Member Reviews

What a delightful read. It's always enjoyable when an author takes on a well known character from literature and revisits them with a twist. Well written and fun!

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This book was a fun sort of murder mystery with many of Jane Austen’s characters. I will admit that I’m actually not a huge Austen fan…to the extent that I didn’t actually realize this was an Austen nod until I did some research. That said, it was enjoyable enough and I’m sure I was missing quite a few references. I imagine someone a bit more knowledgeable would enjoy it more.

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Characters from all of Jane Austen's completed novels attend a house party at the Knightley's home. But things quickly go awry when the villain Mr. Wickham first shows up uninvited, and then is murdered by one of the guests. Jonathan Darcy and Juliet Tilney begin an investigation of their own to ensure justice prevails.

I'm usually not a big fan of Austen sequels or mysteries, but a closed door mystery with so many beloved characters was very fun. I liked how everyone had motive and opportunity to be the murderer, and I was guessing all the way to the very satisfying conclusion.

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The beloved (as well as at least one not so loved) characters of Jane Austen's books return in this entertaining mystery.
The story takes place at the home of Mr. Knightly and Emma, who are entertaining a house full of characters from others of Austen's books. When the despised Mr. Wickham shows up uninvited, and is soon murdered, almost everyone is a suspect, as they all have reasons to hate him.

The Darcy's son Jonathan was probably my favorite character. He's handsome (of course) but also struggles with social cues. He joins another young female guest to investigate who killed Mr. Wickham.

I feel that people who haven't read the classic novels would be fine in this book and still enjoy the characters and the mystery. Of course, those who have read and loved Austen will have some added fun.

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I liked the idea of it but honestly I could not get into it. I tried to come back to it multiple times and just couldn't. There wasn't enough mystery and murder more just non stop descriptions of the people and connections and not much else.

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I received an advanced digital copy of this book from the author, publisher and NetGalley.com. Thanks to all for the opportunity to read and review. The opinions expressed in this review are my own.

The Murder of Mr. Wickham is the perfect combination of regency era and modern murder mystery. If Miss Jane Austen and Mrs. Agatha Christie happened to have tea with Dorothy Sayles, this would be the book they would have written. Fun and engaging with great characters, a highly entertaining story!

5 out of 5 stars.

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I liked this historical mystery inspired by Jane Austen. The new characters that Claudia Gray created were both wonderful. At times I thought there were too many POV characters though, and I think I would have preferred to just focus on Juliet and Jonathan.

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Thank you NetGalley for giving me a copy of this book to review. I moved this one to the top of my pile after receiving an ARC of the second book.

First and foremost, let me say that I have not read a single Jane Austen novel in my life. Not one. So take my review with a grain of salt because there is a 99.999999 percent chance that I have absolutely no idea what I am talking about.

I thought the idea of this book sounded fun. A murder mystery that takes place in the regency time period with many of literature's most well known characters, and maybe this would have been fun... For someone else. This book struggled with pacing issues for me personally from nearly the beginning. I think that this could have been at LEAST one hundred pages shorter. There are so many chapters and perspectives in this book where absolutely nothing of interest or importance is even occurring. The murder itself doesn't even take place until past the thirty percent mark! It just was one long dinner party and vacation that didn't end up until that point and I just found myself waiting and wishing for the murder to just be done and over with so I could move on.... But then it DID happen... and then somehow, NOTHING happened. For seventy percent of the book. NOTHING else happened. Even finding out the murderer wasn't a twist or shocking. It was all just so drawn out.

Speaking of perspectives, there are A LOT of characters here. And again, this likely goes back to me being unfamiliar with the characters in the first place, but there is very little to distinguish them from one another. They are all identical little cookie cutter humans and forgive me for saying this, but so boring.

I realize that I am likely not the right reader for this book, so while I am going to give the second one a chance, I am going in with much lower expectations.

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This was a very fun murder mystery that is set in the Jane Austen’s novels. I especially adored the crossover between Emma and Pride and Prejudice! I loved that the thought that the murder victim was Mr. Wickham, who was my least favorite character in Pride and Prejudice. It was fun to see who the killer was and it had a surprising ending! The only thing I did not like about this book was that it had many narrators. I would have enjoyed it better had focused solely on one character. Nevertheless, this as an engaging sequel to Pride and Prejudice and Emma! This novel is perfect for fans of Jane Austen! I recommend this for fans of Pride and Meditation, The Meryton Murders, and Pride and Prescience!

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I am a HUGE Jane Austen fan and so wanted to love this book, unfortunately it fell kind of flat. The amount of POV shifts were confusing and made it very difficult to stay invested in the story. I loved the concept of this, but feel it had a poor execution.

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I love Claudia Gray’s Star Wars novels, so I had high hopes for this, but sadly it didn’t hit for me.
First of all, it’s entirely inaccessible if you haven’t read every single Jane Austen book. Secondly, the book is frontloaded like crazy, and by the time you reach the mystery, I was exhausted.

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This is the start of a perfect historical cozy series and if you are a fan of Jane Austen it's a must read. The title alone was enough to get my attention. From there I was totally immersed in the period and the characters we have come to love and hate. Claudia Gray has even added some extra family members, filled in some gaps and given the reader a great time in the Regency period. The mystery was well done but the pace slowed a bit in spots, nothing that distracted me from my enjoyment. With suspects galore and the end of Mr. Wickham, I will most certainly be reading the next in the series.
My thanks to the publisher vintage and to NetGalley for giving me an advance copy in exchange for my honest review.

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Fans of Jane Austen will enjoy seeing an array of her character dotted around this book. While this isn’t typically my favorite genre, it was a throughly enjoyable
Read.

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This was fine. If you’re a Jane Austen fan, this is a fun cozy mystery that brings the main characters from all her books together under one roof. I haven’t read all of Austen’s novels, so I wasn’t familiar with every character. I’ll admit that some characters were completely interchangeable with each other because of the writing, so the “big reveal” was kind of underwhelming. However, the author is able to tie everything together in a way that makes sense for the time period. It’s a quick read that is a good time for lovers of cozy mysteries!

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So I am someone that usually prefers 2 pov's or less so to be honest this felt a bit chaotic and hard to follow especially given the fact that the switch was made in a matter of paragraphs rather than chapters. I also thought that there wasnt really a middle ground, some characters were obnoxiously over the top while others were so subdued and felt very unlike themselves. This is also weird to wish death on someone but also it felt like forever for Mr. Wickham to be murdered and considering how insufferable he was that was just too long. Also as someone who is a die hard Jane Austen fan I think I was a little let down by the popping of this idea of some of the characters we now and love not having a perfect marriage bubble. I will however say that the use of the name knightly was quite clever and I do think the end had a nice twist to it. Overall I think this is very middle of the road for me.

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This was an enjoyable read for Austen fans, bringing together many cherished characters in an entirely new set that of circumstances. The middle of the story, during which many of the characters by their own admission were ‘acting not like themselves’ seemed to drag somewhat, but it was a delight to see each return to themselves by the mystery’s conclusion. I look forward to the next title in the series.

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It was fun to see and recognize characters from my favorite Austen books. I found the beginning and ending to be engaging but felt the middle was slow and unnecessarily drawn out.

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I love a cozy mystery and this one did not disappoint! A classic whodunit with interesting and complex characters. I could not put it down!

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“Had Jane Austen sat down to write a country house murder mystery, this is exactly the book she would have written.” —Alexander McCall Smith

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.

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Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC!
Too slow for me but I give a point plus for the beautiful cover. it's also pretty hard for me to get through and sadly, I don't get invested in the characters.

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I loved The Murder of Mr. Wickham so much. Full disclosure though: I'm a ride or die for Jane Austen and most especially Pride and Prejudice. Reading this book felt like visiting old friends.

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