This was every bit as delightful to read as I hoped it would be. This book captures the essence of so many great Austen characters in a way that feels as if it blends in with the original Austen novels, yet it doesn’t attempt to copy the exact writing style of Austen. This was so comfortable to slip into because seemed both authentic and fresh. The publisher describes this book as a tantalizing fusion of Jane Austen and Agatha Christie, and I heartily agree.

The plot device of a house party was a genius way to bring such a great cast of characters from multiple novels together. Everyone gets page time, and it never seems unnatural or confusing. Having the Darcy’s eldest son and the Tilney’s daughter join forces as young adults to unofficially investigate and solve the murder mystery is perfection. The murder mystery will keep you turning the pages.

I highly recommend this for readers who are looking for a great historical mystery. This will delight those who are looking for Austenesque fiction but is such a great story that no previous knowledge of Austen books or characters is necessary.

I thoroughly enjoyed every second reading this book. It is no easy feat juggling between all the characters we know and love from Jane Austen and to add two new characters, I was concerned I would miss out on a character but everyone gets their screen time. I felt the pacing was appropriate for the mystery at hand and trying to find clues while navigating social decorum. I thought I could solve the mystery on my own, but by the end I felt pleasantly surprised at how all the details came together.

I especially liked this book because it made me so intrigued to pick up the other Austen books I have not had a chance to read yet. Thank you NetGalley for the copy!

Thank you to Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group and NetGalley for the digital ARC.

Highly recommended for fans of Jane Austen. All of the novels are represented in this novel from Anne (Persuasion) to Catherine (Northanger Abbey) to Eliza (Pride and Prejudice) to Emma (Emma) to Fanny (Mansfield Park) to Marianne (Sense and Sensibility) are characters in THE MURDER OF MR. WICKHAM.

The author did her homework and the characterizations were right on spot!

The Murder of Mr. Wickham
by Claudia Gray @claudia_gray
Genre: Historical Fiction/Mystery

A summer house party turns into a thrilling whodunit when Jane Austen's Mr. Wickham—one of literature’s most notorious villains—meets a sudden and suspicious end in this brilliantly imagined mystery featuring Austen’s leading literary characters.

The happily married Mr. Knightley and Emma are throwing a party at their country estate, bringing together distant relatives and new acquaintances—characters beloved by Jane Austen fans. Definitely not invited is Mr. Wickham, whose latest financial scheme has netted him an even broader array of enemies. As tempers flare and secrets are revealed, it’s clear that everyone would be happier if Mr. Wickham got his comeuppance. Yet they’re all shocked when Wickham turns up murdered—except, of course, for the killer hidden in their midst.

Nearly everyone at the house party is a suspect, so it falls to the party’s two youngest guests to solve the mystery: Juliet Tilney, the smart and resourceful daughter of Catherine and Henry, eager for adventure beyond Northanger Abbey; and Jonathan Darcy, the Darcys’ eldest son, whose adherence to propriety makes his father seem almost relaxed. In this tantalizing fusion of Austen and Christie, from New York Times bestselling author Claudia Gray, the unlikely pair must put aside their own poor first impressions and uncover the guilty party—before an innocent person is sentenced to hang. 

#MurderWickham, @ClaudiaGray, @VintageAnchor, #AustenprosePR.
#doubledaybooks #vintageanchorbooks #penguinrandomhouse
#themurderofmrwickham #tmomw #austen #janeausten #agathachristie #AustenprosePR #claudiagray #murdermystery #MurderWickhamstreetteam #MurderWickhamtourteam

A very enjoyable Austen pastiche-cum-murder mystery! The main couples from all of Austen's novels (plus a few of their nearly-grown children) are gathered at a house party–but every marriage has its secrets and its sensitive points, which are only exacerbated by murder.

Claudia Gray does a pretty good job of manage 10 rotating points of view and of keeping up a narrative voice that evokes Austen but for the most part isn't affected or forced. There's a cute burgeoning friendship between Elizabeth and Darcy's son and Catherine and Henry Tilney's son: it's clear that it will become a romance, but that it will be a successful romance because it is built on shared sensibility, understanding, and friendship. I found some of the conflicts that Gray uses to show each established marriage at a rocky moment to be a little forced and disappointing: I don't *need* to see Anne and Frederick unhappy over a matter of pride and then reconciling, or Elizabeth and Darcy struggling with communication issues! On the other hand, Fanny and Bertram were handled quite well: true to character and sympathetically drawn. Their conflict -- over a revelation about Fanny's brother William that makes Fanny assert her convictions and judgment even when her husband disagrees –- was probably one of the best character moments of the book.

However, I can hardly complain much when I devoured this in a few hours! It's solid, light fun.

Thanks to NetGalley for the digital arc.
For all hardcore Jane Austen readers this is a fun read. Revisiting beloved characters attending a house party where a murder takes place, combines Agatha Christie mystery with Austen’s mannered stories. Highly recommend.

I really enjoyed revisiting all the wonderful characters of Jane Austen's books. This book is such an interesting concept. A house party at the Knightley's seems like a lot of fun until an uninvited guest shows up, Mr. Wickham. Most of the people at the house party have some connection to Mr. Wickham and there is no love lost between any of them. When he turns up murdered, two unlikely people at the house party take up the investigation, in secret. I loved trying to figure out which house guest it was and how it would all end.

Are you a Jane Austen fan looking for your next read? Or maybe a cozy mystery lover ready for a new twist with a twist of classic characters? Then this book is absolutely for you. The brilliant Claudia Gray brings together a cast of familiar characters from Jane Austen’s beloved classics at a house party that takes a disastrous turn when the wicked Mr. Wickham shows up.

It was so interesting to take a look at the lives of characters that I fell in love with long ago and see what they could be up to long after their books ended. Of course, I was especially thrilled to see Mr. Darcy again because he will always take first place in my heart.

In addition to characters from Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, Emma and more, we also are introduced to Jonathan Darcy and Juliet Tilney. Both new characters were incredibly well crafted and I loved both of them from the start.

The story was interesting and well paced along with the mystery of who killed Mr. Wickham. I appreciated that the story felt like a Jane Austen novel in both style and tone.

This beauty releases May 3, so make sure to get your preorder in!

A huge thank you to @netgalley, @vintagebooks, and @claudia_gray for the eARC of this book in exchange for my honest opinions.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an early read of The Murder of Mr. Wickham. Did you ever wonder what would happen if Jane Austen and Agatha Christie wrote a book together? It’s just me? Well, Claudia Gray has given us one possible outcome with The Murder of Mr. Wickham. In it, the characters from Austen’s novels – Mr. & Mrs. Darcy and their oldest son, Fanny & Edmund Price, Anne & Captain Wentworth, Marianne and Colonel Brandon, and the daughter of Catherine and Henry Tilney, all converge on Donwell Abby, the estate of the Knightleys. They are there for a house party, but it quickly becomes uncomfortable when Mr. Wickham shows up. It seems that he did not reform himself after the events of Pride & Prejudice, but went on to become an even bigger villain. When he is found murdered in the gallery, it turns out that everyone in the house had a reason to wish him dead. Overhearing the magistrate (Frank Churchill!) wonder if it could be one of the servants, young Darcy and Juliet Tilney decide to investigate themselves – wherever the answer may lead them. I enjoyed this locked room country house mystery, mainly for the portrayal of the various Austen characters. I had fun wondering who had done it – and how she was going to take a beloved Austen character and turn them into a murderer. If you like Austen, this is an entertaining read. If you like cozy mysteries, but are not familiar with Austen, I think you would still enjoy it.

I love pride and prejudice. I still do not like Mr. Wickham. This was such a good read! I couldn’t believe that ending.

I received this book from Netgalley in exchange for a review ahead of it's May 3rd release date.

The Murder of Mr. Wickham by Claudia Gray, was different than any other JAFF I have read previously, and I have read quite a bit! Of Jane Austen's books represented in this book, I have only read Emma and Pride and Prejudice. But, this did not stop me from enjoying this book immensely.

The book was set at Donwell Abbey, roughly 20 years after the end of Pride and Prejudice and all the major couples from Ms. Austen's books, and the author did some serious math to figure out the ages of each of the couples at the time of the house party. Each of the couples is facing something within their relationship that is trying and then arrives George Wickham, as the party barely has begun.

I really liked the idea of all of the major couples being together in one place and the characterization of them all seemed pretty close to Ms. Austen. Even though this is a JAFF, the main story was a love story and told from the perspective of two original characters-Mr.Jonathan Darcy and Ms. Tilney. I loved the murder mystery aspect as well, this in fact one of my favorite genre's of JAFF out there and this one was light and engaging and wonderfully paced. Throughout the book I had a hard time seeing any of the guests as the murderer, so the author did very well in this respect. The murderer and the reasoning behind it was a little thin, but I still can see something like this happening because life is random and chaotic and not a series of well planned events.

The only thing I would have changed is to see the love story finish unfolding. This was an excellent and fast read.

Retellings of beloved books can be hit or miss, but I am happy to report this was a clever and entertaining take, with plenty of our favorite characters making an appearance. I liked the murder mystery aspect, which added intrigue and suspense. While some Austenite purists may not be won over, I am glad I gave this one a chance!

The editor’s introductory note to this book calls it “a six-way Jane Austen crossover/sequel event” that brings together several of Austen’s notable couples. Emma and her Mr. Knightley host a house party, and the other couples who are present include Elizabeth and Fitzwilliam Darcy (Pride and Prejudice), now married for 22 years, the newly-married Marianne and Colonel Christopher Brandon (Sense and Sensibility), Fanny and Edmund Bertram (Mansfield Park), and Anne and Captain Frederick Wentworth (Persuasion). To make six, as the editor alludes to, there is also a pair of young people (but of marriageable age, of course): Jonathan Darcy and Juliet Tilney (daughter of Henry and Catherine Tilney of Northanger Abbey).

How does Mr. Wickham enter into this house party? Certainly not by invitation. He crashes the party and behaves even more offensively than a Pride and Prejudice fan would expect. Little wonder that he doesn’t live through the night. The surprise is that practically everyone in the house has a reason to want him dead. Now they are stuck in the house party from hell, confined to stay with the Knightleys until the local magistrate—Frank Churchill (!)—can solve the crime. Determining that that could take approximately forever, the only two with no motive, Jonathan and Juliet, decide to try to solve the crime themselves.

Author Gray does a good job of representing Austen’s deceptively prim writing style, with ample satirical comment on the rigid social codes of the day. There were a few anachronisms, but nothing too egregious for anyone but the most militant Janeites. The characters we know from Austen’s books are also recognizable here. All to the good.

I did have a couple of qualms. The whodunnit was understandable, all things considered, but a bit of a letdown. My main disappointment is the presentation of each marriage. I won’t say more, so as to avoid spoilers, but it made it hard to completely enjoy the book. It’s still worth reading, but just not all I had hoped for from this intriguing premise.

I love Pride and Prejudice and most of Jane Austen's other tales, but this one was especially intriguing given that it's a murder mystery with all of the main couples of Jane's beloved stories. And the murdered "victim" was Mr. Wickham? Priceless!

I really liked the book and enjoyed reading it. It was slow in some spaces but the characters were well done, I liked that you got to see things from multiple view points and particularly from Jonathan Darcy and Juliet Tilney who join together to figure out who actually did the deed, despite being being way beyond the social bounds of propriety. The book isn't long, but the writing is of a similar style to Jane's masterpieces.

If you like Jane Austen adaptations and mysteries, I can recommend this book.

Thank you to NetGalley, Claudia Gray and Vintage for the opportunity to read this Advance Reader Copy. I am freely leaving my humble opinion..

The writing style was beautiful, and it was a really fun continuation of these characters stories. Would recommend to any Austen Lover.

CALLING ALL FELLOW JANITES AND JANE AUSTEN LOVERS.....AND THE REST OF THE WORLD... You HAVE to read this glorious tale...

Seriously this was so unexpectedly sensational! I've read so many Jane Austen spin offs most good, some great but THIS was off the scale pure Darling fun!

This could be read as a great whodoneit for anybody, particularly Agatha Christie fans.... But for us hardcore Jane Austen fans it was heaven in a book.....

Mr Knightley and his wife Emma found themselves hosting an unexpected house party as they appeared to have double booked guests ... Knightleys old school chum Darcy,wife Elizabeth and son Johnathan, and Emma's cousin Colonel Brandon and his wife Marianne....not only that they have their tennant Captian Wentworth and his wife Anne staying as their house needs reparations to top it off Knightleys distant relatives Edmund and Fanny Bertrand announce last minute they are to arrive. The author weaved theirs back stories together so plausibly. ... And then enter Billy big bananas!! Yes Mr Wickham himself. Causing vile havoc in his wake .....

Thankfully someone knocks Wickham off in true Agatha Christie style..... Its left to local Magistrate Frank Churchill to solve the crime ..... However the new generation take it upon themselves to investigate.... Enter Johnathan Darcy and Juliet Tilney (Daughter of Henry and Catherine).... A fabulous combo and great new characters...

I couldn't get enough of this book and read it in one sitting..... (I'm absolutely off for a nap now)... Seriously thank you @claudia_gray for this nugget of wonderous-ness. I read this on Kindle but I absolutely have to own a copy for my shelves.

One more thing I loved is that the author cleverly addressed issues in the marriage of each couple that had always played on my mind (eg was Marianne really over Willoughby, would Darcy and Elizabeths different in countenance really stand the test of time.....

Read this! Thank me later ☺️

Thank you so much to @netgalley @knopfdoubleday
For the ARC copy of the gem

I'm a huge Jane Austen fan, as well as a fan of cozy mysteries. As such this one seemed right up my alley, but somehow I never connected with it... I don't exactly know why. Rather than feeling like I was wandering around in a world that comprised a fun continuation of the lives of beloved characters, I found myself struggling to connect with them in their future iterations, and getting increasingly irritated by their behavior.

There's nothing wrong with it, and I thought the fan fic elements would appeal but I just could not find my way into the story and was unable to finish it. This one wasn't for me..

This book is delightful! Written in similar fashion to regency novels, the author combines the characters of Jane Austen’s classical works into a murder mystery novel. It was such a thrill to read - first meeting all the characters after their stories have ended, to meeting new characters and watching the mystery unfold - it was a page turner to be sure. I greatly enjoyed all the little call backs throughout the novel to each characters respective story - being a huge Pride & Prejudice fan, many of these made me smile. Overall a fantastic read for Jane Austen fans and murder mystery lovers alike!

3.5 stars
It's a lovely summer party when suddenly the ill liked Mr Wickham appears unannounced and unwelcome to the gala. He is the held in scorn because of his latest financial doings which left many poorer with all lost.

However, the gracious Victorians of Jane Austen fame are cool but austere around him as he invites himself and winds up staying in the home of Emma and Mr Nightly. He also winds up dead, and it seems that one of the house guests is a murderer.

Everyone is a suspect and the two youngest people at the party, Juliet Tilney, daughter of Catherine and Henry owners of Northanger Abbey and Jonathan Darcy son of the Darcys are on the trail compiling clues and meeting in secret with notes passed and endeavoring to follow the set rules of Victorian Age as best they can. They originally have a bit of dislike for one another but that does change as they race to save an innocent man from the gallows.

True to the Austen way, Claudia Gray makes the characters come alive with a lovely nod to Agatha Christi and her closed door mystery aura. The only issue had with the story was the slowness of the middle of the story, but all in all it was fun getting together with some old Austen friends while also getting rid of the vile Mr Wickham. A win win indeed!

Thank you to Claudia Gray, Vintage, and NetGalley for a copy of this book due out May 3, 2022.

The Murder of Mr. Whickham is a fun mystery with Jane Austen flair. Couples from many of Austens books come together for a great whodunnit. This was overall a interesting read with a hood final reveal- would recommend! Thank you #NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.