Before they became legendary writers, Charlotte Brontë, Emily Brontë, and Anne Brontë were detectors in this charming historical mystery… Yorkshire, 1845. A young wife and mother has gone missing from her home, leaving behind two small children and a large pool of blood. Just a few miles away, a humble parson’s daughters—the Brontë sisters—learn of the crime. Charlotte, Emily, and Anne Brontë … Charlotte, Emily, and Anne Brontë are horrified and intrigued by the mysterious disappearance.
These three creative, energetic, and resourceful women quickly realize that they have all the skills required to make for excellent “lady detectors.” Not yet published novelists, they have well-honed imaginations and are expert readers. And, as Charlotte remarks, “detecting is reading between the lines—it’s seeing what is not there.”
As they investigate, Charlotte, Emily, and Anne are confronted with a society that believes a woman’s place is in the home, not scouring the countryside looking for clues. But nothing will stop the sisters from discovering what happened to the vanished bride, even as they find their own lives are in great peril…
more
The Bronte sisters as sleuths — what a delicious idea! Bella Ellis has brilliantly recreated the feel and atmosphere of the Bronte novels, as well as bringing the three sisters (and their dissolute brother) vividly to life. What’s more, it’s a rattling good story!
What a treat! The Vanished Bride is an absolute delight from start to finish. Dashing across the Yorkshire moors with the Bronte sisters felt like visiting dear old friends, and Bella Ellis does the most wonderful job in imagining Emily, Charlotte and Anne as ‘detectors’. Beautifully written, deliciously atmospheric, and enormous fun, this series is certain to become a firm favourite.
Dollycas’s Thoughts
When I pull out my list of favorite books, Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte is always near the top of the list so when I learned of this book I knew I just had to read it.
Bella Ellis writes a story where the Brontë sisters with a couple of assists from their brother become amateur detectors when they learn of a young bride missing from her home with a gruesome scene left behind. The sisters spend their days trying to write but have been bored and in need of some fresh ideas. They soon realize they know the governess caring for the missing woman’s children. Charlotte feels this gives them the in they need to investigate. The sisters are very independent but their father worries about their excursions. They feed him stories so he doesn’t worry but he knows his daughters. He prays each day that they come home safe.
This story takes place before any of the Brontë works have been published. The author captures their knowledge, imagination, uniqueness, and perseverance in an excellent way. She immerses them in a complex and compelling mystery. The girls travel “hither and thither” is their quest to find the vanished bride. The clues started to fall into place for me a bit before the sisters but I was totally entertained by the journey I was taken on. The author’s descriptive talents brought each setting and the characters place in it to life. In a time where women are usually seen and not heard and treated like property, the feminist slant to the story was refreshing.
What I really enjoyed was the story being told by each of the sister’s point of view alternating chapter by chapter. It really gives insight into their lives and thought processes allowing readers to get to know each in a more personal way. Ms. Ellis has done her research and presented it in an interesting way.
Intriguing and entertaining, The Vanished Bride, is a fascinating historical mystery that fans of this genre will enjoy whether they have read Brontë sisters work or not. It does make me want to go back and reread some of their stories and poetry which I haven’t done for years.
The Vanished Bride is a clever and unique historical mystery that offers fascinating insights into the lives of the Brontë siblings alongside an equally compelling atmospheric, gothic, and twisty tale. Fans of the Brontë sisters’ exquisite books will find much to love as Ellis pays homage to the spirit of their rich literary oeuvre. The Vanished Bride is sure to delight historical mystery lovers.
I decided to buy THE VANISHED BRIDE after seeing author Sherry Thomas’ recommendation here on BookBub and I’m so glad I did. What a great read! Original, entertaining, compelling. I stayed up late to finish and couldn’t stop thinking about the story all day.
If you think the Brontë sisters as amateur sleuths sounds like an interesting idea, you will love this execution of that great idea, with both a gothic mystery worthy of their imagination and so much sincere, fierce, yet deeply human love between siblings. I knew very little of the Brontës when I began my advance copy, but I ended up desperately invested in those sisters. And I am so happy that Bella Ellis gave them this adventure that is worthy of their great spirit and imbued their windswept lives with an indomitable joie de vivre.
I’ve not read a mystery for some time, but as I am a fan of the Bronte sisters’ writings, especially Charlotte, I couldn’t resist adding it to my Kindle. I am so glad I did! I enjoyed it immensely and read it in a of couple days, swiping page after page to find out what happens.
The Bronte sisters: Charlotte, Emily, and Anne, along with their brother, Branwell, delve into playing at being “detectors.” The literary siblings work together to solve the mystery of a bride who vanished, leaving behind a room covered with blood and her two children.
The body of the woman does not materialize, and adds to the mystery. Is she dead,or alive? If she’s dead, who from the merry-go-round of possible killers did the deed?
My rating system:
for Plot: The story rolled along smoothly with a well-twisted plot that kept me guessing until the end.
for Characters: I liked the perspectives of the three sisters being represented. Their personalities made the story richer.
for a clean read. There was no descriptive sex or heavy swearing.
for a mostly active voice. There could have been a bit more active sentence structure, but overall all, the story flowed on the page through a well-scripted verbiage.
I look forward to reading more books by Ellis! Thank you for writing an engaging, entertaining mystery.
A great story, using the 3 Bronte sisters within their known personalities and characteristics.
So many themes handled well: mother-son relationship, sisters plus pampered son, perception of women (some changes, not as much as one would hope), etc.
I enjoy reading stories of sisters, esp. fun when you know the future for these sisters.
Loved the Bronte sisters solving a mystery.
Author cleverly used the Brontë sisters and known facts from their lives to spin a realistic tale that highlights many social issues of the time. It held my interest up to the satisfactory resolution.
The Vanished Bride by Bella Ellis is a cleverly thought out historical mystery and the first book in The Bronte Mysteries series. As the name suggests the action revolves around the Bronte sisters. As fact meets fiction, the reader is in for a real treat.
I am a huge Bronte fan and adore Haworth and the surrounding area. Therefore the locations were familiar to me and helped the book to come alive as I ‘lived’ through the action.
Within the novel, the Bronte sisters take on amateur sleuthing. They are three well educated, highly intelligent young women, trying to exert their presence at a time when women were seen as inferior to men. It is ironic that they need the help of Branwell Bronte to gain access to certain places. He is clearly inferior to them with his drug and alcohol dependence and yet he is accepted just because he is a male. His weak character is in contrast to his far stronger sisters.
The plotline is cleverly thought out and the characters are engaging.
If you are a Bronte fan, this is the novel for you. If you do not know the Brontes, why not discover them in this book? The action is exciting and gripping. The Vanished Bride was an excellent read and I cannot wait for more in the series.
This tale of the Bronte sisters includes Charlotte, Emily, and Anne’s points of view as they attempt to uncover what happened one horrible night at a nearby ghostly mansion. The situation with Bramwell was just heartbreaking.
This was a very gothic, atmospheric story that captures the imagination and had me hooked right away from the first few pages. I have always been fascinated by the Brontes works and Haworth is a favourite place of mine to visit, including the parsonage where the siblings lived . The author captures the atmospere of the place , the moors on a rainy day are very bleak but also beautiful .
The plot twists were very cleverly designed to keep you guessing what has transpired and what the fate of Elizabeth is ….. the use of the Brontes as the amateur sleuths ( or detectors, as they call themselves)was a very interesting idea and it works well. There are occurrences incorporated into the story that will later appear in the respective works of the sisters. This was a very well written and researched book and I thoroughly recommend it .
Disclosure: I received this copy from Net Galley in exchange for an honest review
Yorkshire, 1845, Charlotte, Emily, and Anne Brontë are all at home at the parsonage when they hear that Elizabeth Chester has gone missing from her home, Chester Grange, leaving no trace, save a large pool of blood in her bedroom and a slew of dark rumours about her marriage. Desperate to find out more & to comfort their friend Matilda French, who is governess to the Chester children the sisters visit Chester Grange, where they notice several unsettling details about the crime scene: not least the absence of an investigation.
I was unsure about the Bronte sisters becoming detectors but I’m so glad I read this well written intriguing book. It does start slowly but the pace does increase & so did my interest. There are lots of twists & turns & I was surprised at the end. It also makes a believable read about the Bronte family. I thoroughly enjoyed it & hope there are more books to follow
My honest review is for a special copy I voluntarily read
The Vanished Bride is a charming mystery. I felt immersed in the Yorkshire countryside with the Bronte sisters as they used their detector skills to search for a young wife and mother who disappeared under strange circumstances. Charlotte, Emily and Anne are intrigued and decided to find what really happened. Each sister has a very distinctive personality and approaches this mystery from a different prospective. I found these women to be intelligent with a healthy curiosity. The plot was well thought out and involved. There were unexpected twists that kept me entertained as well as a ghostly presence. The atmosphere and the dialogue were very well done. I enjoyed the pace of the story. The Bronte Sisters were powerful characters and their brother Branwell was the perfect foil. I like to read books with strong, courageous women characters. Bella Ellis wrote a unique mystery that combined fiction with know facts. I hope to see the sisters try their hand as detectors again.
I received a copy of this book which I voluntarily read and reviewed. My comments are my honest opinion.
A lovely imagining of the Bronte sisters as detectors. Smart and atmospheric. Made me want to reread all their books. I hope the author plans more of these charming and clever mysteries!
The Vanished Bride hooks you from the first page with intricate characters, a wonderful plot and best of all, an amazing sense of time and place. I look forward to reading Ms. Ellis’s next adventure of the Bronte Sisters.
The Vanished Bride by Bella Ellis
The Bronte siblings Charlotte, Emily, Anne and Branwell embark in a mystery set in 1845, Yorkshire. The story opens quite dramatically with a possibility of murder and the disappearance of a young mother leaving her two children behind and a macabre of a crime scene with pools of blood all over! The Bronte sisters, living in a Parsonage in Haworth, hear about this horrendous crime. Armed with their extraordinary wit and skill, they decide to become “lady detectors” as they set out to solve this murder mystery on their own.
I loved that despite this being a fictional murder mystery, the historical contexts surrounding the story is actually from known facts about the Bronte’s life and family. Ellis beautifully incorporates this into the story and it does make for a wonderful read. As the story began in Aug 1845, this was a known time where the Bronte family were once again all together in one roof for several months, and this was also the time before they started writing their books. This truly was quite an enjoyable read for me and I hear this may be the first in a series and that would be amazing!!! Bella Ellis did an exceptional job incorporating the strong women in the Victorian era using the Bronte sisters who were not only legendary but indeed revolutionary and well ahead of their time.
Thank you to Berkley Pub for providing an early ARC copy of this book and an opportunity to review this amazing book.
Ellis portrays the three sisters as smart, witty, creative and determined heroines. Frustrated with the limitations placed upon women in society, the Brontë sisters intend to seek out the truth of the crime, no matter the danger or risk to their reputations. In a world that views women as little more than property, the sisters intend to “leave a mark on this sphere, no matter how small it may be”. In order to give a voice to those who have none, they risk life and limb to find out what happened to the vanished bride.
References to the Brontë sisters works are skillfully interwoven with the narrative but, even if you’ve never read any of their novels or poems, The Vanished Bride will be sure to delight you and have you turning the pages late into the night.