3.5 stars. Pulling together so many characters from Jane Austen was bold, and not easy to pull off. Mostly they felt close to the originals. The original characters. - Jonathon Darcy and Janet Tilley - were likable. Everyone was just a bit too modern in their thinking to really pull off the Austen homage, but it was still a fun read.

Well this was just a delightful little romp that I devoured in one sitting. If you are familiar with the characters and the Austen universe than this book should check off a ton of boxes as it brings all those elements right to it' pages and creates a great little story for it's reader.

I was unable to finish this book because it just would capture my attention. I love the idea of a whodunit with a cast of characters from Jane Auten's universe if characters but the story just didnt do anything for me.

This book was everything I wanted it to be! It was a fun and compelling continuation of many of my favorite Jane Austen character's stories! While not all happy, I could believe each of the characters from Austen's original works could end up where Claudia Gray has them, making the choices they do here. It was the perfect vacation book for me!

Language: Mild
Violence: Mild
Drugs: Mild
Sex: Mild

What fun! I realize that a murder has taken place, but really the man was wretched. Though none are rejoicing, no one is regretting the murder nor the loss of this wicked man. But everyone knows that the murderer is among the guests at Donwell Abbey. Young Juliet Tilney and Jonathon Darcy set out to investigate so that no one is wrongly accused. A friendship develops between the two young investigators that is as charming as it is innocent. Claudia Gray wonderfully brings Jane Austen's characters back to life.

The Jane Austen Universe crossover fic of your dreams. It was so much fun to be back with some of our faves (and, uh, less-than-faves) and to see where they all are several years (or months) after their stories. Everyone felt very much like themselves (Fanny and Edmund continue to be pious wet blankets) even while they and their relationships have matured, and some issues that I had with the source material -- like, did Marianne marry Brandon as a consolation? Does Edmund actually love Fanny? -- were addressed in ways I found very satisfying. I also think it was incredibly smart to center this whodunnit murder mystery around the perspectives of two original characters, Jonathan Darcy and Juliet Tilney, who have their own budding romance to contend with.

My only criticism here is that the ending felt a bit rushed, and I would have liked a little more from Jonathan and Juliet at the end. Overall, this is a very solid 4 stars for me. Super enjoyable, especially if you exist in that center circle of the murder mystery/Jane Austen Venn diagram.

I didn't enjoy this book as much as I though I would. I really enjoy Jane Austen and thought this would be fun. All her big characters have converged on Donwell Abby for a house party. The Knightley's are the hosts. Emma invited some Juliette Tilney and her husband has invited the Darcy's. Then the guest list keeps growing. The Wentworth's are invited to stay as the home they are leasing is in need a repair. Knightly's cousin Edmund Bertram and his wife Fanny are added to the guest list. Then Colonel Branden and his new bride Marianne arrive. The first night as the guests are seated and dinner and a raging storm is outside, a new guest appears--Mr. Wickham. Unbeknownst to each other, they all have a connection to Wickham. His character is even worse than before. He has robbed and cheated some of the guest of money, blackmailed others, etc. Juliette who is the only one with no connection to Wickham and the Darcy's son who has a solid alibi for his uncle's murder set out to find the true killer.

I was disappointed in the characters. I know they are all under stress as suspects in the murder and with Mr. Wickham stirring up bad memories. But at times some of the characters are deceitful, angry even venomous, others are whiners. These are not the characters I remember.

I liked the premise of the story and getting all the characters together. I enjoyed the mystery and I was surprised at the ending. I did like the way the author wrapped up the mystery and solved the various issues Wickham had created.

I'm giving this 3 stars just because I felt bad about the character portrayal is the book. Otherwise, the mystery was well written, keeping me guessing. The writing was easy to read.

"The Murder of Mr. Wickham" finds the characters from several of Jane Austen's classic novels together for a summer house party. When the despicable Mr. Wickham shows up, the gloom of rain is immeasurably increased by his presence. Most of the characters have reason to see him dead, but only one (or maybe more?) have executed the deed. It is up to the reader to discover the truth, along with the help of two young adult members of the party. Marital discord, secrets, and deception add to the mix. The story is written in the style of Jane Austen's novels, with the usual attention to customs, rules, and styles of the time. While clues to the identity of the killer abound, readers will still be kept guessing until the end.

The point of view in this book changes frequently, which can be confusing to some readers. Those who are unfamiliar with the novels of Jane Austen might also find difficulty keeping track of the characters, since some of them are similar. A preface alerts readers to the time periods involved in this novel. This is a clean novel (as Jane would have it!) and lacks graphic violence and adult situations. Hopefully there will be more novels in this series.

I received this novel from the publisher and from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. The opinions expressed here are entirely my own.

If you love murder mysteries and you love Jane Austen, this is the book for you! A delightful whodunnit style mystery featuring beloved and infamous characters from Austen's novel.

Claudia Gray has presented an amalgam of Jane Austen and Agatha Christie with the Murder of Mr. Wickham. A house party includes the Darcy family, and others connected to Northanger Abbey. Mr. Wickham, the villain of the the Austen stories turns up without invitation and threatens many at the house party. Then he is found murdered. The son of Mr. Darcy and the daughter others in their circle team up to solve the murder. Many sins of bad behaviour are at risk o being outed. Whodunit?

A variety of characters from Jane Austen's novels gather for a house party in this mystery. Mr. Wickham is not invited but shows up and soon turns up dead. The problem is, Wickham was universally reviled by the house party participants, all of whom are good people with reason to wish him dead.

Idiosyncratic Jonathan Darcy (who is almost definitely on the autism spectrum, though that wasn't a known disorder in the nineteenth century) pairs with Juliet to begin investigating the case. The two persevere, even when Jonathan's parents, Elizabeth (nee Bennet) Darcy and Mr. Darcy, fall under suspicion.

I wanted to love this book, but two decades after I last read a Jane Austen novel, I had trouble keeping track of the characters and found the story too slow moving. But I'm sure other readers will definitely love it. #TheMurderofMrWickham #NetGalley

I read an advanced reader's copy, provided by Netgalley. I'm a little slow and this book was released last month!

This book was super fun, essentially an Agatha Christie locked-room mystery featuring all of the primary couples from Jane Austen's various novels. They all end up at the Knightley's for a summer house party but just as everyone is settling in, George Wickham, the man everyone loves to hate, crashes the party. After a couple of days of ruining everyone's good time, Wickham is discovered dead in the gallery. Gray does a good job of giving everyone a believable connection to Wickham along with a motive to want him dead. I especially love the way she connects Colonel Brandon to Wickham. Jonathan Darcy, the son of Darcy and Elizabeth, and Juliet Tilney, the daughter of Catherine and Henry, team up to solve the mystery. Gray handles all of the established characters really well - I especially love her handling of Darcy and Elizabeth and what's been going on with them - and her new characters fit right in. I especially have a soft spot for Jonathan. I wasn't sure how Gray was going to resolve this without essentially ruining one of Austen's beloved characters, but the resolution makes perfect sense. A fast, fun read that I'd happily put in the hands of many readers.

4.5 Stars
If you are a true-crime podcast junkie type who also loves Jane Austen or Regency-era books then this is one you will want to read. I have to say I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed this book. I loved seeing characters from multiple books cross over and become friends of a sort. The characters were true to their original, something that is super important to me. I enjoyed seeing more of Darcy and Knightley because we don't get to interact with them as much in the original works. The mystery was also well done, not an easy feat to accomplish in a work of Jane Austen fan fiction, one or the other often suffers. I hope Claudia Gray writes more JAFF mysteries, it was such a nice escape from the crazy things happening in the world today.

Thank you, NetGalley, Claudia Gray, and Knopf Doubleday Publishing for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Did not finish. Couldn’t really get into it like I thought I was going to. I kept putting other books in front of this one because whenever I opened this book I kept having to reread things. Just didn’t grab my attention right now, maybe I’ll try it again at another time.

Maybe I'm a bit biased as an English major, but The Murder of Mr. Wickham was the perfect blend of Jane Austen's work into something new and fresh! I have never seen a concept like this done so expertly. I ripped through this read in one day, this is perfect for fans of the classics who want a little bit of an unexpected twist!

Oh this is such a fun and satisfying read! If you are an English major nerd or an Austen stan-- you will LOVE this book!

In an imagined Austen multiverse, the main characters of her most famous novels convene for a house party at the home of Emma and Mr. Knightly. On the first night, an uninvited guest arrives. It is Mr. Wickham, older and even more evil than last we saw him in Pride and Prejudice. By morning, he is dead, and all of the guests are suspects. Juliet Tilney (Northanger Abbey) teams up with Jonathan Darcy (son of Fitzwilliam and Elizabeth-- both in attendance as well) take it upon themselves to get involved in the investigation.

I enjoyed being with old friends as they play a sort of game of Clue to decide who killed Wickham, Highly recommend!

This is going to be a mixed review. I think I will break it down like this. Pros: I enjoyed the story line. I enjoyed the characters. I love a good whodunit. All in all a decent book. Cons: While I understand it was written as an older days book the fact that the characters were referred to formally as Mr. so-and-so or Mrs. so-and-so make the story confusing as I had a hard time keeping the people straight. Also, for some reason this book took me forever to read. I think it is because I had to concentrate so much on who was who.

The writing was great, but it was the characters and story that just didn't do it for me. I am sure retelling fans will love this. I think I was just not the target audience for this.

The Murder of Mr. Wickham, by Claudia Gray, is a murder mystery crossover between Jane Austen's six major novels. Mr. and Mrs. Knightley (of Emma fame) are holding a house party for five other groups: Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy with their oldest son, Jonathan (Pride & Prejudice), Marianne and Colonel Brandon (Sense & Sensibility), Juliet Tilney (daughter of Northanger Abbey's Catherine and Mr. Tilney), Anne and Captain Wentworth (Persuasion), and the ever-forgettable Fanny and Mr. Bertram (Mansfield Park). Soon after the guests arrive, a shadow is cast over the festivities by the unexpected arrival of George Wickham, with whom the majority of the characters have had some sort of negative experience. When Wickham is mysteriously found dead, circumstances combine to mean that Juliet and Jonathan are the only ones who could not have done it, so the pair teams up to secretly investigate who might have killed Mr. Wickham.

I really liked the two protagonists of the book (the only two of the central characters to be original creations of the author). I honestly could not choose a favorite between the two. Juliet Tilney is very much like a more restrained and level-headed version of her mother (the real crime in this book is that Catherine didn't get to experience this murder investigation, since it probably would have been the highlight of her existence). Jonathan Darcy is similar to his father, but there's still a lot of differences between them. I'm 99% sure that the author wrote Jonathan as being autistic, which I hope gets confirmed, since that would be so great, since he would be very good representation. There's a bit of a romance plot-line between Juliet and Jonathan, but it's far from the central focus of the story, and nothing much comes of it until the epilogue.

Gray does an excellent job writing Austen's characters and depicting them in their current stages of life; while this takes place shortly after Sense and Sensibility, with Marianne and Colonel Brandon being newlyweds, it seems to be almost 20 years after Pride and Prejudice and Emma. Thus, the couples are all at different stages of their lives, which definitely impacts their personalities. I had read all of the books featured except for Mansfield Park, which wasn't a problem in terms of my understanding the plot (particularly since Fanny and Mr. Bertram just don't have much of a role in the book beyond being there). I loved the depiction of everybody else. The Darcys and Brandons really get their time to shine here, and Emma and Mr. Knightley get some good scenes as well. Anne and Captain Wentworth are kind of just there; they occasionally have scenes that are just them talking about their money problems, but they're largely irrelevant.

I liked the murder mystery element, but I wish it had been more of an investigation. There were a few clues and things, but I wish Juliet and Jonathan had done more investigation and interviews and such, which would have been more in line with what I was expecting. I did still really enjoy the plot of the book, but I just wish it had. been a little bit more of a murder mystery.

My primary issue with the book was that it is too long-winded for the amount of side-plots it has. If there had been more interesting things going on independent of the main mystery, or if the mystery itself had simply been more interesting, then the length would be justified, but as it is it just drags quite a bit in the middle of the book.

Any Jane Austen fan should immediately pick this up; it features all of your favorite characters, it's done really well, and you get to read about Mr. Wickham dying, which is an obvious bonus. Although I wouldn't necessarily recommend it if you've never read any Jane Austen books (you could probably understand it, but I think most of the appeal would be lost on you), don't worry if there's 1-3 you haven't gotten to yet, since there's enough background to keep you from being lost. I'd say you should probably either have read or have a basic understanding of Pride and Prejudice, Emma, and Sense and Sensibility, but you can definitely slide by without having read the other three. I've never read Mansfield Park, and I didn't feel that that was in any way hindering my enjoyment of the book.

Overall, I really enjoyed The Murder of Mr. Wickham, and I'm giving it 4/5 stars. Pick it up if you like Jane Austen; you won't regret it.

I requested this book from Netgalley based sheerly on the title - I love me some Pride & Prejudice retellings and fanfiction. Imagine my surprise and delight when I realized it wasn't just a Pride & Prejudice, but a book full of Jane Austen's most popular heroes in each book.

Rounding out the all star team:
Pride & Prejudice - Elizabeth Bennett, Mr. Darcy, Mr. Wickham
Sense & Sensibility - Marianne Dashwood & Colonel Brandon
Emma - Emma Woodhouse, Mr. Knightley, Frank Churchill
Northanger Abbey - Catherine & Henry Tilney's daughter, Juliet
Persuasion - Anne Elliot & Captain Wentworth
Mansfield Park - Fanny Price & Edmund Bertram

Claudia Gray wrote one of my favorite trilogies (The Firebird Trilogy) so I was excited to see how she would capture these characters and I was not disappointed. I also felt while reading that she must have liked Marianne and Elizabeth as much as I did and found Fanny & Edmund just as drab and boring. I think the only character portrayal that seemed at odds with my personal feelings was Captain Wentworth - I didn't like him in this book because he seemed a bit too focused on his pride and still trying to make something of himself and not realizing that he already married the love of his life.

My favorite continuation of all these stories was Marianne + Colonel Brandon. Sense & Sensibility seemed to leave off with the reader thinking that Marianne settled because she couldn't have the man she fell in love with. I always felt there was more there and that Marianne would have never settled when she had such strong feelings about love and passion and I'm so glad this story did their relationship justice. I loved it.

The only reason that this book is getting 4 stars instead of 5 is that the pacing sometimes felt off to the point that I was skimming. It did eventually pull me back in and I definitely enjoyed my time, but it wasn't a full 5 star book for me.