Jane Austen’s characters are confronted with murder in this dry Regency mystery.

A murder occurs when Elizabeth and Fitzwilliam Darcy’s despised brother-in-law Wickham shows up uninvited. This wasn’t my favourite mystery and I found it difficult to connect with Elizabeth — perhaps as the author herself notes, it is too great a challenge to mimic Ms. Austen’s classic book.

The book goes into excellent and highly readable detail of the era much like an Anne Perry book. It becomes easy to imagine life in the Regency era and fall into the household. The plot of the two suitors for Mr. Darcy’s sister Georgianna is highly interesting, I found myself wanting to know more about them.

But Georgianna herself is not explored enough and the book reads more like a romance than a mystery. There is some question as to who killed Wickham’s friend Captain Denny, but despite some promising hints, it really becomes apparent that only one character could’ve done it. The motive remains unlikely and complicated.

I expect mysteries to give the reader a fair chance of guessing, but in my opinion it was difficult to guess even with the sprinkling of clues.

One amusing tangent is that the book also gets into Ms. Austen’s various books. You get to see annoying characters punished and favourites given a brief mention.

Recommended if you love Jane Austen or Regency era books.