The Bridesmaid
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3.5 • 17 Ratings
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- $6.99
Publisher Description
From the New York Times–bestselling author of A Dark-Adapted Eye: A unique psychological thriller about a gentle young man tempted to kill for love.
Philip Wardman is disgusted by murder. He cannot tolerate violent films or the local news, and when his friends discuss such things he often leaves the room. At his sister's wedding, Philip becomes infatuated with a strange, silver-haired woman named Senta Pelham. They sleep together after the reception, and Philip finds himself falling headfirst into obsessive, all-consuming love. He wants to marry Senta and live an ordinary life—but before they can, she has a murderous idea.
To prove the unconventionality of their love, Senta proposes that each of them commit a murder. Shocked by the idea, but unable to resist his beloved, Philip is drawn into a maze of violence and deceit—and is horrified to find that he feels quite at home.
"Subdued tones, stultifying atmosphere, and omniscient narration mark this telling depiction of mutual psychological obsession," writes Library Journal. Ruth Rendell was one of the twentieth century's finest thriller writers, and The Bridesmaid is one of her most chilling.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
A young man fearful of violence, an extravagantly eccentric young woman and three deaths figure in this atmospheric but insubstantial mystery from one of England's finest horror/suspense writers. Philip Wardman, beginning his career as an interior designer, lives with his widowed mother and two sisters in a small house outside London. At his sister Fee's wedding, Philip meets Senta Pelham, cousin to the groom and a bridesmaid, with whom he falls quickly into bed and in love. Soon Senta, with her silver-dyed hair and exotic ways, tells Philip they must prove the unconventionality of their love: each must commit a murder. Secretly appalled, Philip demurs, but Senta is adamant and soon he tells her that a recent killing mentioned in the newspaper was done at his hand. When Senta files her own report, Philip is much relieved, believing through a series of misunderstandings that she too has laid false claims to murder. The reality of Senta's imbalance is gradually revealed, however, and the police appear on the scene just as she unveils her grisly history. While Rendell depicts her characters with crystal clarity and renders Philip's sexual obsessiveness convincingly, the plot, woven of flimsy circumstances, doesn't hold up.
