The Highbury Murders

I would rank Victoria Grossack's Austen murder mystery novel, set in Highbury after the events of Emma, far above P.D. James' dreadful Death Comes to Pemberley, but failing to knock Carrie Bebris' The Intrigue at Highbury off the top spot. Victoria remains fairly faithful to the original characters in tone and behaviour - barring one or two staggering exceptions, crucial to the plot - but her understanding of Austen's novel seems to be lacking the developments of the final few chapters. Emma is still calling her husband 'Mr Knightley' - I think Austen might have been joking when Emma tells her future husband that she could never bring herself to call him 'George' - and her relationship with Jane Fairfax/Churchill is still prickly, when show more I'm fairly sure they finally made up. But at least this author didn't kill Mr Knightley off at the first chapter, or doom him and Emma to a loveless marriage - all praise is due to her for that!

The crime and the revelation of the killers needs to be read to be believed! I won't say any more, but I read those final chapters with a look of mingled horror and disgust on my face that must have been comical to watch. Then I read the author's notes at the end, and thought - 'Hm, do you know what - that sort of makes sense, in a twisted way!' So, what Victoria Grossack loses in recapping the original novel and setting Austen's characters back a volume or two, she most definitely gains in writing a shocking murder mystery. show less