by Claudia Gray
Overall: Calling all Jane Austen fans! What a fun concept for a book: collect many of the principal characters from Austen’s novels, put them all in a house party at Donwell Abbey, and then kill off the villainous Mr. Wickham. Whether you love Elizabeth and Darcy, Emma and George Knightley, Marianne and the Colonel, or any of the other characters best, it’s delightful to read about them when they’re all a little further along in their lives. The book frequently switches narrators to give everyone a turn in the spotlight, but the characters at its heart are Gray’s own invention: Jonathan Darcy, Elizabeth and Fitzwilliam’s son (who’s in his early 20s) and Juliet Tilney, the teenage daughter of Northanger Abbey’s Catherine and Henry, who join forces to investigate Mr. Wickham’s demise.
Likes: Gray combines the style of Austen’s writing with the central conceits of classic British detective fiction in a satisfying way. The story has entertaining twists and turns, with every major character a possible suspect. I also appreciated Gray including a neurodivergent character in Jonathan and addressing the challenges he would have faced in early 19th century English society. She also includes a subplot addressing the extreme prejudice, physical danger, and risk of arrest and imprisonment gay men faced during this era, which provides a welcome contrast to and update of the original novels. And there’s a fun love story in the best Austen tradition alongside the mystery.
Dislikes: A few times it felt like a reach to include a certain secondary character in what was already a very full cast. But this is a very minor quibble; overall I enjoyed the book tremendously.
FYI: sudden, violent death. The prior death of a young child forms a major subplot. Attempted sexual assault. Homophobia.
Liz Helfrich 