JUNE 2022 - AudioFile
Narrator Billie Fulford-Brown's sparkling character portrayals and expressive tone create a theatrical experience of this enchanting Regency mystery. Favorite characters from beloved Jane Austen novels are featured. At Donwell Abbey, Emma Woodhouse-Knightley (EMMA) hosts a month-long gathering of her friends, including Elizabeth and Fitzwilliam Darcy (PRIDE AND PREJUDICE), Captain Frederick and Anne Wentworth (PERSUASION), and Fanny and Edmund Bertram (MANSFIELD PARK). Interrupting the festivities is the unexpected and unwelcome arrival of Mr. Wickham. When he is found dead, it becomes clear that nearly everyone had a motive for his murder. Elizabeth and Darcy's romance is echoed in the attraction between their reserved son, Jonathan, and the vivacious Juliette Tilney as they work together to solve the murder. Fulford-Brown's multidimensional characterizations are a marvel, and her male voices are especially impressive. M.J. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award, 2023 Audies Finalist © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine
Publishers Weekly
04/25/2022
This enchanting mystery from YA author Gray (Defy the Stars) answers the question long in the mind of every Jane Austen fan. Did all the couples from her novels live happily ever after? In 1820, Emma Woodhouse Knightley, social as ever after 16 years of marriage, decides to host a house party for her friends, including Elizabeth and Fitzwilliam Darcy and their 20-year-old son, Jonathan, and Juliet Tilney, the 17-year-old daughter of Emma’s good friend Catherine Tilney from Northanger Abbey. Emma definitely did not plan on George Wickham, despised widower of Elizabeth Darcy’s sister Lydia, showing up unannounced during a raging thunderstorm. Age has not improved Wickham’s character. He’s now a financial “advisor” whose latest investment scheme has brought several of his clients to the brink of ruin—including more than one of Emma’s guests. When Wickham is murdered, no one in the house party is above suspicion. The younger generation rises to the occasion when Jonathan and Juliet make a secret plan to uncover the murderer. The middle section drags a bit, but Gray perfectly captures the personalities of Austen’s beloved characters. This is a real treat for Austenites. Agent: Diana Fox, Fox Literary. (May)
From the Publisher
ONE OF THE WALL STREET JOURNAL'S BEST MYSTERY BOOKS OF THE YEAR
“Had Jane Austen sat down to write a country house murder mystery, this is exactly the book she would have written. Devotees of Austen’s timeless novels will get the greatest possible pleasure from this wonderful book. Immense fun and beautifully observed. Delicious!” —Alexander McCall Smith
“A well-done pastiche that balances menace with wit, recrimination with reconciliation, sin with redemption and justice with mercy.” —The Wall Street Journal
“Satisfying.... Readers looking for a charming mystery will adore this book. Gray captures Austen’s tone perfectly, allowing fans to step back into the Regency author’s beloved world.” —BookPage
“An astonishingly convincing and tremendously entertaining pastiche.... Written elegantly, with a keen eye for Regency detail as well as a deep knowledge and affection for Ms. Austen’s oeuvre, this is an entirely plausible continuation of the Austen canon that stands as a worthwhile read in its own right.” —Criminal Element
“What a splendid conceit! ... Gray provides plenty of backstory and enough depth to her characters that even those who mix up their Pride and Prejudice with their Sense and Sensibility will delight in the Agatha Christie–style mystery.... There’s so much fun to be had in this reimagined Austen world—and the mystery is so strong—that one can only hope, dear reader, that more books will follow.” —Booklist (starred review)
“The Murder of Mr. Wickham illuminates Jane Austen’s best-loved (and lesser loved) characters, introduces a dynamic sleuthing duo, and delivers a most satisfying murder mystery in the grand tradition of Clue.” —Jane Pek, author of The Verifiers
“Jane Austen is spinning in her grave: she’s trying to climb out and shake Claudia Gray’s hand. The Murder of Mr. Wickham delivers in spades—and in diamonds, hearts, and clubs!” —Alan Bradley, author of the Flavia de Luce series
“Claudia Gray’s The Murder of Mr. Wickham is a charming, sharp, and engrossing mystery that evokes the meta wonder of League of Extraordinary Gentlemen with the evocative depth of the Jane Austen library—delivered in a voice and tone that is modern and mesmerizing. Gray has crafted a book that one won’t easily forget.” —Alex Segura, author of Secret Identity
“[An] enchanting mystery.... Gray perfectly captures the personalities of Austen’s beloved characters. This is a real treat for Austenites.” —Publishers Weekly
“Who would NOT want to read a book in which one a literature’s most notorious rakes meets his final demise? ... A delightful Agatha Christie meets Jane Austen romp.” —Laurel Ann Nattress, Austenprose
JUNE 2022 - AudioFile
Narrator Billie Fulford-Brown's sparkling character portrayals and expressive tone create a theatrical experience of this enchanting Regency mystery. Favorite characters from beloved Jane Austen novels are featured. At Donwell Abbey, Emma Woodhouse-Knightley (EMMA) hosts a month-long gathering of her friends, including Elizabeth and Fitzwilliam Darcy (PRIDE AND PREJUDICE), Captain Frederick and Anne Wentworth (PERSUASION), and Fanny and Edmund Bertram (MANSFIELD PARK). Interrupting the festivities is the unexpected and unwelcome arrival of Mr. Wickham. When he is found dead, it becomes clear that nearly everyone had a motive for his murder. Elizabeth and Darcy's romance is echoed in the attraction between their reserved son, Jonathan, and the vivacious Juliette Tilney as they work together to solve the murder. Fulford-Brown's multidimensional characterizations are a marvel, and her male voices are especially impressive. M.J. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award, 2023 Audies Finalist © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine
