Annie and Mark didn't have a conventional meeting, but that didn't prevent a relationship from developing.  After a brief courtship, they married. There were signs of problems beforehand, but they still moved forward.  It was a small wedding so it was easy to pick out a stranger.  Why is he there and what did he say to Mark just before leaving? Annie is unsettled and suspicious.  She has good reason to be.

The author has created two interesting protagonists who are good at keeping secrets about their pasts from each other. Annie is determined to be the perfect wife.  She will give him the family his first wife couldn't. Mark is a moody man who sometimes seems removed from the present.  Perhaps he is still mourning his first wife who mysteriously vanished two years ago.  Will he ever find out what truly happened to her?  Annie has experienced loss, too, but of a different sort. 

THE STRANGER AT THE WEDDING, by A. E. Gauntlett,  is told in multiple timelines and this is how shocking events of the past are revealed.  In this well-paced psychological thriller, tension builds rapidly from page to page. As the story heads to its surprising conclusion we learn just how far people will go to get what they want.

I found THE STRANGER AT THE WEDDING to be a riveting psychological thriller.  It is an engrossing and unpredictable story from start to finish.  Highly recommended.