Rating: 4 stars
Miss Juliet Tilney goes to visit her friend Marianne Brandon in her charming home in Devonshire. They haven't seen one another since the rather unfortunate house party where Mr Wickham was murdered, and Miss Tilney and young Jonathan Darcy managed to discover who killed him.
Jonathan Darcy finds himself the rather reluctant houseguest of a former school bully, Mr. Willoughby. He goes to see him so as to not make his parents constantly worry about his lack of friends, but is rather miserable until he discovers that Miss Juliet Tilney is also in the village, visiting the Brandons.
During the dinner party meant to welcome her to the neighbourhood, Mrs. Willoughby drops dead, clearly poisoned. Malicious gossips seem convinced that Marianne Brandon, did the deed out of jealousy and some sort of misguided attempt to get back together with him. She was, after all, openly and passionately in love with Willoughby and nearly died from the heartbreak when he jilted her to marry his now-dead wife. Juliet and Jonathan, however, are convinced of her innocence and decide to once again investigate a murder, to ensure Mrs. Brandon isn't sent to the gallows because of malicious rumours. As their investigation progresses, there are other strange occurrences, that suggest the murderer may not be done yet - are Jonathan and Juliet also in danger?
The Austen fan fic continues, but this time Ms. Gray hasn't included characters from literally every single published Austen novel. This second Mr. Darcy and Miss Tilney mystery focuses more on various characters faithful readers will remember from Sense and Sensibility. Elinor Ferrars is happily married to her Edward, and very close to giving birth to their first child. They are still estranged from his snobbish mother but hope that the arrival of the child might make the old matriarch soften her feelings towards him, even though she disapproves of his chosen wife. Colonel Brandon's ward (Jonathan Darcy's cousin, as she's the illegitimate child of Mr. Wickham) now also lives in the village, and may have her own reasons for wanting Willougby to be widowed.
The book obviously invents a backstory where Jonathan Darcy and Willoughby went to school together, and it's not really a surprise to anyone that Willoughby would have been a merciless bully. Also invited are another couple of school friends, one of whom seems to have had a history with the now-deceased Mrs. Willoughby, and a charming young man with a solid grasp of chemistry who offers to aid Darcy and Miss Tilney in their investigation, once he discovers what they are about. Jonathan may be socially inept, but even he notices that his friend seems interested in Miss Tilney. Spending more time with her has made it pretty obvious to Jonathan that he likes Juliet as more than a friend, but as he is unsure whether she returns his feelings, he's far too reserved to confess his infatuation.
Gray is an imaginative and engaging writer, and her cast of characters actually feel like they have stepped out of the pages of an Austen novel. Both Jonathan and Juliet are engaging protagonists, and I understand that both for storyline reasons, and the conventions of the time, Gray needs to create obstacles to stand in the way of their eventual happy ending. But I'm not going to lie, I was ready to figuratively lock them in a room and scream "Just kiss already!" at the end of this. So if they don't get together at the end of the next one (which apparently involves them trying to figure out who wants to murder Lady Catherine de Bourgh), I will be extremely vexed.
Judging a book by its cover: Not really sure what is going on with the perspective on this cover. The silhouettes are all well and good, but poor Mrs. Willoughby hasn't just been murdered, she looks as if she has been squashed flat by a steamroller. Such indignity in death.
Crossposted on Cannonball Read
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