Penny Vincenzi's stories offer mystery and intrigue without crimes or violence; romance with a minimum of heaving bosoms; and carefully crafted family drama. A novel like Another Woman, originally released in the U.K. in 1994, is a perfect example for 21st-century American readers.
All is as lovely and serene on the eve of Cressida Forrest's wedding in the Oxfordshire valley. When she bids good night to her American groom, the handsome and successful Dr. Oliver Bergin, and their gathered families, who could predict that by dawn sweet Cressida would disappear without a trace? The celebrants are plunged into two days of anxiety--punctuated by the discovery of long-buried secrets and truths that will change all their lives.
Short, time-stamped chapters narrated by the various players (Harriett 6 a.m.; James 8:30 a.m.) provide suspense, and Vincenzi's subtle cliffhangers foreshadow the plot deliciously: "And it would be such a perfect day to tell him," runs one such passage. "Cressida's wedding day. When everything else was going to be absolutely right."
Old-money privilege, staid English families, a glamorous fashion model, a multimillionaire businessman... all are linked intimately with the bride, some in surprising ways. And Cressida herself? Ultimately, through a clever twist, Vincenzi leaves it to her readers to solve the mystery of the missing bride. --Cheryl Krocker McKeon, bookseller