Author: P.D. James
Genre: Murder Mystery (Pride and Prejudice spin off)
Pages: 291 (hard copy)
Published: November 2011
Rating: 2.5/5 - An excellent idea but characters are a bit weak
I would've thought I would be the perfect audience for this book. Mixing some of my favourite books and genres into one spin off. 'Pride and Prejudice', murder mystery + romance... How could it go wrong? Turns out, in quite a few ways.
But lets not start with too many negatives. I love the idea that this book is based around, mixing a delightful classic romance into a darker crime book whilst still incorporating our beloved characters. As I said, it's got the making for a piece of genius. So yeah, the story is certainly intriguing. I think that if you have never read 'Pride and Prejudice' by Jane Austen, 'Death comes to Pemberley' would seem to be another average murder mystery: worth a read? Maybe.
So I thought I'd do a quick summary if you have never read 'Pride and Prejudice', if you have, just skip this. The language P.D. James uses is advanced and fitting but doesn't always feel fluent. I felt that the characters were shallow and under developed. Often the most riveting dialogue was about flower arrangements or guest lists. I must say one thing, I actually really struggled to guess the 'murderer' till right towards the end, one of the things that kept me reading. The story was quite complex and you had to really concentrate on some smaller details which, for avid mystery readers, is definitely a positive.
So, for those of you that have read 'Pride and Prejudice', welcome back! I want to start with the characters because I think that's what really made up my mind about this book. Jane Austen had such a way with words, she breathed joyous personalities into the characters she had lovingly created. It was those characters, each so carefully constructed, that made me fall in love with 'Pride and Prejudice' in the first place. This spin-off felt like the personalities were being sucked out of these characters until they were paper thin. The dialogue was pretty boring- it was like the whole book was spoken through stereotypes from The Regency period. Most of the riveting conversations were about either flower arrangements or how much Elizabeth enjoyed her sisters company. I was wholly disappointed when the strong minded Lizzie that we knew and loved in 'Pride and Prejudice', seemed to just be a redundant house wife. It was aggravating and seemed to go against one of the main themes of the original.
I found Jane to be way too perfect, seemingly worshipping her husband. There was no character development; not much had changed personality wise from the start of the book to the end. And don't get me started on the relationship between Darcy and Elizabeth. I expected passionate communication between the newly weds, if not, flirting would suffice. But instead we got little to no conversations between the two. And when there was correspondence, it was dull and trivial.
As for the murder mystery aspect, it was actually pretty good mystery wise! I couldn't work out the murderer till right at the end and even then it was a shock. The crime was complex and not as simple as you would first guess. Nevertheless, one of the reasons it was such a mystery was because unlike other murder mysteries, we did not have the detailed process of finding clues, evidence and witness'. It featured a lot of the same evidence presented in different ways by different people (or sometimes even by the same person... *sigh*)
Also, please do yourself a favour if you've already read 'Pride and Prejudice' and don't read the prologue. That may seem obvious and maybe I was just being a bit dim? But the prologue is a summarised, vague version of 'Pride and Prejudice' but does not do it nearly enough justice as a story? Lets just say you would not be missing out on any vital reading by just skipping the prologue altogether.
Nevertheless, I must commend P.D. James on how well she replicated the more complex yet subtle language that Jane Austen used. It did not feel like you were drowning in overcomplicated, over-Elizabethan language; more that P.D. James had recreated the original feel and flair of the words used in 'Pride and Prejudice' magnificently.
Overall, I thought that 'Death comes to Pemberley' was a truly fantastic idea but wasn't quite executed to perfection. The story and language was good but it was the underdeveloped characters from our beloved 'Pride and Prejudice', that let it down. I would still recommend reading it if you like murder mysteries that aren't too heavy, or even if you liked 'Pride and Prejudice.' It's just that the character of Lizzie may pee you off a bit. However that's just my opinion. The Sunday Telegraph said
'P.D. James has recreated the world of Jane Austen magnificently.'
So as usual, I recommend you go and read it yourself then let me know what you think!
Find 'Death Comes to Pemberely' on Amazon here
Read about 'Death Comes to Pemberley' on Goodreads here
Thanks and keep reading...
Laura Stone x
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