You may have noticed there’s quite a collection of novels based on one or other of the six completed novels of Jane Austen. I have read a few and enjoyed them greatly. But Claudia Gray takes this genre to a new level with her delightful mystery, The Murder of Mr. Wickham.
Honestly, if anyone in Jane Austen’s ouevre deserved to be bumped off it is surely George Wickham. He’s that rascal that threatened to ruin Lydia Bennett in Pride and Prejudice, as well as spoiling the marriage prospects of her sisters. He’d almost ruined Darcy’s sister as well. In Claudia Gray’s novel, we catch up with Wickham at a house party, not at Pemberley, the seat of the Darcies, but at Donwell Abbey, the home of Mr Knightly and his wife, Emma, from that other Jane Austen novel.
Guests at the house party include Mr Knightly’s old friend Fitzwilliam Darcy, his wife Elizabeth and their son Jonathan, a handsome but socially awkward young man of around twenty. Then there’s cousin Edmund Bertram and his wife Fanny (from Mansfield Park) as well as the Wentworths, Frederick and Anne (from Persuasion) who were renting Emma’s childhood home when a staircase collapsed and urgent repairs required.
Also joining the guest-list are the Brandons, Colonel Brandon that is and his young wife Marianne (from Sense and Sensibility). That just leaves Northanger Abbey, which is represented by seventeen-year-old Juliet Tilney, the daughter of Henry Tilney and Catherine, now a novelist who Emma admires. Emma has taken a shine to Juliet and invited her so that the girl can see new people and a change of scenery. With Jonathan Darcy staying, here’s also a hint of Emma’s propensity to match-make.
So you can see that Claudia Gray has really pushed the boat at to draw on all six novels for inspiration and does a terrific job, throwing Austen’s characters together and seeing what happens.
There’s already a tense atmosphere as Mr Knightly is troubled by the financial losses his younger brother has incurred due to a venture masterminded by none other than George Wickham. The same venture has also caught out Captain Wentworth, losing him a chunk of the money that he won as prizes as a naval officer in the war with Napoleon. It was this money that enabled him to hold his head high against the snobbery of Anne’s family. But without it, he fears he’s let Anne down and they may need to return to sea.
Since Pride and Prejudice George Wickham has had a further twenty plus years to cause misery to the Darcies, and more crimes come out of the woodwork when the bounder turns up at Donwell Abbey to call in some debts. It’s the middle of a stormy night when the murder takes place, the guests all restless and anxious for various reasons.
The only two characters who don’t make the suspects list are young Juliet, who had never met the victim before her visit, and Jonathan Darcy, who spent the night calming his horse in the stables when the storm was at its most severe. They never would have thought of investigating the crime themselves if it hadn’t been for the magistrate of the district, Frank Churchill (remember him from Emma?), who assumes the killer must be among the Donwell staff, or passing “gypsies”. Juliet, in particular, is appalled at the idea of someone going to the gallows unjustly.
The two team up, secretly sharing their findings at midnight in the billiard room, and Jonathan finds it so much easier to talk to Juliet than he might have otherwise, now there’s something practical to talk about. The story has plenty of pace and builds to an unexpected resolution as more and more secrets are revealed. In the crucible of a murder investigation, relationships are tested and new understandings emerge.
I enjoyed The Murder of Mr. Wickham immensely, which has all the wit of an Austen novel, Claudia Gray bringing the characters to life beautifully. The good news is this is the first in what looks like a new series featuring Juliet and Jonathan as unlikely but very appealing sleuths. I’m giving it four and a half stars – the audiobook version is narrated with aplomb by Billie Fulford-Brown – and am keen to see what happens in The Late Mrs Willoughby, which is Book No. 2.
Judith McKinnon 