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167 Plays28 days ago
It's wedding season! And what better way to celebrate love than with a mystery.
Discussed and mentioned
In a Dark, Dark Wood (2015) Ruth Ware
“A Deadly Wedding Day” in The Miss Marple Collection: New Tales of Jane Marple (2022) Dreda Say Mitchell
The Plus One (2024) S.C. Lalli
The Last Suppers (1995) Diane Mott Davidson
Engaged in Death (2016) Stephanie Blackmoore
The Guest List (2020) Lucy Foley
The Unwedding (2024) Ally Condie
Wedding Cake Murder (2016) Joanne Fluke
Something in the Water (2018) Catherine Steadman
Marriage, Monsters-in-Law, and Murder (2016) Sara Rosett
Death at an English Wedding (2017) Sara Rosett
No One Was Supposed To Die At This Wedding (2025) Catherine Mack
The Perfect Couple (2024) Netflix
The Last One at the Wedding (2024) Jason Rekulak
Other episodes you might like
What Would You Do: Something in the Water (released June 18, 2024)
Historical Mystery with Sara Rosett (released September 20, 2022)
What Would You Do: Please Join Us (released February 18, 2025)
For more information
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Music: Signs To Nowhere by Shane Ivers – www.silvermansound.com
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For a full episode transcript, visit https://cluedinmystery.com/weddings/
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Transcript
Introduction to Clued in Mystery
00:00:11
Speaker
Welcome to Clued in Mystery. I'm Sarah. And I'm Brooke, and we both love mystery.
00:00:25
Speaker
Hi, Brooke. Hi,
Weddings as Mystery Setups
00:00:27
Speaker
Sarah. Well, we are entering what's commonly referred to as the wedding season, and that got us thinking about weddings and mysteries.
00:00:38
Speaker
Exactly. i don't know about you, Brooke, but I love a wedding. The flowers, the dresses, the music, the cake, and of course, the mystery. Because weddings are as much a time to celebrate the new life that a couple is embarking on as they are an excellent setup for a mystery.
00:00:57
Speaker
Old wounds are revisited, tensions are high, and guests often travel out of familiar surroundings. Will everyone survive before the couple says I do? Let's get ready for murder and mayhem that comes with walking down the aisle.
00:01:13
Speaker
Thank you, Sarah. This is going to be such a fun topic. And I think like from the outside looking in, it's not an obvious connection, but when you really start thinking, just like your intro said about all the components that are there, it's really ah ripe for the picking for a mystery.
Ruth Ware's 'In a Dark, Dark Wood'
00:01:33
Speaker
So I thought, Brooke, we could talk about some of the books that we've read or are familiar with that have weddings as the theme. And i um I'm going to start with The Bachelorette Party.
00:01:47
Speaker
So leading up to the big day. And the first one on my list that I wanted to talk about is In a Dark, Dark Wood, which is a 2015 book by Ruth Ware. And i I'm certain that you've read this as well.
00:02:02
Speaker
Yes, I have. it's It's on my list of books that came to mind in thinking about weddings. And so in this one, the main character is invited to the bachelorette party of someone who she's lost contact with this person.
00:02:20
Speaker
So she's not really sure why she's been invited, but she goes anyway because she's curious and almost immediately realizes that she's made a mistake. And, you know, they're in this remote cabin and things do not go well.
00:02:37
Speaker
That's right. So this is, I loved too, that I had never been familiar with the term the hen party before, you know, growing up in America, it was the bachelorette party, of course, but I love the hen party. And I told my friends, you know, we were all well past being married at that point, but like, this is what we need to call it from now on when our daughters get married.
00:02:58
Speaker
Um, and it's a glass house, which also like, I think that there's that metaphor because when you're getting married, you are this like on display, right? Everyone's looking at the bridal party and the bride and the groom and their families. So anyway, I really liked that ah connection, but, um, yeah, so it's a psychological thriller with this wedding at the center.
Golden Age Authors and Wedding Mysteries
00:03:26
Speaker
So I was thinking about whether or not the golden age authors kind of mind this ah topic. And i i wasn't really able to find anyone who we're real familiar with or we've talked about on the show, Sarah.
00:03:40
Speaker
um And even though Agatha Christie wrote a lot plots that hinged on people being married, for instance, if two people get married, the inheritance line changes.
00:03:54
Speaker
There are clues in her stories that involve marriage and wedding. But um one example that I did find from the Agatha Christie company is from the Miss Marple collection, ah New Tales of Jane Marple. And this is a short story by Drita St. Mitchell, and it's called a Deadly Wedding Day. And it involves Miss Marple attending, m this is in the 1960s, and she attends an interracial wedding and mystery unfolds. So um I think that that's really fun that we have a Christie that also pulls in the wedding theme.
00:04:27
Speaker
Oh, I had that on my list as well, because i I wondered the same thing, if there were any golden age stories that we could that we could point to. But I think weddings as a mystery trope is a more modern convention.
Weddings in Contemporary Fiction
00:04:42
Speaker
So I have a couple of books that I've read that are about the big day. um a lot of them are, you know, destination weddings. You've got people gathering a few days beforehand. And so that gives some opportunity for,
00:04:57
Speaker
um you know, rivalries to emerge and and things to go wrong. ah So one of them is um The Plus One, which is 2024 release by And guests are gathered for a couple's wedding at a luxury resort.
00:05:16
Speaker
It's very wealthy people who are um supposed to be getting married, but the bride and groom are found dead the day before the wedding. And the plus one is that she's actually a journalist.
00:05:30
Speaker
um And so she investigates to figure out what happened because they're, you know, they're at this luxury resort and don't have access to a lot of traditional police investigative techniques.
00:05:43
Speaker
The bride and the groom. Yeah. It was ah it was a ah ah great book. It sounds great. And what you said, like everybody convenes, like this puts them in proximity for more days than just like the one big day when they have a destination wedding. And I was thinking about, you know, even if you're lucky enough to have a family who everyone gets along quite well, you have this high pressure family event.
00:06:09
Speaker
ah It does kind of change people's dynamics, I think. And Many times you might have exes or step families coming together. So that does ramp up the tension.
00:06:22
Speaker
Well, my next mention is um from one of the very first authors that I actually read modern day cozies from, and this is Diane Mott Davidson.
00:06:34
Speaker
And she has a ah her character is a caterer. So this is a easy connection to weddings. um The character is Goldie Scholes.
00:06:45
Speaker
And I actually think that Davidson has a few books where there's weddings involved because it's pretty obvious that Goldie is a caterer, but, um, particularly last suppers, which came out in 1995, Goldie is getting married. This is when this amateur sleuth actually marries the homicide detective and their, uh, their rector is murdered. And,
00:07:10
Speaker
So she has to solve this murder. And um I just really, I liked it because it, she could have made the wedding of her amateur sleuth be kind of a side story to another case.
00:07:22
Speaker
But I love that she incorporated the whole thing in into that book. Yeah. um I haven't read it, but I found a series that features a wedding planner as the sleuth. And so this is a cozy mystery series by Stephanie Blackmore.
00:07:40
Speaker
And the first book in that series is Engaged in Death. And all of the I think there's ah five or six books in the series. All of them, their title is a play on something to do with a wedding.
00:07:57
Speaker
Oh, I love that concept. I thought of that as we were planning about ah how handy it would be to have a wedding planner going to all these different venues as your amateur sleuth.
00:08:09
Speaker
It's a really good excuse to have different characters um you know in your stories. Although I think it would probably be bad for business if you were known to be the wedding planner that that was investigating murders at the weddings.
00:08:25
Speaker
This is true.
00:08:28
Speaker
ah Another book that I thought of that features a destination wedding is The Guest List by Lucy Foley. And that was released in 2020.
00:08:39
Speaker
And again, ah the bride and groom and the wedding party and their families have all traveled to a remote location for this wedding.
00:08:50
Speaker
And again, things unfold and not everybody who goes there survives. That's right. That's a great book. I like the fact that with a wedding, it's an easy excuse to go someplace remote because many times, especially if it's a wealthy family, they want that privacy, right? So they want to be away from the the photographers or or maybe some news or whatever. But when you're remote, then you're also cut off from resources.
00:09:21
Speaker
Yeah, on ah on a similar theme, I read um The Unwedding, which is 2024 release by Ali Kondi. This is a Reese's Book Club pick, which sometimes they can be a bit controversial. I think people either um agree with Reese or where they don't. They kind of wonder where what her...
00:09:41
Speaker
um decision making was in terms of um selecting that for her for her book club. But in this one, a woman is at Big Sur for what was supposed to be her anniversary getaway.
00:09:54
Speaker
But her and her husband have s split up. ah So she's there by herself. ah But there's also a wedding going on. And um one of the bridal party, I think it might be the groom,
00:10:07
Speaker
ends up um being dead. She finds him. And then there's a big storm. So again, they're cut off um and she has to figure out what's, what's gone on.
00:10:18
Speaker
Perfect. That sounds really good. I, that sounds like a great setup, Sarah.
00:10:26
Speaker
Well, Joanne Fluke is another big name in the cozy world. um Actually, her books have been adapted by Hallmark Mysteries into the Curious Caterer series.
00:10:38
Speaker
And her 2016 release, Wedding Cake Murder, is a perfect example in this setting. um And it's, again, Hannah Swinson, the sleuth's big day.
00:10:49
Speaker
um But she has to solve a murder at a baking competition. So This doesn't happen actually at her wedding, but she's preparing for her wedding. So she's going through all those emotions of making her own plans and lots of decisions. And then she has a mystery to solve on the side.
00:11:06
Speaker
What a way to add stress to an already stressful time in your life to have to investigate a murder as well as get the seating charts arranged.
00:11:18
Speaker
Absolutely. Do you remember how stressed out you were the week before? Did you want to have to solve a murder? no I don't think I would have liked to also be solving a murder as well as planning my wedding.
Mysteries During Honeymoons
00:11:32
Speaker
Well, so after the big day, the couple goes on the honeymoon and that is also a great setup for, um for a mystery. Cause again, we're going to, you know often a remote location.
00:11:47
Speaker
um so the first one that popped in my mind, Brooke was something in the water by Catherine Stedman, which we read as one of our, what would you do books?
00:11:57
Speaker
Uh, and this was released in 2018 And, uh, in it, the main character in her husband find this bag of money, ah when they're on a um, a dive trip as part of their luxury, honeymoon.
00:12:14
Speaker
And, uh, and then the book, you know, gets into some detail about what they decide to do about having found this. I loved that book. That was such a great read and a really fun conversation.
00:12:26
Speaker
um Yeah, that that came to my mind too when I was thinking about Honeymoons. That was the first book that came. So obviously it's one that stuck with me. I just had a couple more books I wanted to mention because this is from a past guest.
00:12:39
Speaker
Sarah Rosette joined us to talk about historical mystery, and she writes several different series, and she's got weddings in at least two of them. She's got Marriage, Monsters-in-Law, and Murder from 2016, and this is about ah meddling in-laws.
00:12:57
Speaker
And then she's got, in 2017, Death at an English Wedding, and this is from her historical series. um A Beautiful Countryside Wedding is the backdrop. for a high society who done it.
00:13:11
Speaker
Well, and I thought I would mention a book that's coming out this year. No one was supposed to die at this wedding, which is the second book in a series by Catherine Mack. And Catherine Mack is the pen name of Catherine McKenzie, who is one of our What Would You Do authors and also an upcoming guest on the show.
Weddings: Appearance vs. Reality
00:13:32
Speaker
Fantastic. Brooke, I know you watched The Perfect Couple on Netflix and that centers around a wedding.
00:13:42
Speaker
Everybody has come to the family home of a wealthy um groom and the maid of honor is found dead.
00:13:54
Speaker
Mm-hmm. That was a really great, definitely bingeable Netflix production. It's not a whole bunch of episodes. I'm thinking like maybe six, but it was really good. there Everyone is a suspect. Like you have that feeling in this show.
00:14:11
Speaker
um And like you said, it's very posh. These people are very wealthy. And so the setting and the... um the grounds of their house is just like gorgeous. And I think that that's one thing about why the wedding setup works really well is that what things appear versus what's really going on. And that's so important in a mystery, isn't it? Where it looks one way, but yet something else is happening. And Nowhere else I think in our lives do we try to make things look picture perfect so much as when we're setting up a wedding. you know
00:14:47
Speaker
Backdrops, color-coordinated flowers, like everything is supposed to be perfect. And in these stories, everything is clearly not. That's a great point, Brooke. It's this day that we spend a lot of time focusing on making sure that, as you say, just ah appears perfect.
00:15:06
Speaker
And if there's cracks underneath, they get exposed. Definitely. who You know, Sarah, this whole week as I'm thinking about weddings and some of these books that we've read that revolve around them, um I've started to think of some scenarios. Like because there's a photographer on scene, it's very likely that perhaps they snapped a picture that has something important in the background. Yeah.
00:15:34
Speaker
And, you know, you also have people who are experts in other ways, like florists, pastors, um bakers. So like they could perhaps help the sleuth in various ways, solve the crime. And I just so got to thinking that some of these scenarios might show up in something that you and I write together someday.
00:15:54
Speaker
Definitely, Brooke. I think that that, as you say, it's a great setup. And weddings are, you know, because you're bringing friends and family together, and it might be one of the only times in your life where you have people from weddings.
00:16:10
Speaker
a whole variety of backgrounds together. We've got these different people who might not otherwise cross paths, but who might be excellent resources in solving the crime.
Weddings as Diverse Settings for Mysteries
00:16:22
Speaker
That's right. That's right. And I think that um something we've talked about in other stories before happens at a wedding. And like you just mentioned, you have All the different players from your family that come together. And I love it in a story where you realize that people are connected and you didn't know they were before.
00:16:40
Speaker
ah Happens a lot in domestic thrillers, psychological thrillers. And it's just a great ah excuse for those people to come together. Mm-hmm.
Upcoming Features and Conclusion
00:16:55
Speaker
Well, I thought, Brooke, we should mention the last one at the wedding, which is a 2024 release. And ah in that the daughter of a UPS driver is marrying the son of a wealthy businessman at the family's summer resort.
00:17:12
Speaker
ah And I wanted to mention that because that is going to be our what would you do book this season. Yes. So everyone, you have time to grab yourself a copy of that and read it because as you know, in What Would You Do episodes, we really break down the plot. So it's um filled with spoilers. So this gives you time to get caught up and be able to enjoy that episode with us during wedding season.
00:17:42
Speaker
Well, thanks, Brooke. This has been so fun to talk a little bit about weddings and mystery. And I hope that if you're attending any weddings this summer, they do not involve any murders.
00:17:58
Speaker
Thank you, Sarah. That is much appreciated. And we hope the same for you listeners. But for today, thank you for joining us on Clued in Mystery. I'm Brooke.
00:18:09
Speaker
And I'm Sarah. And we both love mystery. Clued in Mystery is written and produced by Brooke Peterson and Sarah M. Stephen. Music is by Shane Ivers. If you liked what you heard, please consider telling a friend, leaving a ri review, or subscribing with your favorite podcast listening app.
00:18:26
Speaker
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