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Murder for the Bride
Down in Mexico on a business trip, Dillon Bryant is obsessed with thoughts of his wife, Laura, a striking blonde he’s known for a matter of just weeks. After a blissful three-day honeymoon, being away from her is like torture—especially once word reaches him that she’s in deep trouble. But Dillon returns home to New Orleans too late: Laura is dead . . . and the police are of little help in finding her killer. Craving revenge of the most violent sort, Dillon begins his own investigation into Laura’s last days—and her dubious past. He soon finds that the truth behind this web of lies is more fantastic than he ever could have imagined—and more sinister than he could have feared.
174 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1951
71 people are currently reading
166 people want to read
About the author
John D. MacDonald
567 books1,373 followersJohn D. MacDonald was born in Sharon, Pennsylvania, and educated at the Universities of Pennsylvania, Syracuse and Harvard, where he took an MBA in 1939. During WW2, he rose to the rank of Colonel, and while serving in the Army and in the Far East, sent a short story to his wife for sale, successfully. He served in the Office of Strategic Services (O.S.S.) in the China-Burma-India Theater of Operations. After the war, he decided to try writing for a year, to see if he could make a living. Over 500 short stories and 70 novels resulted, including 21 Travis McGee novels.
Following complications of an earlier heart bypass operation, MacDonald slipped into a coma on December 10 and died at age 70, on December 28, 1986, in St. Mary's Hospital in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He was survived by his wife Dorothy (1911-1989) and a son, Maynard.
In the years since his death MacDonald has been praised by authors as diverse as Stephen King, Spider Robinson, Jimmy Buffett, Kingsley Amis and Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.. Thirty-three years after his passing the Travis McGee novels are still in print.
Following complications of an earlier heart bypass operation, MacDonald slipped into a coma on December 10 and died at age 70, on December 28, 1986, in St. Mary's Hospital in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He was survived by his wife Dorothy (1911-1989) and a son, Maynard.
In the years since his death MacDonald has been praised by authors as diverse as Stephen King, Spider Robinson, Jimmy Buffett, Kingsley Amis and Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.. Thirty-three years after his passing the Travis McGee novels are still in print.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews
May 10, 2023
01/2017
From 1951 The second of John D.'s many novels. I read his first, The Brass Cupcake, and I liked this more. He was exceptional at writing action and fight scenes from the beginning, and it only gets better from here. This has a great plot. WWII is recent enough that you have escaped Gestapo and rings of spies and all that.
From 1951 The second of John D.'s many novels. I read his first, The Brass Cupcake, and I liked this more. He was exceptional at writing action and fight scenes from the beginning, and it only gets better from here. This has a great plot. WWII is recent enough that you have escaped Gestapo and rings of spies and all that.
December 19, 2022
Murder For the Bride, one of four MacDonald novels published in a busy 1951, takes a sharp turn to espionage, a genre that MacDonald did not stick with. The basic outline of the plot is that Dillon Bryant, an oil company geologist, in a whirlwind romance, meets and marries a gorgeous blonde he knew practically nothing about after only a few weeks. They honeymoon and he heads off to Venezuela where he gets word in just a few more weeks that Laura was murdered.
Bryant returns to New Orleans where all the action in the book takes place and, though he has no experience as a detective, swears he will find her killer and bring him to Justice. Of course, as luck would have it, he didn’t know a damn thing about Laura and refuses to believe anything untoward despite all evidence to the contrary and despite his gal pal news reporter warns him about what he’s bound to find.
The truth though is beyond his wildest nightmares and involves Russian spy rings and secret information. To ferret out the truth, Bryant tramps into jazz clubs and perverted sadomasochistic clubs.
This is an action-oriented and far less introspective than other MacDonald novels.
Bryant returns to New Orleans where all the action in the book takes place and, though he has no experience as a detective, swears he will find her killer and bring him to Justice. Of course, as luck would have it, he didn’t know a damn thing about Laura and refuses to believe anything untoward despite all evidence to the contrary and despite his gal pal news reporter warns him about what he’s bound to find.
The truth though is beyond his wildest nightmares and involves Russian spy rings and secret information. To ferret out the truth, Bryant tramps into jazz clubs and perverted sadomasochistic clubs.
This is an action-oriented and far less introspective than other MacDonald novels.
February 7, 2016
Excellent little thriller. Man marries mysterious woman he just met, leaves town for work, and returns to find her murdered. As he starts to chase the clues around town (a nicely realized New Orleans), he quickly realizes he's embroiled in something very big and very dangerous.
January 30, 2017
I'm a big fan of John D. MacDonald. While this book is not bad, it is probably the weakest of his crime thrillers that I've read to date. It was written very early in his career, but I still preferred The Brass Cupcake (an even earlier crime thriller) over this one.
But this book isn't bad! It's a generally entertaining read, I just found a few elements of it to be predictable in a way that I've never found his later Travis McGee books ever to be. Still, the characters are fun and interesting and the plot is compelling enough to keep moving this novel forward. It only began to disappoint me most towards the very end when my predictions turned out to be accurate.
Still, any fans of MacDonald's work likely won't be disappointed. While I can't completely endorse it, I also can't not recommend this book.
But this book isn't bad! It's a generally entertaining read, I just found a few elements of it to be predictable in a way that I've never found his later Travis McGee books ever to be. Still, the characters are fun and interesting and the plot is compelling enough to keep moving this novel forward. It only began to disappoint me most towards the very end when my predictions turned out to be accurate.
Still, any fans of MacDonald's work likely won't be disappointed. While I can't completely endorse it, I also can't not recommend this book.
October 1, 2025
Post war thriller but no McGhee
December 29, 2021
This was MacDonald's second novel, published in 1951, and he steered completely away from the hard-boiled detective style of his first novel and produced an espionage novel full of Russian spies and ex-Nazis. But this is no John LeCarre style spy novel because it features an everyman protagonist in the classic noir sense. Dillon Bryant is a geological engineer scouting oil formations in Venezuela. He's fresh from a three-day honeymoon but has left his wife home in New Orleans. When he receives a letter saying that his wife is in trouble, he rushes home, only to find when he gets to his apartment that his wife has been murdered. The plot takes an intriguing turn as we learn that he'd married Laura after a quick whirlwind romance and that she is not what she seemed. Bryant initially refuses to believe what he hears and sets off trying to discover who she really was. Before too long he realizes he's a patsy and is embroiled in a plot involving Russian sleeper cells. From that point on there are plenty of plot twists and action to keep the pages turning until the end.
January 10, 2015
29 dec 14, monday morning, 6:41 a.m. e.s.t.
#17 from macdonald for me. just finished The Girl, the Gold Watch & Everything a story i enjoyed more than the 3-stars i provided and well worth a read. this must be one of the earliest stories.
(1951) murder for the bride
story begins:
it was one of those days when everything goes wrong. i should have guessed that the letter would mean trouble.
paul harrigan and i had been working in a swamp for the six weeks following my three-day honeymoon with laura. it was a juicy mexican swamp five miles west of tancoco, about a hundred miles south of tampico. transamericas oil, our employer, had a contract with permex of mexico to find, or try to find, new oil reserves. on the basis of aerial photo maps, sam spencer had shoved two-man crews into the more promising spots to bounce echoes off the substrata and map in detail any promising-looking domes. it's a simple operation in open country. harrigan and i were given a swamp. every inch of the way had to be hacked out, and the equipment had to be lugged in by hand.
okee dokee then, as the good doctor said, (a gate, a baton, a missile launch, 1978)...onward & upward
a note on the narration
obviously, one of the...rare...i think, 1st-person stories as most of the stories i've read, perhaps all of them, all previous 16, have been some form of 3rd person. (later) but that is mistaken as A Bullet for Cinderella & You Live Once are both first-person narrations...the last also published as you kill me and a bullet for cinderella was also published as on the make...the story i am reading after this one. verily verily.
update, monday evening, 7:52 p.m. e.s.t.
finished. a quick read. good read, good story. about the only time my barometer dipped below the standard was when the "good guys" were swarming about the place...or the "bad guys" for that matter...couple scenes...that one where dillon is in the bar listening to the old buck piano player and toward the end when the round-up began. i got to wondering why macdonald didn't label those guys...we didn't have nsa at the time...1951?...nixon was what? somewhere...i know as a president or maybe it was as a vp...he had no idea what the nsa was. now they're everywhere they're everywhere. (i'd like to take this moment to say hi to the government workers who are reading this. greetings from the dictatorship.) and...i dunno...was there a cia at the time? they were coming into being...we certainly had the effa bee eye...but the "good guys" aren't defined..."call us the jones brothers".
as the telling progressed, macdonald threw in enough spice...that bit about having to watch where you walk...the walkway is 6" under water and it is narrow...out to the island. neato...or...that whole scene was nice, actually...the dog there. the whole shebang. the show in new orleans...reminds me of The Knockout Artist...a like-kind exchange of goods, only in that one from crews it was a snuff...film? or was it in person, a "show" i forget. anderson's disease at work again.
anyway. good read.
time place scene settings
*a swamp in mexico, directions above
*new orleans
*the french quarter of new orleans, rampart street, where laura had an apartment
*tuxpan strip...small air strip...dil's trip back to the states begins here
*and it continues to mexico city...to monterrey...to san antonio...to new orleans
*transamericas oil offices in jefferson building
*bayton hotel...dil met laura at a party here
*sanderson steamship line...the sanderson mobile...how laura came to the states from...argentina i think it was
*a restaurant...the police station...
*the court of three flags...a restaurant
*a bar...where dil got blitzed
*sam spencer's office...which might be the same as the t.o. office above
*a cemetery on gentilly
*the rickrack
*a drive-in (restaurant) on gentilly road
*a two-block area near cafe lafitte
*a motor court
*galatoire's...a restaurant
*a factory...or wharehouse...where the show is put on...
*a drive-in (restaurant again) on route 11
*intersection, monroe & weidman in algiers
*coffee shop...big department store...florists...a drugstore
*a school in the soviet union where talya was taught to be an american...havana...to ten thousand islands...to naples...how talya entered the country with several others
*jill's apartment deep in the quarter on ursulines
*kobel's...a bar where dillon goes to find how he can get in to the show...
*a shack on an island accessible by walking a narrow board walkway six inches under watere
*gallatin street
*a place halfway between westwego and the huey p long bridge
*a walled motor court, #18
*a bean wagon...where dillon walks to buy some food/drink
characters major minor real imagined name-only peripheral
*dillon "dil" bryant: our 1st-person eye-narrator, he is 32 years old, married to laura. he met laura at a party at the bayton, seven weeks later they were married. laura, paul, among others, didn't like her...suspected her of bad motive
laura rentane, now mrs. dillon bryant: dil's bride. they are newly-married. she has an apartment in the french quarter, new orleans. she went to school in switzerland, her parents died in an airline crash, left her mucho money. she could speak french, spanish, and possibly german...later, we learn that her real name is tilda renner mistress of ernest haussmann/gestaop
sam spencer
*hiw wife, betty, who passed
paul harrigan: working with dil in the mexican swamp looking for oil reserves
*fernando, base-camp man
*the doctor in tuxpan
*girls aplenty...that dil had prior to marriage...no more than three serious
*boy came from the base camp with the mail
*jill townsend: 26-year-old, former girlfriend of dil...still friends...laura doesn't like. jill is a reporter for the new orleans star news. story opens, dil gets a letter from jill telling him of trouble back on the home front in new orleans. she didn't think laura was on the up-and-up...suspicions
*some people sent to one of uncle sam's jails
*a hairy little man...tax driver in new orleans
*a little man waiting for dil outside laura's apartment, lieutenant barney zeck
*an old man with a bald head & a green eyeshade...some kind of stenographer
tram widdmar: friend of dil's...in the export/import business
*bill french: first officer of the sanderson steamship mobile and who brought laura to the party at the boyton
*a waiter
*a nosy old lady...who takes care of the building, apartments, where laura rented on rampart
*a man who was seen leaving the apartment where laura rented
*a man across the street...who was observed watching laura's apt
*hitchcock, a famous director of the time
*a man cursed me...dil bumped into him outside on the street
*a sallow girl/piano at the bar...children followed dil...one child female tried to pick his pocket
*the man on the floor below
*dil's past: when he was 11, ronny was 14...a fight...dil did not quit
*halbert & rune: handled the funeral, burial of laura
*the people on the street...two female tourists...one creature came mincing
*starched waiters...late lunchers early evening crowd...bartender
*brazilian architect...who designed tram widdmar's home
*sammy, tram's negro butler
*men in garish uniforms...b-girls w/bad teeth...strippers
*sailors & whores, drunken brokers & glassy-eyed schoolmarms, b-girls & pimps & college kids & ragged children & air force enlisted men
*papa joliett/piano...real? imagined?...plays music of others
*albert ammons, tatum, fatha, fats, himes
*uncle tom...as in "uncle tom fringe"
*satch...the kid...baby: musicians
*the man came out of the darkness
*a trim little carhop
*the "jones" boys...either they are fbi agents...or some sort of other government agents...cia doesn't operate on u.s. land, right? heh two of them...one of them "andy"
*haussmann: associated with laura/tilda...has information from east germany...that they hope will buy their escape from their past
*a red officer, colonel general v. glinka
*shakespeare...japs...stalin...tintoretto (a painter)
*betty morin: name for the agent...soviet/russian...talya dvalianova...who tries to get/see if dil has the information they are trying to retain, keep out of u.s.a. hands
*monroe weidman: name used by betty/talya...place in algiers where she will meet dillon
*an old man with his head cradled in his arms...shuffling waitress...cashier...girl...cashier
*mr robinson: name used by dillon to retrieve/pick up keys left at a hotel
*talya's father, an engineer.
*the man she reports to, talya...in the u.s.
*don juan...duchess of alba
*a frowsy sleepy woman...the guide in dillon's dream/nightmare
*a copy boy
*oliver...the name of a cat that jill had
*the artist who previously occupied jill's apartment
*christy...a protitute from whom dillon gets information
*joe...the name dillon uses with christy
*her creole friend...christy's
*dagwood...a name used to get into the show with whips/blood...though that was ago...as now the name used is
*abner
*a few men sat at the tables...men stood at the bar
*jimmy the bartender
*several groups of customers...one burly man...a cold low voice (man)...a new one (man)...associated with the show/whips/blood
*a woman...black mask, in seats at the show
*a pair of new customers, a single, a trio (show)
*a magnificent negro...bone in nose, drum (show)
*a woman spun into the light...dances...a second man
*bloody esters in the sangre de cristo mountains (flagellants)
*more actors entered on cue...a stranger...the management
*weber and fields? to do w/the accent of haussmann at the show
*the fat man in a shabby suit (jewish), home city gummersbach
*his wife and daughter who died in one of the camps, belsen
*adolf
*dr. jack...is a man jill calls to tend to dillon...house-call
*josie...is dr. jack's wife
*pollyanna...jesus...judas...de mille...errol flynn...roy rogers...cagney...mr oppenheim...huey p long...columbus...samaritan
*a dirty-fingered amateur abortionist...a 14-year-old girl
*a fat lady tourist...the porter...railroad people...night city editor
siddman: survivor of the holocaust...he is instrumental in rescuing dillon after the show
*known sympathizers...student groups...pinks...smuggled aliens
*managing editor...a nice tasty set-up (tram)...a pair of cute little no'th ca-lina nurses
*the same general officers...chinese troops
*lou...lady friend of tram
*operator (telephone)...sergeant...some scrawny female...young fry were skipping...a young girl leaned...a sultry-looking young man
*a sharp black shadow of a man
*urselines of france were the gray sisters
*a stocky perspiring woman...a stringy daughter...twenty people with the group...five men...the guide was a withered little man
*pirates...a gaunt woman...a plump young girl...mafia gangs
*as though i was a third person
*a heavy man in a dark worn suit and a felt hat...the brown-armed girl...her boy friend...s stoop-shouldered musician
*straw hat...words used to describe one of the foreign agents
*a woman in a dirty slip, may
*a naked kid
*a stringy man, sipe...owner of the land where the shack/island is located
*mack...a very large dog...mastiff
*real big shots glad to rest up here
*truck driver...a man in the narrow bunk...a broad, bald-headed man
*manager of jewelry store
*a blonde girl, student type...domestic agent, baker by name
*two men were walking down the street...foreign agents
*george...statch, domestic agents, harley...sammy
#17 from macdonald for me. just finished The Girl, the Gold Watch & Everything a story i enjoyed more than the 3-stars i provided and well worth a read. this must be one of the earliest stories.
(1951) murder for the bride
story begins:
it was one of those days when everything goes wrong. i should have guessed that the letter would mean trouble.
paul harrigan and i had been working in a swamp for the six weeks following my three-day honeymoon with laura. it was a juicy mexican swamp five miles west of tancoco, about a hundred miles south of tampico. transamericas oil, our employer, had a contract with permex of mexico to find, or try to find, new oil reserves. on the basis of aerial photo maps, sam spencer had shoved two-man crews into the more promising spots to bounce echoes off the substrata and map in detail any promising-looking domes. it's a simple operation in open country. harrigan and i were given a swamp. every inch of the way had to be hacked out, and the equipment had to be lugged in by hand.
okee dokee then, as the good doctor said, (a gate, a baton, a missile launch, 1978)...onward & upward
a note on the narration
obviously, one of the...rare...i think, 1st-person stories as most of the stories i've read, perhaps all of them, all previous 16, have been some form of 3rd person. (later) but that is mistaken as A Bullet for Cinderella & You Live Once are both first-person narrations...the last also published as you kill me and a bullet for cinderella was also published as on the make...the story i am reading after this one. verily verily.
update, monday evening, 7:52 p.m. e.s.t.
finished. a quick read. good read, good story. about the only time my barometer dipped below the standard was when the "good guys" were swarming about the place...or the "bad guys" for that matter...couple scenes...that one where dillon is in the bar listening to the old buck piano player and toward the end when the round-up began. i got to wondering why macdonald didn't label those guys...we didn't have nsa at the time...1951?...nixon was what? somewhere...i know as a president or maybe it was as a vp...he had no idea what the nsa was. now they're everywhere they're everywhere. (i'd like to take this moment to say hi to the government workers who are reading this. greetings from the dictatorship.) and...i dunno...was there a cia at the time? they were coming into being...we certainly had the effa bee eye...but the "good guys" aren't defined..."call us the jones brothers".
as the telling progressed, macdonald threw in enough spice...that bit about having to watch where you walk...the walkway is 6" under water and it is narrow...out to the island. neato...or...that whole scene was nice, actually...the dog there. the whole shebang. the show in new orleans...reminds me of The Knockout Artist...a like-kind exchange of goods, only in that one from crews it was a snuff...film? or was it in person, a "show" i forget. anderson's disease at work again.
anyway. good read.
time place scene settings
*a swamp in mexico, directions above
*new orleans
*the french quarter of new orleans, rampart street, where laura had an apartment
*tuxpan strip...small air strip...dil's trip back to the states begins here
*and it continues to mexico city...to monterrey...to san antonio...to new orleans
*transamericas oil offices in jefferson building
*bayton hotel...dil met laura at a party here
*sanderson steamship line...the sanderson mobile...how laura came to the states from...argentina i think it was
*a restaurant...the police station...
*the court of three flags...a restaurant
*a bar...where dil got blitzed
*sam spencer's office...which might be the same as the t.o. office above
*a cemetery on gentilly
*the rickrack
*a drive-in (restaurant) on gentilly road
*a two-block area near cafe lafitte
*a motor court
*galatoire's...a restaurant
*a factory...or wharehouse...where the show is put on...
*a drive-in (restaurant again) on route 11
*intersection, monroe & weidman in algiers
*coffee shop...big department store...florists...a drugstore
*a school in the soviet union where talya was taught to be an american...havana...to ten thousand islands...to naples...how talya entered the country with several others
*jill's apartment deep in the quarter on ursulines
*kobel's...a bar where dillon goes to find how he can get in to the show...
*a shack on an island accessible by walking a narrow board walkway six inches under watere
*gallatin street
*a place halfway between westwego and the huey p long bridge
*a walled motor court, #18
*a bean wagon...where dillon walks to buy some food/drink
characters major minor real imagined name-only peripheral
*dillon "dil" bryant: our 1st-person eye-narrator, he is 32 years old, married to laura. he met laura at a party at the bayton, seven weeks later they were married. laura, paul, among others, didn't like her...suspected her of bad motive
laura rentane, now mrs. dillon bryant: dil's bride. they are newly-married. she has an apartment in the french quarter, new orleans. she went to school in switzerland, her parents died in an airline crash, left her mucho money. she could speak french, spanish, and possibly german...later, we learn that her real name is tilda renner mistress of ernest haussmann/gestaop
sam spencer
*hiw wife, betty, who passed
paul harrigan: working with dil in the mexican swamp looking for oil reserves
*fernando, base-camp man
*the doctor in tuxpan
*girls aplenty...that dil had prior to marriage...no more than three serious
*boy came from the base camp with the mail
*jill townsend: 26-year-old, former girlfriend of dil...still friends...laura doesn't like. jill is a reporter for the new orleans star news. story opens, dil gets a letter from jill telling him of trouble back on the home front in new orleans. she didn't think laura was on the up-and-up...suspicions
*some people sent to one of uncle sam's jails
*a hairy little man...tax driver in new orleans
*a little man waiting for dil outside laura's apartment, lieutenant barney zeck
*an old man with a bald head & a green eyeshade...some kind of stenographer
tram widdmar: friend of dil's...in the export/import business
*bill french: first officer of the sanderson steamship mobile and who brought laura to the party at the boyton
*a waiter
*a nosy old lady...who takes care of the building, apartments, where laura rented on rampart
*a man who was seen leaving the apartment where laura rented
*a man across the street...who was observed watching laura's apt
*hitchcock, a famous director of the time
*a man cursed me...dil bumped into him outside on the street
*a sallow girl/piano at the bar...children followed dil...one child female tried to pick his pocket
*the man on the floor below
*dil's past: when he was 11, ronny was 14...a fight...dil did not quit
*halbert & rune: handled the funeral, burial of laura
*the people on the street...two female tourists...one creature came mincing
*starched waiters...late lunchers early evening crowd...bartender
*brazilian architect...who designed tram widdmar's home
*sammy, tram's negro butler
*men in garish uniforms...b-girls w/bad teeth...strippers
*sailors & whores, drunken brokers & glassy-eyed schoolmarms, b-girls & pimps & college kids & ragged children & air force enlisted men
*papa joliett/piano...real? imagined?...plays music of others
*albert ammons, tatum, fatha, fats, himes
*uncle tom...as in "uncle tom fringe"
*satch...the kid...baby: musicians
*the man came out of the darkness
*a trim little carhop
*the "jones" boys...either they are fbi agents...or some sort of other government agents...cia doesn't operate on u.s. land, right? heh two of them...one of them "andy"
*haussmann: associated with laura/tilda...has information from east germany...that they hope will buy their escape from their past
*a red officer, colonel general v. glinka
*shakespeare...japs...stalin...tintoretto (a painter)
*betty morin: name for the agent...soviet/russian...talya dvalianova...who tries to get/see if dil has the information they are trying to retain, keep out of u.s.a. hands
*monroe weidman: name used by betty/talya...place in algiers where she will meet dillon
*an old man with his head cradled in his arms...shuffling waitress...cashier...girl...cashier
*mr robinson: name used by dillon to retrieve/pick up keys left at a hotel
*talya's father, an engineer.
*the man she reports to, talya...in the u.s.
*don juan...duchess of alba
*a frowsy sleepy woman...the guide in dillon's dream/nightmare
*a copy boy
*oliver...the name of a cat that jill had
*the artist who previously occupied jill's apartment
*christy...a protitute from whom dillon gets information
*joe...the name dillon uses with christy
*her creole friend...christy's
*dagwood...a name used to get into the show with whips/blood...though that was ago...as now the name used is
*abner
*a few men sat at the tables...men stood at the bar
*jimmy the bartender
*several groups of customers...one burly man...a cold low voice (man)...a new one (man)...associated with the show/whips/blood
*a woman...black mask, in seats at the show
*a pair of new customers, a single, a trio (show)
*a magnificent negro...bone in nose, drum (show)
*a woman spun into the light...dances...a second man
*bloody esters in the sangre de cristo mountains (flagellants)
*more actors entered on cue...a stranger...the management
*weber and fields? to do w/the accent of haussmann at the show
*the fat man in a shabby suit (jewish), home city gummersbach
*his wife and daughter who died in one of the camps, belsen
*adolf
*dr. jack...is a man jill calls to tend to dillon...house-call
*josie...is dr. jack's wife
*pollyanna...jesus...judas...de mille...errol flynn...roy rogers...cagney...mr oppenheim...huey p long...columbus...samaritan
*a dirty-fingered amateur abortionist...a 14-year-old girl
*a fat lady tourist...the porter...railroad people...night city editor
siddman: survivor of the holocaust...he is instrumental in rescuing dillon after the show
*known sympathizers...student groups...pinks...smuggled aliens
*managing editor...a nice tasty set-up (tram)...a pair of cute little no'th ca-lina nurses
*the same general officers...chinese troops
*lou...lady friend of tram
*operator (telephone)...sergeant...some scrawny female...young fry were skipping...a young girl leaned...a sultry-looking young man
*a sharp black shadow of a man
*urselines of france were the gray sisters
*a stocky perspiring woman...a stringy daughter...twenty people with the group...five men...the guide was a withered little man
*pirates...a gaunt woman...a plump young girl...mafia gangs
*as though i was a third person
*a heavy man in a dark worn suit and a felt hat...the brown-armed girl...her boy friend...s stoop-shouldered musician
*straw hat...words used to describe one of the foreign agents
*a woman in a dirty slip, may
*a naked kid
*a stringy man, sipe...owner of the land where the shack/island is located
*mack...a very large dog...mastiff
*real big shots glad to rest up here
*truck driver...a man in the narrow bunk...a broad, bald-headed man
*manager of jewelry store
*a blonde girl, student type...domestic agent, baker by name
*two men were walking down the street...foreign agents
*george...statch, domestic agents, harley...sammy
July 11, 2020
If I could give it 3.5 stars I would do that. It’s one of his earliest books, 1951, dealing with cold war covert operations tied in with an innocent man accused of murder. Parts were a bit dated and schlocky, But it has a semi new are feel, also, and some of the. References are the good sort of kitschy retro 70 years later. The second paragraph of the book, Toomey, is about as skilled and minimally stated as it gets in the English language. The character speaking is an engineer grabbing around in the swamps of Mexico in the heat of summer looking for indications oof oil:
“it was one of those days. It seemed even hotter than usual, the clouds of insects shriller and hungrier, the black muck stickier. Wild parrots in their clown suits made noises like a fingernail on a blackboard, and even the orchids looked like open wounds.”
You’re welcome 😉
Then I came across a line I had completely forgotten to be in this book, I have read the book before but a long time ago and didn’t remember anything till I came to this, marked in the margin with several vertical lines. I teach leadership classes and have put it in a PowerPoint to summarize a lot with a few words. I also use it to plug John D. I ask how many are familiar with him, sometimes a hand will go up but usually not. Then I ask about the movie Cape Fear, which John D. Wrote and which nearly everyone is familiar with. I tell how Stephen King turned me onto him, a little of the Jimmy Buffett song Incommunicado “Travis McGees still on Cedar Key, that’s what John MacDonald said...” then share this quote, with a picture of John D. At his Selectric:
“Maturity implies the acquisition of a philosophy which not only functions, but makes life satisfying.”
Dang, it deserves four stars just for that!
“it was one of those days. It seemed even hotter than usual, the clouds of insects shriller and hungrier, the black muck stickier. Wild parrots in their clown suits made noises like a fingernail on a blackboard, and even the orchids looked like open wounds.”
You’re welcome 😉
Then I came across a line I had completely forgotten to be in this book, I have read the book before but a long time ago and didn’t remember anything till I came to this, marked in the margin with several vertical lines. I teach leadership classes and have put it in a PowerPoint to summarize a lot with a few words. I also use it to plug John D. I ask how many are familiar with him, sometimes a hand will go up but usually not. Then I ask about the movie Cape Fear, which John D. Wrote and which nearly everyone is familiar with. I tell how Stephen King turned me onto him, a little of the Jimmy Buffett song Incommunicado “Travis McGees still on Cedar Key, that’s what John MacDonald said...” then share this quote, with a picture of John D. At his Selectric:
“Maturity implies the acquisition of a philosophy which not only functions, but makes life satisfying.”
Dang, it deserves four stars just for that!
October 22, 2020
Perhaps the best of the worst, JDM's second is a somewhat hard boiled mystery-thriller written in the first person narrative of the ultimate sap when it comes to women. Dillon Bryant is a newly married Geologic Engineer, back in the field of a remote Mexican swamp when he receives a letter from a friend indicating that his wife may be in danger or at best some sort of trouble. He informs his partner in the survey that he must return to New Orleans at once to which his old buddy and chief engineer of the project tells him that he has been acting a fool since he met the woman. There was no stopping Dil Bryant then or during the week it took for him to marry Laura Rentane after meeting her at a party. The murder of the bride is but the beginning of this two fisted yarn and Dil's hot headed, impulsive demeanor doesn't simmer down a single degree. Sure, this novel is as stereotypical as anything else written back in the day but I think that should be expected. JDM's street cred is very sharp here. The action is non-stop. His observation of human nature will surely offend some. However, it is the element of truth that makes this good for what it is.
October 8, 2018
Ah, John D. Mc.Donald. That Cracker Jack prize of paperback authors, where you are never quite sure what the quality might be. It could be lean, Florida flavored pulp, with strong characters and setting. Or one of those ones where his male chauvinist view of life poisons every paragraph.
This one gets a bit of both, all in service of a really stupid spy plot, and a complete jackass of a lead character, who is the male personification of “marry in haste, repent at leisure”. All of this takes place in a seemingly vivid New Orleans setting, which actually seems like the author’s usual vivid Florida setting, with some unnecessary anti-gay rhetoric and authentic street names added.
If you don’t mind that the narrator is a jerk, who nonetheless thaws the purported frigidity of the newspaper woman he finally figures out he really loves, after stumbling around Nazis and Commies and G-men, maybe you’ll like. McDonald’s writing has virtues, even if his worldview is noxious.
This one gets a bit of both, all in service of a really stupid spy plot, and a complete jackass of a lead character, who is the male personification of “marry in haste, repent at leisure”. All of this takes place in a seemingly vivid New Orleans setting, which actually seems like the author’s usual vivid Florida setting, with some unnecessary anti-gay rhetoric and authentic street names added.
If you don’t mind that the narrator is a jerk, who nonetheless thaws the purported frigidity of the newspaper woman he finally figures out he really loves, after stumbling around Nazis and Commies and G-men, maybe you’ll like. McDonald’s writing has virtues, even if his worldview is noxious.
June 15, 2025
Low Bar
You gotta have low standards if you read much JDM. This one is "good" compared to most.
The hero falls in Love At First Sight maybe three times. I had thought he was still new at Romance Novels and was optimistic there'd be no page-after-page kisses. I was wrong, near the end there's a 5-page kiss. I can't help but think that women like to read about these literary kisses. What other purpose do they serve?
Lots of "spies" and KGB Assassins and ex-Nazis: all the Hollywood bullshit, tailor-made for suckers and morons.
It's 1951: too early for Space Kookery. So, no need to Beam Me Up, Scotty-lol.
Go ahead, read it. You people will read Stephen King and Pynchon, so you might as well read this crap.
When I look at the other JDM reviews here on GR, and how many people gush over him, I start looking forward to that asteroid the Space Kooks and Men of Science keep saying is imminent.
You gotta have low standards if you read much JDM. This one is "good" compared to most.
The hero falls in Love At First Sight maybe three times. I had thought he was still new at Romance Novels and was optimistic there'd be no page-after-page kisses. I was wrong, near the end there's a 5-page kiss. I can't help but think that women like to read about these literary kisses. What other purpose do they serve?
Lots of "spies" and KGB Assassins and ex-Nazis: all the Hollywood bullshit, tailor-made for suckers and morons.
It's 1951: too early for Space Kookery. So, no need to Beam Me Up, Scotty-lol.
Go ahead, read it. You people will read Stephen King and Pynchon, so you might as well read this crap.
When I look at the other JDM reviews here on GR, and how many people gush over him, I start looking forward to that asteroid the Space Kooks and Men of Science keep saying is imminent.
August 31, 2025
Murder for the Bride, John D. MacDonald [Fawcett, 1951].
Dillan Bryant, the protagonist of MacDonald’s second novel, is a geologist working in the oil fields of Mexico. At a party held by an old Army buddy in New Orleans, he meets a woman named Laura and marries her after a whirlwind romance. After a brief honeymoon, Bryant is back on the job, where he gets word that his new wife is in trouble. Bryant returns to New Orleans but is too late; Laura has been killed. Bryant begins to investigate the murder in an amateur capacity and his wife’s double life begins to unravel, drawing him into a case involving Nazi fugitives, a subterranean S & M club, and Soviet spies. Murder for the Bride is a Hitchcockian thriller with swift pulpish action.
***
John D. Macdonald (1916-1986) received an MBA from Harvard in 1939 and served as a Lt. Col. in the U.S. Army during WWII. He is the author of forty standalone thriller novels including Cape Fear (The Executioners) and the Travis McGee series.
Dillan Bryant, the protagonist of MacDonald’s second novel, is a geologist working in the oil fields of Mexico. At a party held by an old Army buddy in New Orleans, he meets a woman named Laura and marries her after a whirlwind romance. After a brief honeymoon, Bryant is back on the job, where he gets word that his new wife is in trouble. Bryant returns to New Orleans but is too late; Laura has been killed. Bryant begins to investigate the murder in an amateur capacity and his wife’s double life begins to unravel, drawing him into a case involving Nazi fugitives, a subterranean S & M club, and Soviet spies. Murder for the Bride is a Hitchcockian thriller with swift pulpish action.
***
John D. Macdonald (1916-1986) received an MBA from Harvard in 1939 and served as a Lt. Col. in the U.S. Army during WWII. He is the author of forty standalone thriller novels including Cape Fear (The Executioners) and the Travis McGee series.
October 21, 2020
Give me back Travis McGee! This story gets the hard-boiled Hollywood treatment. Which does nothing to make it easier for the reader to buy into it than for the newly-wed hero to accept his wife is not only dead but a tramp:
"It all seemed like something from a very poor movie, the sort of movie where the characters are yanked around on strings in order to heighten melodrama."
I rest my case for 1 star.
"It all seemed like something from a very poor movie, the sort of movie where the characters are yanked around on strings in order to heighten melodrama."
I rest my case for 1 star.
July 20, 2024
Totally not my cup of tea. Read to page 50 of 175. Written in 1951 and contemporary in setting, a typical detective novel where a "regular guy" tries to find the murderer of his new wife instead of relying on the police and international forces who are also trying to find her killer.
Sadly not for me - because a dear friend recommended it to me; it's in her permanent library so she would have given 5 stars.
Sadly not for me - because a dear friend recommended it to me; it's in her permanent library so she would have given 5 stars.
December 23, 2018
A well told period piece story
We forget or discount the fear of Russia and communism in the US of 1951. The story is an interrupted first person narrative. It certainly requires a willing suspension of disbelief. The characters are all well developed. The new Orleans being evoked seems quite a different place than the New Orleans of today, simpler and less closed to strangers.
We forget or discount the fear of Russia and communism in the US of 1951. The story is an interrupted first person narrative. It certainly requires a willing suspension of disbelief. The characters are all well developed. The new Orleans being evoked seems quite a different place than the New Orleans of today, simpler and less closed to strangers.
April 20, 2021
I usually have higher praise for the old JDM novels. This is a short paperback (174 pages). The story takes place primarily in New Orleans but involves some international espionage. If one is a JDM fan and ran into this book somehow, I would encourage you to read, but I have enjoyed others a great deal more.
October 10, 2021
I figure this was an earlier work by John D. MacDonald, before his Travis McGee series. It's somewhat dated, involving post- WW II Nazi fugitives, and Cold War espionage. There are a couple romantic situations, which seemed a bit unlikely and contrived. Still, there was good writing, and satisfying action, throughout.
November 30, 2025
3.5 out of 5
This was a pretty good thriller that takes place in New Orleans in 1950(ish).
Some of the plot is a little "red scare" but in way that is so vague it doesn't matter in the end.
It is a very compelling story with a generic ending.
A good but not great read that can be consumed in just a few sittings.
This was a pretty good thriller that takes place in New Orleans in 1950(ish).
Some of the plot is a little "red scare" but in way that is so vague it doesn't matter in the end.
It is a very compelling story with a generic ending.
A good but not great read that can be consumed in just a few sittings.
June 8, 2018
Great book. The title gives it away, but that's not the end of the story. John D. MacDonald creates great characters, always has a great hero and tells a compelling story. Don't let the title put you off thinking you know the storyline.
August 12, 2020
For JDM's 2nd novel, this is pretty darn good. The characters and plot are well-sketched, and the writing is assured. JDM and old-school mystery fans should enjoy this. 3.5 stars
April 4, 2021
Slow to get going. Finally got up and running and interesting.
November 2, 2021
Its what you would expect.
September 12, 2023
Pretty conventional frame but lots of personality. Pretty meaningless title. Shocking New Orleans s&m scene.
June 4, 2022
I think I got this at the Nest Egg in Phoenicia, but I'm not sure.
July 2, 2014
Murder for the Bride is an interesting read, not for its mystery, which is fairly obvious and not particularly compelling, but for the way it manages to encompass the whole of American Cold War paranoia while showing how that paranoia was abused to enforce the mores of the 50s. There's so much going on under the textual radar - sexy women are probably RUSSIAN SPIES. Sex shows are the DECAY OF SOCIETY, and frequented by commies! People of color are exotic, and probably up to something! I mean, MacDonald fits an entire cultural ethos into just under two hundred pages while still spinning a Tough American Dude yarn, so that's pretty damn impressive in itself.
So, all in all, I wouldn't recommend this to someone looking for a good mystery, but for a glimpse into the twisted psyche of the past - absolutely!
So, all in all, I wouldn't recommend this to someone looking for a good mystery, but for a glimpse into the twisted psyche of the past - absolutely!
August 27, 2012
This 1951 novel is only John D. MacDonald's second mystery/thriller, after 1950's The Brass Cupcake (and 1951's Wine of the Dreamers - the first of three science fiction entries). As would become a signature of JDM's, the protagonist is a competent professional man who becomes the investigator.
Dillon Bryant, is a successful engineer off on assignment after just finishing his honeymoon. News from home comes that his new bride, Laura, a beautiful women whom he had only met weeks before proposing marriage, is in deep trouble. He rushes home to find out that she has, in fact, been murdered. Filled with grief and rage, he feels he cannot leave it up to the police to solve the case - he wants his own kind of revenge against the killer.
Dillon Bryant, is a successful engineer off on assignment after just finishing his honeymoon. News from home comes that his new bride, Laura, a beautiful women whom he had only met weeks before proposing marriage, is in deep trouble. He rushes home to find out that she has, in fact, been murdered. Filled with grief and rage, he feels he cannot leave it up to the police to solve the case - he wants his own kind of revenge against the killer.
July 24, 2022
Many many many years ago, John D. MacDonald was my favorite author and I read his books like a chocolate-addict gobbles chocolate-- especially his Travis McGee series. The hero of this book bears no resemblance to Travis McGee [darn] but he is still an interesting character especially since he is still "growing up" as he sees it. MacDonald is very good at writing scenes that make you feel they are real and you are physically there... and sometimes you would rather not be because the emotional involvement can be distressing and hang in your mind for days.
August 19, 2015
Hysterically funny (to me) because of the age it was written in (1951); the expressions and attitudes conveyed by the author were definitely not PC. The story was a typical potboiler, but I enjoyed it in terms of the era.
July 18, 2016
I had read a few John D. MacDonald before this one and I enjoyed them. This one was just adequate, in my opinion. But I don't want to be too hard on it because it was just his second crime novel.
August 11, 2011
Read them as a tween. Love them all.
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