A Crime Through Time (Miss Darcy Investigates, 1)
Pemberley, 1799. Escaping outdoors from the tumult of preparations for a visit from her aunt and the imminent birth of her sister-in-law’s first baby, Georgiana Darcy discovers a strange object with the power to transport her 200 years into the future. A murder has just been committed at Saltram, which is being used as a set for the latest Jane Austen adaptation. But the body disappears, and Georgiana isn’t sure who she can trust – perhaps not even the charming Irishman Quinn…
When I first read the premise of this debut – Mr Darcy’s sister travels through time to solve mysteries – I was dubious, but I’m not entirely sorry to have read it. Blackwell has done a decent job of maintaining the characters of Darcy, Elizabeth and Lady Catherine and expanding those of Georgiana and her cousin Anne. There are some amusing moments as Georgiana gets to grips with 20th-century life, though towards the end, the fish-out-of-water joke wears a little thin.
There are a few issues. The plot is disjointed, as if it can’t decide if it’s a romantic comedy, a cosy crime or a time-travel novel, and the denouement depends more on the murderer’s compulsive urge to gloat than on Georgiana’s investigative skills. There’s also a slight tendency to overexplain things the reader can easily deduce. Apparently neither the author nor her editors are aware of the difference between a baronet (like Anne Elliot’s father Sir Walter) and a baron (e.g. Lord Byron’s full title was Baron Byron of Rochdale). The author describes Georgiana and Anne as childhood companions, but their 10-year age gap means one would have been a toddler while the other was in her teens.
But the book isn’t without its charms, and it might be interesting to see how the series develops.
