Ever been tempted to wonder about literary might-have-beens? Say, if F. Scott Fitzgerald had lived and written during the Regency period, or Emily Bronte had imagined Cathy and Heathcliff marrying and living happily (or not) ever after? Author Claudia Gray (aka Amy Vincent) loves Jane Austen, and like a lot of other Austenites, she too wonders, what if? In this case, her what if? musings have borne fruit in The Murder of Mr. Wickham.
The idea is simple—drop Austen’s beloved, and less beloved, characters into a Christie-esque murder mystery, and make one of them the murderer. There are a few twists though: here the Wentworths, Darcys, Bertrams, Brandons, and the much-put-upon hosts, the Knightleys—are as Gray imagines them at various stages after Austen’s texts, from newly married (the Brandons) to the parents of nearly adult children (the Darcys). All the couples, plus Juliet Tilney and the Darcys’ son Jonathan, are gathered together for what promises to be a delightful house party at Donwell Abbey. The festivities take a tempestuous turn both literally and figuratively as a terrible storm maroons the guests at the Abbey, and blows in the most unwelcome of uninvited guests—Mr. George Wickham. Unsurprisingly, Wickham hasn’t changed his roguish ways, and it soon becomes evident that he has managed to give nearly everyone in the house a reason to hate him. But when Mr. Wickham is discovered in the Abbey’s gallery with a sizeable dent in his head, it’s very clear that someone hated him enough to kill him—and the murderer could only be one of the guests.
As house party becomes house arrest, Juliet and Jonathan take it on themselves to clear up the matter before the murder is pinned on some innocent servant. Raised by her writer mother Catherine to be imaginative, Juliet has the daring to take on the task. Jonathan, very much like his father and always struggling to navigate the pitfalls of formal society, brings his analytic perspective to the problem. But investigating murder in Austen’s age adds a few wrinkles most sleuths would never have to contemplate—like probing into the closed topics of other peoples’ marriages, broaching the taboo topic of unsanctioned love, and the prickliness of men’s pride. And not least of all, how to conduct an investigation on the sly with a partner both unmarried and of the opposite sex, least Juliet and Jonathan get caught alone and reputations are immediately ruined (horrors!).
It’s a fun conceit, and Gray makes the most of it. Readers familiar with the characters from the books will likely have lots of thoughts on whether Gray’s imaginings are true or not to the originals, but it’s clear that Gray has paid very close attention to what makes the characters who they are and the stories she’s created around them are entertaining and, to this reader at least, pretty plausible. While Mr. Wickham gets a little slow in the middle, the mystery is worthy of the name and it’s a treat to revisit these characters again. Has Marianne Brandon kept her sensibility? Will Elizabeth Darcy spill all while in her cups? Will Fanny Bertram ever be interesting? And can Emma Knightley maintain a party atmosphere in spite of investigators poking through her guests’ belongings? The Murder of Mr. Wickham is a sure bet for Austen fans, and readers of cozy mysteries, golden age mystery writers and fans of Downton Abbey-esque historical dramas will also want to pick it up.