Noted and long admired mystery writer P. D. James, in 2011 expressed her lifelong passion for Jane Austen by writing Death Comes to Pemberley. It is a wonderful book, with all the great characters from Pride and Prejudice. Darcy and Elizabeth have two wonderful young sons, Jane and her husband are close, their father visits often – life is idyllic. They are preparing for their annual autumn ball – when murder erupts in their quiet life. Not surprisingly, it involves Lydia and Wickham.
The book is great, with a prologue and epilogue carrying it to this story, through and on into the future. The mystery is also powerful, deep and intriguing. I felt sorry for Lydia, since she still did not have her life together. The English courtroom scenes and much of the other detecting was very good, as well as the descriptions of life in a great manor. My only complaint it that there was not enough of Jane and Darcy in it, save for that epilogue and prologue, tying it all together.
A very good mystery, nonetheless.