The Matchmakers - Vanessa Edwards - ★★★★
AUTHOR: Vanessa Edwards
GENRE: Suspense Thriller
PUBLICATION DATE: December 2, 2024
RATING: 4 stars.
In a Nutshell: A contemporary suspense with shades of cat-and-mouse thriller and revenge drama. Quite a tricky story with many characters, slow-ish pacing, and a bit too much telling in the writing. But I was so hooked by the proceedings that I still enjoyed myself. Recommended!
Plot Preview:
(For the first time ever, I find myself stumped about what to write in this section. The plot is quite complex, and any slip-up could be a major spoiler. So here’s just a barebones preview.)
Stephanie dies on the very first day of her honeymoon. Her estranged sister Lucy is devastated and wants to reach out to her sister’s widower to offer her condolences, but has no way of contacting him. She knows that Stephanie used a matchmaking agency named ‘MadeInHeaven’, so she gets in touch with them for his contact details. They deny having served Stephanie or her groom through their agency. Lucy is sure she has the name of the agency right. So why is MadeInHeaven pretending otherwise?
The story comes to us in the first-person AND third-person POVs of SEVERAL characters.
I used to be an avid thriller reader once upon a time. But lately, thrillers seem like carbon copies of each other. Most have such outlandish plots and OTT twists that I rarely read this genre these days, unless something stands out in the blurb. This time, the magic word was ‘matchmaker’. A majority of domestic/suspense thrillers these days have either family members (wife/daughter/husband) or maids/nannies in the lead role. Seeing a new type of character in the shady suspense zone is a novelty. To its credit, the book utilises the ‘matchmaking’ concept and characters perfectly.
Bookish Yays:
🥳 The prologue, which has a tabloid article revealing Stephanie’s death on her honeymoon. Sets the right tone for the rest of the book.
🥳 The key characters. Likeable or not, every character is well-sketched, and most have their strong and weak sides coming out equally well. The plot is heavily female-dominated, but no woman character is like any of the others.
🥳 While the idea of multiple first and third person POVs might (rightly) sound daunting to some readers, the writing demarcates every perspective neatly. The overall plot is divided in sections, and the start of the section tells us whose perspectives it contains. There are switches across characters even in between chapters, but these are also clearly indicated by section separators. It is a bit tricky to keep track of (especially when the first person POVs begin with no indicator of who’s talking, even though each section has only one first-person POV), but I enjoyed the challenge and appreciated the clear organisation of the content.
🥳 The cat-and-mouse dynamic, or perhaps I should say – cats-and-mice dynamics. All of “cats” and “mice” proceed using brain power rather than brawn.
🥳 I can’t go into details of the individual POVs for fear of spoilers, but as the book begins with Stephanie’s death and the blurb also reveals the same, I will say: I loved her narrative. Reading a character’s first-person POV (from a few months earlier) immediately after reading the death announcement in the newspaper, is a whole other kind of ‘chilling’.
🥳 In some of the POVs, you can make out vague little red flags, but it's tough to put a finger on what the exact problem is in their narrative until the plot offers clarity. The suspense is nicely challenging.
🥳 The utilisation of the matchmaking content in the plot – perfect. The cover suits the story better than I had anticipated.
🥳 The use of London and its locations – added a nice touch of realism.
🥳 The legal and bureaucratic details – wow! Even if I hadn’t known that the author was a retired solicitor, I could have guessed it easily from the content. Amazingly precise!
🥳 As this is a suspense thriller, I must mention this as a bonus Yay: hardly any farfetched developments! Almost everything seemed within the realms of reasonable possibility.
Bookish Mixed Bags:
😐 The pacing is a bit on the slower side. As there are too many details and characters and POVs to keep track of, we can’t zoom through even during goosebump-inducing scenes. Some books can be read passively. Not this one; it demands active attention throughout. However, the plot is worth the effort.
😐 I wish the character ages had come out clearly sooner in the story. While a couple of them have vague age references (Like, Stephanie is supposed to be “in her forties.”), many of the main characters are described only in appearance. We get hints that most of them are above forty, but their actual ages come out only in the final quarter. I like knowing how old the key characters are, so that I can guess the age-appropriateness of their behaviour more accurately.
😐 Extending the above, a few key plot details are also not revealed until much, much later. While most of these are not so important, I think the reason why Lucy didn’t approach the police with her suspicions should have been presented as soon as she began doubting the matchmakers.
Bookish Nays:
😔 There’s too much telling in the writing. Also, sometimes, there’s repetition of previously-stated facts or thoughts or observations. Lastly, a couple of the backstories, though brief, weren’t really essential This might not be a major issue for most readers, and as I said earlier, the story kept me engrossed enough. But ironing out this issue would have made the book even more compelling than it already was.
Bookish If Onlys:
🤔 The promotional blurb I received mentions that this book “weds true crime and London noir in a contemporary spin on a historic murder case.” Which true crime? What historic murder case? I wish there had been an author’s note that clarified these details. It would have so fascinating to read!
All in all, the tangled plot, the legal research, and the layered characters were more than enough to keep me engrossed by this indie offering. I loved the challenge of keeping track of everything that was went on and wondering how things would come to a close. The editing could have been much better, but the plot itself is gripping enough to satisfy most readers. (Or at least those who enjoy intricate narratives with multiple POVs. If ever this book is released in audio form, I wouldn’t suggest it as an option to anyone except the most focussed of listeners.)
Definitely recommended to fans of contemporary suspense with cat-and-mouse strategies. This is not your standard high-octane revenge thriller, but a slowburn story with some really clever plotting. Keep your brain cells charged and active for this wild ride! Not for those who want likeable characters.
My thanks to Zooloo’s Book Tours and author Vanessa Edwards for a complimentary digital ARC of 'The Matchmakers', and for allowing me to be a part of this blog tour. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.
The digital version of this book is currently available on Kindle Unlimited.
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Blurb:
Lucy is devastated when she hears that her estranged sister Stephanie has died in a tragic accident on her honeymoon.
Wanting to offer condolences to the widower, she approaches the dating agency she was sure Stephanie had used, but they deny any knowledge of bride or groom.
Grieving and suspicious, Lucy determines to find out more.
Is Made in Heaven, with its quaint façade of old-fashioned gentility, doing more than matchmaking?
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Author Vanessa Edwards:
Vanessa Edwards lives in London with her border collie Elvis. After reading Philosophy at University College London, she qualified as a solicitor and practised as a lawyer and legal translator in London, Brussels and Luxembourg. She took early retirement from the law and turned to her lifelong dream of writing crime fiction.
Her debut novel, The Grass Widow, a suspenseful tale of adultery, murder and intrigue in a domestic setting, was published in 2023.
The Matchmakers, which followed in 2024, weds true crime and London noir in a contemporary spin on a historic murder case.
Connect with her on:
X/Twitter: https://x.com/vcjemih
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Check out this book:
Purchase from: https://mybook.to/matchmakers-zbt
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This has been a stop on the #TheMatchmakers blog tour conducted by Zooloo's Book Tours. (@ZooloosBookTours on Insta.) Thanks for stopping by!
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