September 4, 2013

Read This!: Death Comes to Pemberley

By P. D. James

Challenge: Someone read last year

I went into this book with high hopes. It has gotten a lot of hype, I love P&P, and Matthew on Downton Abbey left the show to star in the TV version.

Death Comes to Pemberly picks up maybe 6 or 7 years after Pride and Prejudice ends.  The night before a big ball, a murder takes place on the Pemberley estate.  Darcy, Elizabeth, and the whole family become intimately involved in the case as not only did the murder take place on their property, Wickham stands accused (why is he always causing problems?).  

I didn’t love this book.  I thought it tried a bit too hard and fell flat.  Lady Catherine’s phrase from P&P about polluting Pemberley was overused here and got on my nerves.  Moreover, I didn’t like the new, less than likeable characterization of Colonel Fitzwilliam.  And while I get that readers may want to know a bit about P&P if they hadn’t read it, I thought there was a bit too much of this and the Epilogue could have been completely cut.  On the other side of it, the murder mystery was OK and overall it was a pretty readable book.  I would like to see the TV version when it is completed.

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