Death Comes to Pemberley

by P. D. James

The world is classic Jane Austen. The mystery is vintage P.D. James.

The year is 1803, and Fitzwilliam Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet have been married for six years. There are now two handsome and healthy sons in the nursery, Elizabeth's beloved sister Jane and her husband Bingley live nearby and the orderly world of Pemberley seems unassailable. But all this is threatened when, on the eve of the annual autumn ball, the guests are preparing to retire for the night when a chaise appears, rocking down the path from Pemberley's wild woodland. As it pulls up, Lydia Wickham - Elizabeth Bennet's younger, unreliable sister - stumbles out screaming that her husband has been murdered.

Two great literary minds - master of suspense P.D. James and literary icon Jane Austen - come together in Death Comes to Pemberley, a bestselling historical crime fiction tribute to Pride and Prejudice. Conjuring the world of Elizabeth Bennet and Mark Darcy and combining the trappings of Regency British society with a classic murder mystery, James creates a delightful mash-up that will intrigue any Janeite.

From the bestselling author of The Murder Room, Children of Men and A Certain Justice, comes a wonderful mixture of the nation's greatest romance and best-loved crime fiction. In 2013, this novel was adapted as a miniseries by the BBC, starring Matthew Rhys as Darcy, Anna Maxwell Martin as Elizabeth Bennet and Jenna Coleman as Lydia Wickham.

• ISBN10: 0307959856
• ISBN13: 9780307959850
• Publish Date: 6 December 2011 (first published 1 January 2011)
• Publish Status: Out of Stock
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Knopf Publishing Group
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 304
• Language: English

Reviews

[jeannamichel]

I’m happy I read this, having had it on my shelf forever. So now I can finally watch the TV show. However, I don’t think the mystery held much weight. In fact there was little mystery conducted as everyone just assumed that the one obvious suspect was to blame. Ugh.

[MurderByDeath]

“Heaven and earth — of what are you thinking? Are the shades of Pemberley to be thus polluted?” 

Austen had no way of knowing it, but it wasn't Elizabeth Bennett that would pollute the shades of Pemberley; it was P.D. James.

A couple of pages in, I thought "oh, this is looking good - 4 stars at least".  

After a few chapters and the mindless, never ending digressions started piling up, I thought "blah, blah, blah. 3 stars."

Then the part where Darcy, Colonel Fitzwilliam and a lawyer start debating the merits of England adding an appeals court to their judicial system, with Darcy's monologue about how it would work, how many judges it would have, etc. and I thought "are you kidding me with this?  2 stars".

The ending of the "mystery" (there is no mystery, only a murdered man and the most ludicrously contrived plot I've ever read) was so sputteringly (made up word) ridiculous, and the epilogue a mind-numbing, insulting rehash of the ending to P&P that my last thought as I closed the book:  

Stick a fork in me, I'm done.  1 Star.  This was awful.

[clairelm]

I'm not a big fan of classics (and a big fan of crime), I thought I would enjoy this much more than Pride and Prejudice but I was wrong and I'm full of a new appreciation of Jane Austen's genius in writing the original book.

Having said that, I did enjoy P.D. James' book and thought it was very well written and a gripping story which I struggled to put down.

[elvinagb]

P. D. James does it again! I honestly did not figure this 'murder' and had to wait until the conclusion of the trial. This book is beautifully written and well plotted.

[Grace]

Always a fan of Jane Austen's books, I added this Pride and Prejudice murder mystery sequel to my Nook as a Christmas present to myself. I have to admire those authors with the courage to attempt to write Austen sequels, as they are held to astronomically high standards and the results can be disastrous (case in point: [b:Vampire Darcy's Desire: A Pride and Prejudice Adaptation|6515734|Vampire Darcy's Desire A Pride and Prejudice Adaptation|Regina Jeffers|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1275780111s/6515734.jpg|6707533]).

I gave this book two stars because it was just "meh." I felt like I was reading about entirely different characters who happened to have the same names and same stations in life. Elizabeth was no longer witty; she was just quiet and worrisome. The only characters who seemed accurately portrayed were Mr. Wickham and Lydia.

My biggest complaint was the number of times that the events preceding, during, and following the murder were rehashed throughout the novel -- I am not exaggerating when I say it must have been at least ten, and because the author (very effectively, to her credit) emulated Austen's prose style, each time was always extremely verbose. I found myself sighing loudly every time someone was asked to describe their version of the evening's events. I felt that the first 200 pages or so could have easily been condensed down to about 50 without losing any of the story's integrity.

One thing I did like, however, was the author's sneaky insertion of characters from Austen's other books -- Sir Walter Elliot from Persuasion and Harriet Martin from Emma. I have to admit that recognizing those characters made me smile!