Book Review: I Thee Dead (Wedded Bliss Mystery, #1) by Christine Lawrence

I Thee Dead: Book #1 in The Wedded Bliss Series by Christine Lawrence
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

What a fun start to this new wedding planner mystery series.

I Thee Dead is the first novel in author Christine Lawrence’s new Wedded Bliss Mystery series featuring wedding planner Leah Jordan, her two best friends, and TWO potential love interests. When a groom is murdered during the rehearsal dinner, the bride’s parents sue, and her best friend is initially arrested for the crime, Leah has nothing to lose and everything to gain by finding the real killer herself.

Leah Jordan, the owner of Wedded Bliss, the wedding planning business started by her late mother and aunt, Sissy, is under a lot of pressure to keep her family’s business solvent and make sure that high-profile and highly lucrative society weddings, which are fundamental to her success, go off without a hitch. While Leah is, from all appearances, skilled at what she does, she retains a load of doubt in her mind that she’s up to the task. She’s capable but vulnerable, and her latest clients, who are a pair of very wealthy and very influential doozies, aren’t helping. I actually enjoyed the bride, who has all the makings of a deluxe bridezilla but is really just wildly enthusiastic and wide-eyed over the possibilities for her special day, having unlimited funding to make it happen. The finance, on the other hand, surprised me with his swings of temperament, which, as the story unfolds, became even more confounding. I do feel Leah’s character would have benefitted from a wee bit more development and backstory exposition, though.

The author must build her small-town setting from scratch, so there are scads of people introduced, some from Leah’s past and others who are encountered during her investigation. However, a couple of these minor characters felt like they popped up unnecessarily and out of nowhere. Readers are provided a light overview of what the town has to offer through Leah’s interaction with Caleb Hamilton, a hunky wedding guest who is later revealed to be a retired police officer turned undercover private detective hired by the bride.

The plot is lively, first with wedding preparations, then with the murder and subsequent amateur sleuthing. While I enjoyed the overall story, especially the romantic side storylines, plot holes that were relevant to the investigation really bothered me. The unusual murder weapon, while referenced, is never questioned, nor is the report that the groom had been receiving threats recently ever addressed. The threats were serious enough for the bride to secretly hire Caleb Hamilton to join the wedding party, masquerading as her “old friend who was like a brother,” to keep an eye on the groom’s safety. (By the way, Caleb, you had one job….) There were also some continuity issues, a problematic timeline, and instances of sentences repeated in their entirety in the same or subsequent paragraphs, but all fixable things. This book appears to be the author’s debut novel, and with its intriguing premise and underlying structural foundation, it has all the makings of an outstanding cozy mystery series.

I recommend I THEE DEAD to cozy mystery fans, especially those with a soft spot for weddings and romance.

I voluntarily reviewed this after receiving an Advanced Review Copy from the author through Great Escapes Virtual Book Tours.


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