THE MYSTERY OF THE LACE WEDDING DRESS

Woodall’s historical novel tells the tragic love story behind a lace wedding dress that was left at a Belgian shop.

In 2010, recent college graduateJuliette DuBois visits her elderly aunt, Isabella Sadler, who’s the owner of the family’s renowned lace business. Facing the end of her career, Isabella tells Juliette the tale of an all-lace wedding dress that had been in her shop for almost a century. In 1910, Delphina Wadsworth, the intelligent and ambitious 18-year-olddaughter of a gentleman farmer, meets University of Oxford law student Edward Jones, the son of her father’s friend. Delphina plans to study at Oxford, as well, and she and Edward begin courting. After they become engaged, her mother insists on commissioning a lace wedding dress from the finest shop in Belgium. When World War I breaks out, Edward leaves to fight, but Delphina has the Belgian lacemakers continue their work, as she wants to make sure that they remain employed. Delphina and Edward correspond for years until the aftermath of the Battle of the Somme, when she believes that he’s been killed in action. Meanwhile, the family of a wounded soldier discovers that a man recovering in a hospital is not their son, and he can’t remember who he is. After lacemaker Marie Sadler delves into the mystery, she’s eventually faced with a choice that could profoundly alter two families forever. Marie’s role in solving the puzzle is the most gripping part of this novel. However, it takes readers a while to get to this part of the narrative; Delphina and Edward’s courtship, and Edward’s letters about the war, are far less compelling, and they border on cliché at times. The prose can also be dry and hackneyed: “In that moment, Edward knew he’d never be the same again.” Still, although World War I has inspired countless works of fiction, the lacemaker story offers readers an unusual angle on the conflict. One wishes that the novel increased Marie’s role, as it might have made the story tighter and more memorable.

A compelling tale that gets lost in a larger, less exciting narrative.