Series (if applicable): none
Publisher: Knopf
Publication Date: December 2011
Page Count: 291
Source: library
Overdrive account (kindle version)
Blurb: It
is 1803, six years since Elizabeth and Darcy embarked on their life together at
Pemberley, Darcy’s magnificent estate. Their peaceful, orderly world seems
almost unassailable. Elizabeth has found her footing as the chatelaine of
the great house. They have two fine sons, Fitzwilliam and
Charles. Elizabeth’s sister Jane and her husband, Bingley, live nearby;
her father visits often; there is optimistic talk about the prospects of
marriage for Darcy’s sister Georgiana. And preparations are under way for
their much-anticipated annual autumn ball.
Then, on the eve of the ball, the patrician idyll is shattered. A coach
careens up the drive carrying Lydia, Elizabeth’s disgraced sister, who with her
husband, the very dubious Wickham, has been banned from Pemberley. She
stumbles out of the carriage, hysterical, shrieking that Wickham has been
murdered. With shocking suddenness, Pemberley is plunged into a frightening
mystery.
My Interest in
this book is: A Jane Austen spin-off by a well-known mystery writer… do I need more of a reason?
My Review:
While it was
fun to visit Pemberley, I was a bit disappointed with this story. It was nice to see that Elizabeth and Darcy
were doing well, with two children. Jane
and Bingley lived down the road so that they could visit often, with or without
their own children. We already knew that
Lydia Bennet married Wickham, who still cannot get a job. Surprisingly, Mary Bennet made a match before
Kitty did, and Mrs. Bennet will not visit Pemberley, if she can avoid it, as
she feels rather intimidated around her son-in-law.
Georgiana
Darcy still lives at Pemberley and is ready for marriage; but whose hand will she
accept? That of long time guardian,
Colonel Fitzwilliam, now heir to his father’s estate, or the frequent visiting
friend of Charles Bingley, a Mr. Henry Alveston, London barrister? Georgiana is quite taken with Mr. Alveston,
and it doesn’t hurt that he is rather wealthy himself, as well as considerably
younger than the Colonel. However, the
Colonel hopes to have Georgiana’s hand in marriage.
We then have
Lydia arrive at the doorstep of Pemberley before the large ball, shrieking that
her dear Wickham is dead by the hand
of Captain Denny. Darcy starts to mount
a rescue mission, which is quickly taken over by Colonel Fitzwilliam, who
arrived on horseback right after Lydia did.
Why was the Colonel out so late on a stormy night, and arriving after
the carriage containing Mrs. Wickham?
There is
supposedly a mystery surrounding a certain portion of the woods of Pemberley –
ghosts and suicide in the area of a cottage that now contains the Bidwell
family. Who is the lady in shadows that
haunts the wood?
This story
was well-written, with a bit of wit, but I felt cheated on several levels. The most important level is that of the
mystery. I felt that the mystery was not
very well-played, especially considering that a venerate mystery writer wrote
this story. Was it simply because her
publisher wanted to jump on the Austen wagon to the stars, hoping to get
readers from across the two very different genres? The second was the opening of the story and
the piecemeal effect of the writing. The
first six percent of the book was a complete rehash of Pride and Prejudice. There were other parts that it felt as if Ms
James was trying to give the reader a load of information about Jane Austen
works, without skillfully working it in to the story.
What I did love about the book was the
language. I had learned a great many new
words reading this novel, and I do appreciate a writer that uses words that are
uncommon. However, I feel that she did
use a few phrases that might not have yet been in use at the time – police is on that comes to mind. Ms James does write well – if not know how to
spin a mystery well. This reader fell
for many of the descriptions of the people in the story. The author did try to emulate Jane Austen in
describing a person – not with outright “she was a pretty girl with blonde hair
and blue eyes” – but more of a description of character:
With his square leather bag strapped to his saddle, he was a familiar
figure in the roads and lanes of Lambton and Pemberley. Years of riding in all weathers had coarsened
his features but, although he was not considered a handsome man, he had an open
and clever face in which authority and benevolence were so united that he seemed
destined by nature to be a country doctor.
Not only were
there nods to Jane Austen, as this book seems to be derived from many years of
enjoyment of Miss Austen’s novels, but I also detected a nod to other writers,
particularly Oscar Wilde with the following quote (reminds me of The Importance of Being Earnest):
I have never approved of protracted dying. It is an affectation in the aristocracy; in
the lower classes it is merely an excuse for avoiding work. [I have] never gone in for prolonged dying. People should make up their minds whether to live or to die and do one or the other with the least inconvenience to others.
- From a letter by Lady Catherine de Bourgh
The majority
of the book was spent on awaiting the inquest of Wickham for the death of
Captain Denny, and then the trial of Wickham for the murder of his friend. The story never developed that gothic sense of the haunted woods and
the murder by a smug man. It was more of
a plodding story moving from the discovery of Wickham over the lifeless body of
his friend to his trial and how Wickham was still smug while facing a jury for
murder. I never got the sense that there
was a mystery in this story, simply a story of a trial with no evidence truly
put forth. It was one of those stories
that had wrapped up the trial and the real story within a small percentage of
the novel. I have never read a book by
PD James, and I am not likely to do so in the future.
Favorite Quotes:
You discuss what Miss Darcy should do as if she were
a child. We have entered the nineteenth
century; we do not need to be a disciple of Mrs. Wollstonecraft to feel that
women should not be denied a voice in matters that concern them. It is some centuries since we accepted that a
woman has a soul. Is it not time that we
accepted that she also has a mind? – spoken by Henry Alveston
A brutal murder on one’s own property by a brother
by marriage with whom one is known to be at enmity will inevitably produce a
large congregation, including some well-known invalids whose prolonged
indisposition had prohibited them from the rigours of church attendance for
many years.
When I finished
this book, I felt: Let-down; I had expected more of a mystery, not a book about a trial of a
man which I could care less if he hanged for a crime that he may or may
not have committed.
Rating: 3 stars (The language deserves 4 Stars)
Other books to
read by this author or theme: there are so many other books with Jane Austen
mysteries, two authors in particular that do a much better job are Carrie Bebris
and Stephanie Barron.
Tag: mystery,
Jane Austen, Regency
