Rating: 
Summary: A dark and edgy saga
Review: Minette Walters is a terrific writer and certainly deserves the comparisons to Ruth Rendell and PD James. Yet, it's hard to know what to make of this compelling yet flawed book. Elderly Mathilda Gillespie, wealthy, eccentric and misanthropic, is found dead, gruesomely, with wrists slit and an ancient torture instrument on her head. Suicide, or murder? And what about that will?Each chapter is prefaced, brilliantly, with an excerpt from Mathilda's diaries. Literate and erudite in a period where women of her social position were destined purely for domestic ornamentation, her decades of vindictive bitterness all but spit at us from the pages. There's a much more interesting and less homogeneous than usual cast of characters, and the wonderful dialog perfectly captures their varying classes, ages and personalities. The book is supposedly set in or near the present but apart from the occasional f-word and references to heroin and abortion, has a sort of otherwordly timelessness of most classic British mysteries. The motive behind the killing turns out to be weak, the final reconciliation of the main characters mawkish, and the intergenerational torture and other goings-on is laid on heavily enough to be almost slapstick in the end. But so assured and precise is the telling that The Scold's Bridle remains an enjoyable book. If you like British whodunnits, then read it, it's darker and edgier than most of them. I'll definitely be reading more Minette Walters.
Rating: 
Summary: Perverse entry in the English village mystery
Review: Minette Walters likes to experiment with all the sub-genres of the traditional mystery. In The Scold's Bridle we are treated to a perverse twist on the English village mystery complete with nosey parker neighbors and skeleton's in everyone's closets - some of these skeletons are fairly decomposed and very gruesome. I have to agree with one reader's comments that this book does take a while to start, but this is primarily due to Walter's love of character monologue. Damn, these people love to make speeches! She really should turn her hand to playwriting as this novel's plot is almost entirely revealed and the story moved forward through dialogue (or the sections of the diary which in film, or on the stage, would be done as voice-overs). I must disagree with all these whiney readers who find these despicable characters one-dimensional. Obviously, they haven't come across truly mean-spirited people in their lives. Believe me, there are thousands of nasty minded and cruel people all over the globe and they are just as three-dimensional and complex as the good people out there. I was introduced to Walter's work through a TV adaptation of The Sculptress and marveled at how she can make a character seem so thoroughly nasty in one scene and get us to feel sympathy for the same person moments later. The Scold's Bridle is populated with people like this and if all you want from a book is a reflection of the so-called real world then skip it. This is a facinating entertainment and a vivd work of imagination. How about that dialogue!
Rating:
Summary: she just knows how...
Review: Minette Walters makes a good break for all the avid Cornwell fans out there. Unusual plots, well-defined characters and the gift to catch your interest right from the start makes her one of the great ladies of crime fiction. This book is a prime example for her extraordinary skills.
Rating:
Summary: Other Walters novels worked better for me
Review: Minette Walters, The Scold's Bridle (St. Martin's, 1993) A woman is found dead in her bathtub, wrists slit, with a medieval torture device strapped to her head, a garland of flowers straight out of Shakespeare wrapped around it. Did she commit suicide, or did she have help? Sounds like the basis for a bang-up mystery, no? Combine with one of today's hottest mystery writers, Minette Walters, and you have a surefire recipe for success. And yet, something doesn't quite gel. I'm not sure what it is, really, but The Scold's Bridle lacks the twists and turns of The Breaker, the wicked humor of The Ice House, and the subtlety of The Sculptress. While it's still a decent mystery and keeps the pages turning, it seems a cut below average for Walters. ***
Rating:
Summary: My Favorite Walters Title.
Review: Scold's Bridle is my favorite of all Minette Walters books. Her characters aren't totally sympathetic, or good, or evil for that matter. You never know who to root for or who to hate, in the next plot twist a good guy becomes bad or vice versa. There is alot of suspense and action in these novels, and Ms. Walters really makes the reader think. These are not mindless quick mysteries, although I read them quickly. Read them all, so far there isn't a bad one in the bunch!
Rating: 
Summary: a mystery worth owning
Review: The Scold's Bridle is a masterpiece. It paints characters the way the people are. There is no unnecessary gloss. The plot intrigued me. How the Scold's Bridle (an ancient gag deviced used to silence talkative women) is used both as a torture device and as a mean to express love is macabre and poignant. Minette Walters proves once again in this novel that she knows how to keep her reader interested in the story she weaves.
Rating:
Summary: Cat Got your Tounge? Not When It Comes To Minette Walters!
Review: The Scold's Bridle is one of Minette's best! When the old lady that everyone in Fontwell hates dies a myesterious death in her bathtub - people breathe a sigh of relief. Not so for her doctor Sarah Blakeney, she sees more to the death than meets the eye and takes it upon herself to discover the truth behind Mathilda Gillespie's gruesome death. What the reader finds beyond the main plot is ingenious writing, rich characters and wonderful story telling. This is one page turner that I tried desperately not to read in one sitting - I really wanted to savor it. All in all a fabulous book!
Rating:
Summary: One of Walters' Best
Review: THE SCOLD'S BRIDLE, in my opinion, is one of Minette Walters' best mysteries--at least one of her best I've read so far! Her characters are well-developed, and the reader doesn't know from one page to the next who the murderer could be--NO ONE liked Mathilda, it seemed. Throughout the police investigation, readers are faced with learning of Mathilda Gillispie's abusive and haunting background of secrets, lies, and deception. Mathilda's character, though dead as the story begins, is developed more fully through her diary entries interspersed between chapters. Having left all of her money to an unlikely person, her doctor Susan Blakeney, Mathilda's daughter and granddaughter are brought into the story assuming they would inherit Mathilda's wealth. Readers find that Mathilda's daughter and granddaughter have experienced much of the intense emotional and physical abuse as Mathilda had. This part of the story, no doubt, leaves readers pondering how abuse often perpetuates itself through generations. Walters doesn't let on who the murderer is, and I'll admit, I was a little disappointed in its resolution given that the novel seemed more focused in a different direction. Overall, I enjoyed this novel moreso than THE ICE HOUSE or THE SCULPTRESS, but they are all very good books, and I would wholeheartedly recommend Walters to readers wanting a good mystery.
Rating:
Summary: One of Walters' Best
Review: THE SCOLD'S BRIDLE, in my opinion, is one of Minette Walters' best mysteries--at least one of her best I've read so far! Her characters are well-developed, and the reader doesn't know from one page to the next who the murderer could be--NO ONE liked Mathilda, it seemed. Throughout the police investigation, readers are faced with learning of Mathilda Gillispie's abusive and haunting background of secrets, lies, and deception. Mathilda's character, though dead as the story begins, is developed more fully through her diary entries interspersed between chapters. Having left all of her money to an unlikely person, her doctor Susan Blakeney, Mathilda's daughter and granddaughter are brought into the story assuming they would inherit Mathilda's wealth. Readers find that Mathilda's daughter and granddaughter have experienced much of the intense emotional and physical abuse as Mathilda had. This part of the story, no doubt, leaves readers pondering how abuse often perpetuates itself through generations. Walters doesn't let on who the murderer is, and I'll admit, I was a little disappointed in its resolution given that the novel seemed more focused in a different direction. Overall, I enjoyed this novel moreso than THE ICE HOUSE or THE SCULPTRESS, but they are all very good books, and I would wholeheartedly recommend Walters to readers wanting a good mystery.
Rating:
Summary: A well-told fascinating tale
Review: The title of The Scold's Bridle derives from a medieval torture device, an iron "cage" designed to fit over the head of a nagging woman - a "scold" - and stop the woman from talking (apparently with some sort of attached tongue holder). The bridle referenced in the title has long been owned and not infrequently used, even in modern times, by the perverse family of elderly Mathilda Gillespie, a bright somewhat profane elderly woman found dead in her bath, a la Marat, in the opening scenes of this odd mystery. Mathilda has not been stabbed like Marat, however. Her wrists are slit, and her coiffure is maimed by the scold's bridle, which sits on her lifeless head, decorated all around with stinging nettles and Michaelmas daisies. Is this an ugly suicide statement by an atheist and iconoclast with chronic severe arthritic pain?...The themes of child abuse, substance abuse, misogyny, and gang rape are woven indelicately into this novel, and the result is a series of subplots that are barely credible at times and that are most certainly too neatly "solved" by the common sense and good intentions of the protagonist, Dr. Blakeney. One gets the impression of a slightly immature P.D. James in that the story is peopled with bizarre, borderline personalities, fascinating and unpredictable, but at times Minette Walters seems to design a weird psychological vision rather than describe a real personality or situation. Depth of characterization and storyline is sometimes lacking where it is most wanted. Regardless of its shortcomings, the book is difficult to put down, superior to most of its genre, and an excellent read. The majority of characters are in fact well drawn and sympathetic, the primary plot is believable, the tension is constant, the structure - from the individual sentence to the interlacing of the subplots - is tight and talented in execution, and the ending is a surprise, as it should be.
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