A Matter of Murder
Elizabeth Bennet and Fitzwilliam Darcy—barristers, colleagues, and sometimes romantic partners—team up once again in Tirzah Price’s conclusion to her young-adult Lizzie & Darcy duology, which can be read as a standalone. When the dreaded pirate Lady Catherine de Bourgh resurfaces, Lizzie retreats to Netherfield Park to stay with her newly married sister, Jane Bingley. But safety is elusive. Lady Catherine is tracking her, the staff seem suspicious, and a long-dead body is discovered in a chimney. Soon Lizzie is unraveling a tangle of a missing treasure, a supposed curse, and a relentless foe.
This is a fast-paced, engaging read that I finished in two sittings. The central mystery of the body in the chimney ties cleverly into the Curse of Netherfield and the missing treasure, and I didn’t see the solution coming. The Lady Catherine thread gives a reason for the setting but ultimately feels secondary to the Netherfield intrigue, serving more as a wrap-up to her storyline.
I’m not a literary purist. I enjoy retellings and reimaginings. For example, the Jane Eyre-based novel Wide Sargasso Sea is one of my favorites. That said, this is less an Austen retelling than a complete revision. It reads more like an alternate-universe fanfiction where the characters share names but not much else with their originals. Elizabeth in particular feels different, and prior books in Price’s Jane Austen Murder Mystery series have changed major character fates in ways that affect development and redemption arcs. None of this is necessarily bad, but there’s little here that’s recognizably Austen beyond the names and the occasional familiar line.
If you’re after a fast-paced, lighthearted mystery with a dash of romance, this will fit the bill. If you’re hoping for a close-to-source Austen adaptation, you may want to look elsewhere.
