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.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with a free eARC in exchange for a fair and honest review.