Death Comes to Pemberley, by P.D. James

Have you guys seen the episode of Louie where Louis C.K. gets his daughter tickets to some teenybopper concert for her birthday? And she opens the envelope and is like, "Oh. I like them very much." And he's all, "WTF kind of reaction is that? Why aren't you more excited?" And it turns out that she considers Hannah Montana or whatever totally lame and really wanted to see Lady Gaga?

That's kind of how I feel about Death Comes to Pemberley. I liked it. I just didn't LOVE it.

For the, like, three people out there who haven't already heard, Death Comes to Pemberley is set six years after the end of Pride and Prejudice. Elizabeth Darcy is preparing the manor for an annual ball thrown in honor of Darcy's mother. The night before the ball, a coach carrying an hysterical Lydia rolls up to the front door; she tumbles out screaming about murder. It turns out that Lydia, Wickham and Wickham's friend Captain Denny had decided to crash the party (not being received at Pemberley), and on the way, Wickham and Denny stumbled out into the woods to have an argument. Then Denny got his head bashed in, and now Wickham is accused of doing the bashing.

Did Wickham murder his friend? Will he hang for it? More importantly, will the scandal ruin Georgiana Darcy's matrimonial chances? (It is a truth universally acknowledged that everybody cares far more for Georgiana Darcy than nasty old Wickham).

Murder was the case that they gave him.

Although, by the end of it, I did care for Wickham. I felt for him, which is a sign that James is doing something right. I did not feel anything for any of the other familiar faces, however, because they all seemed to slide in and out of the story without contributing much of anything. James has obviously pored over Austen's original work and has researched the time period meticulously (the court battle was shades of Bleak House). She knows her characters' histories and motivations inside out. She just...didn't give them much to do.

It was a good mystery, with a satisfying-to-untangle resolution. But it would have been better if it had related more closely to its source work, building on, expanding, themes in the original. Because isn't that the point in the first place? Wouldn't it have been better if Darcy's prejudice against another character had resulted in his being falsely accused of that character's murder. If Elizabeth's tendency to pridefulness had spurred her to clear her family's name in a 19th century Miss Marpleish way? As it was, it felt like the characters had been inserted in someone else's story, that they just happened to be there in the background when all of the action was being performed by other people. Some of James's original characters were interesting--the hard-assed investigator Sir Selwyn Hardcastle, for instance--but we aren't reading for Sir Selwyn, are we? We're reading for the Darcys.

But it was a fun read, nevertheless, and a clever idea (even if someone else had it first) and clearly an homage by James to a writer that she loves, and hey, some Darcy and Lizzy is better than no Darcy and Lizzy. James provides an interesting insight into Charlotte Lucas's character that I'd never really thought of before, and the letters from scandalized Lady Catherine and Mr. Collins were pitch perfect and almost enough to make up for the missed opportunities.


Have you read Death Comes to Pemberley? I'm interested to read more about peoples' reactions, so if you have a review, please link it in the comments!