Sunday 18 March 2012

Death Comes to Pemberley by P D James

Elizabeth and Darcy are married and happily settled in Pemberley with two sons in the nursery. It's time for the annual Lady Anne's Ball. Georgiana, Darcy's sister, has two eligible suitors for her hand. All's well with Darcys. Only Darcy has to call Wickham his brother, after all, he is married to Elizabeth's sister. The Wickhams are not received at the Pemberley. On the eve of Lady Anne's Ball, distraught Lydia Wickham comes uninvited into Pemberley screaming Wickham's murder.

I was looking forward to reading Death Comes to Pemberley. I love both Jane Austen and P D James. But I couldn't get drawn into the book. There were too many repetitions. I understand that this book is for Pride and Prejudice fans, so why the need to bring in things from Austen's book again and again.

The mystery itself is quite straight forward. There is no detection involved. Where is Elizabeth's humour and intelligence? Nobody asks the question, who killed Denny and why? Yes, it's Denny who is murdered not Wickham and that is not the mystery. The mystery is who killed Denny, if not Wickham? I was expecting until the end that something would spring up and there would be a nice twist. Nothing! I was disappointed.

I am happy that I borrowed this book from library and did not buy it as I originally intended.

1 comment:

DHooper said...

I just picked this one up from the library as I am a Jane Austen fan. I've heard mixed reviews and look forward to reading it myself to see what I think.