Read More: Death Comes to Pemberley

I read about Death Comes to Pemberley by P.D. James in the newspaper (where it got a pretty glowing review), and instantly I knew I had to read it. Then I told Megan about it, and she was equally excited.

Here's the deal: It's supposed to be a sequel to Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. And, as if that isn't enough, it's also a murder mystery! I guess James is a well-known mystery writer. Let the fun begin!

So I signed up for the library's waitlist, and I was probably #1,037. But eventually my turn came, and I dived into the book with great relish. How could I go wrong with a book like this? But in the end, I'm afraid I was sorely disappointed. I got through it, but it was not a pleasure. First, James writes nothing like Austen. I was expecting an homage that copied Austen's breezy, graceful style. James's words are like leaden weights. Second, the characters seem barely recognizable. The names and situations are taken from the original book, sure. But in this sequel, the characters you love seem to have no internal lives. It's as if between Pride and Prejudice and Death Comes to Pemberley a great plague broke out in the English countryside and killed the spark of life in each resident. If the creators of Thomas the Train were to write a murder mystery, I imagine it would be something akin to this. Finally, the murder mystery itself was not particularly compelling.

Poor PD James. From the ratings on Amazon.com, it looks like pretty much everybody was disappointed in this book. The mystery lovers felt it was a crappy mystery, and the Austen lovers were bitter about how un-Austen-like the prose and characters were. To be fair, I think expectations were so high it was probably really hard to make readers happy. But I bet she sold a lot of books, so that probably makes her happy!

-Kristin