I am always happy to read anything Austen-ish. While I recognise that no one can write like Jane Austen, I think that a lot of authors can be successfully creative with her characters. Claudia Gray is one of those authors. I included The Murder of Mr. Wickham on my list of The Best Summer 2022 Historical Fiction, but I had to share my full thoughts on it!
Thank you to NetGalley for providing an eARC; I also purchased a copy of the book on Kobo.
The Murder of Mr. Wickham, Claudia Gray
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.
Why You Should Read This…
This is one of the most entertaining Austen-ish books I’ve read! (And I’ve read a lot…) Gray encapsulates so many of Austen’s characters, and pushes them further without changing them as we know them. We always imagine them within their own separate worlds, and thinking about them as contemporaries has changed how I look at them. I also adored that she brought in the “next generation”! (Although Northanger Abbey is my favourite novel and I’m a little sad we don’t get Catherine Morland as detective…)
The mystery itself was also fantastic. It wasn’t predictable, and Gray skillfully brought a multi-layered murder to life without resulting to tropes. One of my new favourite historical fiction books!
Is The Murder of Mr. Wickham on your to-read list?
Cheers,
The Historian
Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Pinterest
