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A review by laurpar
Death Comes to Pemberley by P.D. James
1.0
This book started to get a lot of press right around the time I started my job at the bookstore. After seeing it on our displays for so long, and being such a Jane Austen fan, I decided to give it a shot. A Pride and Prejudice-inspired murder mystery? The idea was crazy, but I was game.
I didn’t really do too much research before sitting down to read the book, and with the random mesh of murder and Mr. Darcy, I was expecting the book to be, well, a bit of a laugh. The authors of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies certainly paired their ludicrous subject with humor, so why wouldn’t P. D. James? Unfortunately, P. D. James took herself too seriously, and the book turned out to be quite dull and awkward, trying to uncover a mystery while keeping with the manners and conventions of Regency England at the time.
The mystery wasn’t good. Not only did the initial murder lack gruesome details and a shocking discovery, but the whole book lacked suspense. I felt as though I was trudging through it, and from halfway through the book, I had a good idea of who the murderer would be. At the end, James tries to throw in some plot twists, but it’s too little, too late in my opinion.
The murder takes place pretty early on in the book, and the ‘investigation,’ if you can call it that, spans only a page or two. Most of the book is about the inquisition and the trial, with the Darcy’s freaking out about what the neighbors will think of the whole ordeal. A significant portion of the book is dedicated to rehashing the plot of Pride and Prejudice, as if the original wasn’t the reason why people picked up Death Comes to Pemberley. A small part of the text spells out what happened to the characters after P&P’s conclusion, but for the most part, it was just repetitive.
I wouldn’t recommend this book to anyone, especially not Austen or mystery fans. This combination wasn’t pretty.
I didn’t really do too much research before sitting down to read the book, and with the random mesh of murder and Mr. Darcy, I was expecting the book to be, well, a bit of a laugh. The authors of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies certainly paired their ludicrous subject with humor, so why wouldn’t P. D. James? Unfortunately, P. D. James took herself too seriously, and the book turned out to be quite dull and awkward, trying to uncover a mystery while keeping with the manners and conventions of Regency England at the time.
The mystery wasn’t good. Not only did the initial murder lack gruesome details and a shocking discovery, but the whole book lacked suspense. I felt as though I was trudging through it, and from halfway through the book, I had a good idea of who the murderer would be. At the end, James tries to throw in some plot twists, but it’s too little, too late in my opinion.
The murder takes place pretty early on in the book, and the ‘investigation,’ if you can call it that, spans only a page or two. Most of the book is about the inquisition and the trial, with the Darcy’s freaking out about what the neighbors will think of the whole ordeal. A significant portion of the book is dedicated to rehashing the plot of Pride and Prejudice, as if the original wasn’t the reason why people picked up Death Comes to Pemberley. A small part of the text spells out what happened to the characters after P&P’s conclusion, but for the most part, it was just repetitive.
I wouldn’t recommend this book to anyone, especially not Austen or mystery fans. This combination wasn’t pretty.