THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, February 14, 1996 TAG: 9602140024
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E5 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Book Review
SOURCE: BY PEGGY DEANS EARLE
LENGTH: Medium: 72 lines
BARBARA VINE'S latest mystery, ``The Brimstone Wedding'' (Harmony Books, 330 pp., $24), is a morality tale about love, friendship and loss in the lives of two very different women who have very much in common. It's a story in which someone gets away with murder, but nobody gets away with anything else.
Barbara Vine is the alter ego of Ruth Rendell, the English mistress of psychological crime fiction. This is her eighth book under the Vine signature, which often suggests a more leisurely, methodical path to the mystery's denouement. Do not interpret this as lack of suspense. There is plenty; its momentum just gathers in gradual increments. As is typical of the author writing under either name, the style is meticulous and intelligent,with a keen eye for human foibles and the plain details of everyday life.
Details are important to the supersititous Jenny Warner. She trusts in the protection of the color blue, the good omen of four-leaf clovers and the bad luck of whistling in the dark. And she knows that her upcoming 13th wedding anniversary, or ``Brimstone Wedding,'' is the unluckiest one of all.
Jenny works as an aide in a well-appointed nursing home, where she has a special friendship with one of her charges, Stella Newland. Elegant, sophisticated and refined, Stella is an attractive 71-year-old who dresses with care and won't be seen without polished fingernails. She is also in the final stages of cancer and has only a few months to live.
Jenny comes from a nearby small town and, although uneducated and of working-class folk, is drawn to the glamor of what was once Stella's world. At 31, Jenny is already disillusioned with her marriage and is in the throes of an intense love affair with Ned, who is also married.
While Jenny hesitates to confide about her lover to Stella for fear of shocking the prim older woman, Stella reveals a secret of her own: a house in the country she has owned for 30 years. Stella explains that neither her late husband nor her children have ever known about the house. She asks Jenny to check up on the empty place, which soon becomes the perfect trysting site for the lovers. When told of the affair, Stella's reaction is one of surprising equanimity.
In the house, named ``Molucca,'' Jenny notices some remnants of Stella's past that raise troubling questions: a wedding dress stained with burn marks and bloodstains; an unopened bottle of champagne in the moldy refrigerator; an old, fire-damaged car in the garage.
As death nears, Stella entrusts Jenny with the story of her life, hinting at dark secrets. At the same time, Stella begins tape-recording what appears to be a confession. Her tale is convoluted: While married to a man 22 years her senior, she, too, was enmeshed in an illicit affair. Her lover, Alan, was married to a once-famous movie star, Gilda Brent, who mysteriously disappeared. Meanwhile, Stella's husband had a mistress of his own. So much for prim, proper Stella.
In turn, Jenny describes her life in flashbacks - her wild, oft-married mother; her decent husband, Mike; and the history of her affair. Ned has now become more demanding and possessive of her, offering to leave his wife and child. While Jenny hesitates, Ned pushes harder for a commitment.
Little by little, Stella brings us closer to the solution of the mystery surrounding Alan, Gilda and Molucca. We discover why Stella is terrified of cars, what really happened to Gilda Brent and the awful secret Stella has borne most of her life.
As it sounds, the plot of ``Brimstone Wedding'' is melodrama taken to gothic heights. What makes it rise above that, however, is the author's ability to draw complicated, original characters while providing incisive glimpses into a stratified English society. The icing on the cake is an edgy suspense that will have you peeking ahead to find all of the answers. MEMO: Peggy Deans Earle is a staff librarian.
by CNB