Today, I’m so happy to be a tour stop on the blog tour for The Murder of Mr. Wickham by Claudia Gray. Thank you Austen Prose PR for inviting me to participate.
Publisher: Vintage Anchor Books
Published: May 3, 2022
Source: ARC Paperback via AustenProse PR
Summary:
A summer house party turns into a whodunit when Mr. Wickham, one of literature’s most notorious villains, meets a sudden and suspicious end in this mystery featuring Jane Austen’s leading literary characters.
The happily married Mr. Knightley and Emma are throwing a house party, bringing together distant relatives and new acquaintances—characters beloved by Jane Austen fans. Definitely not invited is Mr. Wickham, whose latest financial scheme has netted him an even broader array of enemies. As tempers flare and secrets are revealed, it’s clear that everyone would be happier if Mr. Wickham got his comeuppance. Yet they’re all shocked when Wickham turns up murdered—except, of course, for the killer hidden in their midst.
Nearly everyone at the house party is a suspect, so it falls to the party’s two youngest guests to solve the mystery: Juliet Tilney, the smart and resourceful daughter of Catherine and Henry, eager for adventure beyond Northanger Abbey; and Jonathan Darcy, the Darcys’ eldest son, whose adherence to propriety makes his father seem almost relaxed. The unlikely pair must put aside their own poor first impressions and uncover the guilty party—before an innocent person is sentenced to hang.
My thoughts:
I have been a fan of Jane Austen’s novels for quite some time and while I have not yet read all of them, I do have them all sitting on my shelf. When I heard about this book, a whodunit combining some beloved Austen characters with an Agatha Christie feel, I just knew I had to read it…and I absolutely loved it!
Locked-room mysteries are my favorite and this one was just so much fun! While the murder doesn’t happen right away, I think the way the story plays out, it makes sense. The author takes her time setting things up, giving the readers a chance to catch up with the characters and getting a feel for who everyone is and their relationships to everyone, including the unfortunate Mr. Wickham. This then leads to just about everyone having a motive for being a suspect and it really was great fun trying to work out who the culprit was – and let me just say, I was totally clueless!
Whenever I read these retellings of Jane Austen’s books, I am left wanting to reread her books, and definitely wanting to read those I haven’t gotten to yet. I did feel that Gray was able to make the characters and sense of place feel true to Austen’s writing while at the same time giving them both a sense of freshness and her own slight touch. I’m not sure if this is a one-off or if this is the start of a new series, but I absolutely loved this book recommend it to all fans of Austen and even those who enjoy historical mysteries.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts, Kristin. I enjoyed having many of Austen’s characters together under one roof. The mystery was fun as well.
Author
Thanks for having me on the tour. It really was such a cleverly written story and I do hope she writes more!