The Vanished Bride

A Brontë Sisters Mystery

Bella Ellis

It’s 1845 in Yorkshire. Three young women — with vivid imaginations and surprising depths of courage — set out to solve a mystery that begins on the windswept moors near their home. Before they were acclaimed authors, the Brontë sisters — Anne, Charlotte, and Emily — were merely smart girls whose curiosity got the best of them.

All signs point to the fact that Mrs. Elizabeth Chester — mistress of Chester Grange and second wife to the master of the house — has been murdered. All signs, that is, but one: There’s no body to be found. The only clue left behind is a pool of blood, along with the young mother’s two heartbroken children.

A few miles away, at the parsonage across the moors, the Brontë sisters learn about the crime from their ne’er-do-well brother Branwell and decide something must be done. Convinced that their natural curiosity and critical thinking skills will help them get to the bottom of the mystery, they set out to discover the truth.

Their investigation turns up, in no particular order, charred bones, a gypsy camp, bloody gloves, a secret staircase, and a tooth — all wrapped in a deliciously Gothic atmosphere. But neither the norms of society nor the woman’s husband wants these three poking around in the family business. The closer the sisters get to the truth, the greater the danger in which they find themselves — and the stronger their commitment to finding justice for Elizabeth.

Bella Ellis is the Brontë-inspired pseudonym of Rowan Coleman, a devoted Brontë fan, and her knowledge of the sisters’ real lives adds depth to their charming fictional counterparts. It’s a delight to watch the authors — so beloved for their novels The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (Anne), Jane Eyre (Charlotte), and Wuthering Heights (Emily) — behave like squabbling teenagers. The mystery of the missing woman is solid, with well-constructed red herrings, suspenseful set-pieces, and a very satisfying conclusion.

You’ll hear the wind howl across the moors and chafe against the restrictions of being a woman in 19th-century England. And you’ll fall under the spell of these women, pre-greatness, when they were just smart girls, trying to do the right thing, even if it means spurning convention. This novel is a charming procedural with surprising twists — an exciting romp for fans of the Brontës and cozy mysteries.

Pssst… Great news! The Brontë sisters’ adventures continue in The Diabolical Bones.

It might be said, Charlotte thought to herself with a smile, as her nib finally joined with paper and she began to forge worlds out of ink, that none had ever lived such adventurous, dangerous, and exciting lives as those three women who grew up in a village no one had ever heard of, on the edge of the windswept and desolate moor. Those were secrets that would never be told, but, oh, what wonderful secrets they were. — Bella Ellis

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