Jeremy Carroll, who, was a strange and slightly creepy man with stalker tendencies. Laurie can’t understand why Amanda willed her belongings to her niece, but her $2 million trust fund to Jeff, with whom she had just signed a pre-nuptial agreement. Then a similar case from the past is revealed and the killer finally nailed.

The writers build the suspense with carefully and methodically, with a few red herrings cleverly strewn about. Even the reader takes a slight distaste to the fiancé, who is somewhat goody-two-shoes, but did not mourn enough before latching on to Amanda’s pal. The outwardly happy family had many internal dents, that Laurie’s persistent questioning bring out.  It is a gripping read, and creates curiosity about the next in the Under Suspicion series.

All Dressed In White

By Mary Higgins Clark & Alafair Burke

Published by: Simon & Schuster

Pages: 432