Fabulous Fiction Firsts #807

Tue, 05/31/2022 - 8:06am by muffy

The Murder of Mr. Wickham by Claudia Gray (pen name of YA author Amy Vincent) (also in downloadable eBook and audiobook) will delight Agatha Christie-style country house mystery fans as well as Jane Austen devotees. 

The novel opens with a house party, thrown by Emma and Mr. Knightley (Emma) of Donwell Abbey. Among the guests are distant relatives and new acquaintances - Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy (Pride and Prejudice), newly-wed Marianne and Colonel Brandon (Sense and Sensibility), Anne and Captain Wentworth (Persuasion), and Fanny and Edmund Bertram (Mansfield Park). 

Very much not invited is Mr. Wickham, arriving at dinner along with a raging thunderstorm that good manners prevent the Knightleys from turning him out into the elements. This proves to be a great misfortune for Mr. Wickham who is soon found bludgeoned to death in Donwell Abbey’s gallery. Of course his sordid history with members of the house party makes for no end of suspects, and it falls to the two youngest guests to solve the mystery - young Juliet Tilney, the clever and resourceful daughter of Catherine and Henry Tilney (Northanger Abbey), and the Darcys’ eldest son Jonathan, as they investigate covertly alongside the amiable but rather unimaginative magistrate, Frank Churchill (Emma) who is convinced that the murder must have been committed by a vagrant or a servant.

“One of the book's surprising elements is Gray's decision to focus on Jonathan Darcy's personal habits, which today would put the young man on the autism spectrum. It's Jonathan's ability to see things differently that allows him and Juliet to take the lead as the tale's sleuths.” (Booklist) 

“Ms. Gray’s ability to extrapolate not only the relationships of these storied couples and their offspring makes for an astonishingly convincing and tremendously entertaining pastiche. Most importantly, all her conclusions make sense given what we already know of the characters. Written elegantly, with a keen eye for Regency detail as well as a deep knowledge and affection for Ms. Austen’s oeuvre, this is an entirely plausible continuation of the Austen canon that stands as a worthwhile read in its own right.” (Criminal Element) 

Readers might want to compare and contrast this novel with Death Comes to Pemberley (2011) by P.D. James, where Mr. Wickham gets his comeuppance under very different circumstances.

For further reading, do check out the Jane Austen Murder Mysteries, a series by YA author Tirzah Price.