From the author of the bestselling Adam Dalgliesh series comes an exciting sequel to Pride and Prejudice. It is the year 1803 and Elizabeth and Fitzwilliam Darcy have been married for 6 years. They now have two healthy, strong sons and have a very happy marriage. Also they are planning a ball which everyone in the household has been working hard for. However on the evening before it a carriage comes outside the house. Out rushes Elizabeth’s silly younger sister Lydia screaming that her husband has been murdered, aka Mr Wickham. Darcy, Colonel Fitzwilliam and their guest Henry Alveston go to look for Wickham. They find him drunk and with his friend Captain Denny dead beside him. Also he says, “I have killed him, my only friend.” This means that Wickham is the primary suspect for the crime, but why would he kill his best friend?
I think that the plot was exciting and gripping, making you want to find out what would happen next. Also I like the way PD James changed the points of view around from Elizabeth to Darcy as it was interesting to see both their different points of view. I also like the way she put humour into the story. For example, my favourite bit of humour was in a letter Lady Catherine sent of condolence. She said that her lawyer said if she had been a man she would have been a jewel to the English law. Typical her! Equally I also quite liked Darcy as he was the same as in Pride and Prejudice but with a bit more lightness to him produced by Elizabeth teasing him and him teasing her back.
I didn’t like Elizabeth much as although she was sensible and intelligent she lacked her wit and spirit which is a major part of the original novel. Also another thing I didn’t like was when she made a reference to Persuasion where she got the dates wrong about when Persuasion was written. She said that Anne had married Captain Wentworth in 1803 but here she gets the dates wrong. This is because Anne is 27 in 1717 when Jane Austen wrote the novel but in Death Comes to Pemberley which is set in 1803 she would be 13. Not likely to be married at that age is she! However, overall this novel is a great read with an exciting plot and is probably the best sequel to one of Austen’s novels that I have read in a while. I recently read Val Mcdermid’s Northanger Abbey, a modern version of, well, Northanger Abbey! It was very disappointing. This was much better. So overall I would give this book 3.5 stars.
-
Buy this book at the Guardian Bookshop
Want to tell the world about a book you’ve read? Join the site and send us your review!
