Take a photo of a barcode or cover
2.96 AVERAGE
2.96 AVERAGE
It's never easy to please an Austen purist so PD James had a difficult task from the very outset. As a stand-alone book, it was an entertaining crime novel. As a follow-on to Pride & Prejudice, it was frustrating and grating (Linda Berdoll does a much better job of it).
I will never finish this book. I no longer care about any of Austen's characters. That one of them died was of absolutely no interest to me.
Lacked the fun wittiness of the original and the mystery wasn’t enjoyable either. I was like halfway through before realizing it wasn’t going to become more interesting to me. Luckily the boring ole timey style of writing was hitting the spot. Sometimes you don’t want to feel anything and just want to vibe with a boring audiobook. I won’t be recommending this to anyone and am excited to read other people’s reviews!
A nice quick read, plus a glimpse into the lives of characters post-Pride & Prejudice. The reason for the 3 stars was that I very quickly figured out what was happening.
Jane Austin has nothing to worry about. P.D. James tried but missed the mark.
i liked this a lot more before the end which was super-cheesy and i'm surprised it went so far over the edge. i enjoyed the book overall - like a blended P+P with a PD james mystery. definitely, not the best of each but enjoyable and worth it. but the end did go overboard on things and sour me...... but as both a austen and james fan, i'm glad i read it.
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
lighthearted
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I've been branching out to some of the Austen pastiches lately, now that I've read all of the novels published during Jane Austen's lifetime. I'd heard some of them were really good, and this one is often listed as one of the books worth reading. I'm sad to say, I felt like it didn't add a whole lot to the world or characters, though it was plausible enough.
Five years after the events of Pride and Prejudice, Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy are preparing to hold a ball when Lydia shows up, distraught that her husband has run off into the woods chasing his old friend, Denny, and they heard gunshots. Lydia is prone to melodrama, but, it turns out, her panic is justified. Denny has been killed by blunt force trauma, and Wickham seems to confess to his murder, except that he's very drunk and upset.
The book goes through the initial investigation, the trial, and the murderer's confession. The matter is far more complicated than it appears, and of course Wickham isn't entirely blameless in the way things play out. He's learned very little in the last five years, and grown up not at all.
The story references characters from many of Jane Austen's novels, not just Pride and Prejudice. The Elliotts are mentioned, as is Emma's good friend Harriet. There may be other crossovers, as well, but those are the ones I recognized.
The book has a lot of details not included in most of Austen's work. There's a lot of discussion of servants and what keeps Elizabeth busy from day to day. The investigation and trial are certainly matters Austen never dealt with, and war and drunkenness are discussed more openly. We get some insight into Darcy's internal life, and the upbringing of his and Elizabeth's children is discussed in passing.
Mostly, though, the story seems like a pointless inclusion, adding nothing to the Austen oeuvre. Nor is it much of a mystery novel; the characters do very little investigation of the matter, and the confession falls into their laps without any intervention on their part. The story, itself, felt uneven and badly paced, and I kept getting jarred out of the story with its sudden leaps.
If you're a Jane Austen fan, unless you're a diehard who'll pick up everything associated with her name, you might want to give this one a pass. I didn't feel like this was a particularly strong related work.
Five years after the events of Pride and Prejudice, Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy are preparing to hold a ball when Lydia shows up, distraught that her husband has run off into the woods chasing his old friend, Denny, and they heard gunshots. Lydia is prone to melodrama, but, it turns out, her panic is justified. Denny has been killed by blunt force trauma, and Wickham seems to confess to his murder, except that he's very drunk and upset.
The book goes through the initial investigation, the trial, and the murderer's confession. The matter is far more complicated than it appears, and of course Wickham isn't entirely blameless in the way things play out. He's learned very little in the last five years, and grown up not at all.
The story references characters from many of Jane Austen's novels, not just Pride and Prejudice. The Elliotts are mentioned, as is Emma's good friend Harriet. There may be other crossovers, as well, but those are the ones I recognized.
The book has a lot of details not included in most of Austen's work. There's a lot of discussion of servants and what keeps Elizabeth busy from day to day. The investigation and trial are certainly matters Austen never dealt with, and war and drunkenness are discussed more openly. We get some insight into Darcy's internal life, and the upbringing of his and Elizabeth's children is discussed in passing.
Mostly, though, the story seems like a pointless inclusion, adding nothing to the Austen oeuvre. Nor is it much of a mystery novel; the characters do very little investigation of the matter, and the confession falls into their laps without any intervention on their part. The story, itself, felt uneven and badly paced, and I kept getting jarred out of the story with its sudden leaps.
If you're a Jane Austen fan, unless you're a diehard who'll pick up everything associated with her name, you might want to give this one a pass. I didn't feel like this was a particularly strong related work.
I love Pride & Prejudice - it's one of my favorite novels (if not THE favorite). That said, I don't always love the spinoffs - I did enjoy the Zombie version of the story, but have decidedly NOT liked the books about the Darcy kids, etc. But after reading a ton of good reviews about this book - and having enjoyed P.D. James books in the past - I decided to give this one a shot.
I enjoyed it immensely.
In terms of style, it read as a P.D. James novel, not an Austen novel, which I appreciated. The mystery at the core of the plot was great fun, and even though it was fairly predictable, I enjoyed getting to the end.
As far as characters go, Elizabeth & Darcy are two of my favorites. I think James did a good job of capturing their relationship, and showing how they have grown together. That said, I wish there'd been more conversation between the two of them. And, in fact, I wish there'd been more Elizabeth in general - I felt as though she could have been more "present" in the story, and more actively involved in the mystery.
But, I did enjoy it, and will likely re-read it!
I enjoyed it immensely.
In terms of style, it read as a P.D. James novel, not an Austen novel, which I appreciated. The mystery at the core of the plot was great fun, and even though it was fairly predictable, I enjoyed getting to the end.
As far as characters go, Elizabeth & Darcy are two of my favorites. I think James did a good job of capturing their relationship, and showing how they have grown together. That said, I wish there'd been more conversation between the two of them. And, in fact, I wish there'd been more Elizabeth in general - I felt as though she could have been more "present" in the story, and more actively involved in the mystery.
But, I did enjoy it, and will likely re-read it!