Extending an invitation to The Late Mrs. Willoughby for a sinister sleuthing party

The works of Jane Austen are to a writer’s imagination as a little black dress is to a fashionable wardrobe: suitable for many occasions and much more versatile than you might think.

To that end, author Claudia Gray follows up her excellent Jane Austen themed mystery, The Murder of Mr. Wickham , from last year with another amiable adventure for the two young amateur sleuths featured in that story, Jonathan Darcy(son of a certain Pride &Prejudice couple) and Juliet Tilney (daughter of a pair of Northanger Abbey residents).

In The Late Mrs. Willoughby, these two inadvertently reunite as Juliet visits Marianne Brandon, who is still recovering from the events of their previous encounter at Donwell Abbey.

While her new guest is quite a welcome sight , Marianne is concerned with a number of things such as her dear sister Elinor being close to giving birth to her first child, becoming friends with Colonel Brandon’s ward Beth and what the neighbors must be thinking of what happened to her at Donwell.

One neighbor she hopes to avoid as much as possible is Mr. Willoughby, her former suitor who cruelly abandoned and publicly snubbed her in order to marry the wealthy Sophia Grey. 

He has now inherited his aunt’s estate at Allenham, not far from the Brandons,,and brought his new wife along with a party of former schoolmates to celebrate his new home. A welcoming party for the Willoughbys is being held by the boisterous Sir John Middleton, an invitation that hard for anyone to refuse, even Marianne:

Staying with Willoughby at Allenham is Jonathan, who was at school with him but could hardly call his former classmate and bully a friend.

While attending the welcoming party, Jonathan is pleased to see Juliet again in what should be much better circumstances than their prior encounter.

Unfortunately, that is not to be the case as not long after drinking a glass of port during a toast in their honor, Willoughby loses his wife to poison before the night is over.

The shock of such a terrible tragedy in the collective midst is compounded by the local constabulary who are too quick to see Marianne as the only suspect. Jonathan and Juliet find themselves taking up the  gruesome yet exciting task of searching for the real killer yet again.

Since Willoughby is not as charming to everyone as he thinks he is, many suspects abound such as another guest at Allenham who was courting Sophia but backed down once Willoughby started pursuing her.

One suspect that neither Jonathan nor Juliet wish to look  at all into is Beth, whose brief relationship with Willoughby made her a single mother and him in danger of losing his inheritance , which caused him to exchange Marianne for Sophia on the bridal market.

While Beth is now in their neck of the woods, her attempts to get Willoughby to at least see his son have been bluntly rejected. Could her despair drive her to such misplaced revenge? Regardless of their sympathies for her situation, Jonathan and Juliet do have to consider all possibilities here:

As the two of them, along with a newly made friend, quietly yet eagerly seek the truth, the risk to Marianne‘a liberty and perhaps her life grows stronger as time goes on. 

Can the killer be captured before another innocent person is done in? Worse still, is the ultimate culprit right in front of them all?

While reading The Murder of Mr. Wickham will enhance your pleasure with this new Austen inspired story, this novel can be read on it’s own merits. Gray possesses an apt ear and a steady eye for Jane Austen’s creations and her nuanced embellishments do justice to both the source material and fandom alike.

If Sense and Sensibility happens to be your favorite Austen novel(it’s in my personal top three), you would throughly enjoy this book as many of those particular players are present here(including a most unwelcome visit from certain in-laws!) to liven up the sub plots nicely.

What is most agreeable to see is the growing bond between Jonathan, who suffers from social anxiety issues, and Juliet, who is aware of how their friendship appears to others yet is unsure of how to move forward on such personal level.

The two of them balance each other out so well and the mutual acceptance of each other’s intelligence and abilities is such engaging character development for any time period. However, the social standards of their day are and will continue to put up some challenges to any romantic future:

Hopefully, more of that journey we will get to read about  soon as the subtitle of this book is “A Mr. Darcy and Miss Tilney Mystery “. This is a series well worth the wait for but hopefully not too long!

I am very thankful to be invited to this blog tour for The Late Mrs. Willoughby by Laurel Ann Nattress at Austenprose and hope that everyone involved as well as Jane Austen mystery fans have a fabulous page turning time with this graciously gripping book.

A  well written Jane Austen variation like this  is always in style and much like a little black dress, perfect for parties even when not all of the action is on the dance floor: