The Perils of Lady Catherine de Bourgh by Claudia Gray (Austenprose PR Book Tour)

 

Are you a coffee or a tea drinker?  Do you have a favorite flavor of your favorite beverage?  I love black tea.  The tea I am drinking today is Prairie Passion by TeaSource out of Minneapolis.  I love their variety of flavored black teas.

Lady Catherine de Bourgh, Mr. Darcy’s aunt and the matriarch of Rosings Park, is sure that someone is trying to murder her.  One incident can be explained as an accident, but three incidents that could have led to her death within a short time frame is too much of a coincidence.  She summons her nephew Jonathan Darcy as he has solved some other cases as well as his crime solving partner, Miss Juliet Tilney.  Will they be able to uncover who is trying to murder Lady Catherine de Bourgh and why?

My thoughts on the novel:

·       I LOVE this series.  This is the third novel in the “A Mr. Darcy and Miss Tilney Mystery” and I love them.  Each novel has been a great historical mystery with great characters.

·       I enjoyed that the action takes place at Rosings Park and we get to see the characters of Lady Catherine, her daughter Anne, and Anne’s husband, Colonel Fitzwilliam.  Also present and living nearby are Mr. and Mrs. Collins and their two teenage children.  Author Claudia Gray wrote these Austen characters perfectly.  She has a modern sense to her writing, but it true to the characters the way that Austen wrote them.  Its interesting to see where these characters are after twenty years.

·       I loved the overall humor and wit throughout the novel.  It was especially fun that Mr. Collins named his son De Bourgh and daughter Catherine.  Ha!

·       While enjoying the classic Austen characters, I really enjoy Mr. Jonathan Darcy and Miss Juliet Tilney. Their relationship is great with this book as a will they or won’t they type of romance.  Jonathan is on the spectrum at a time when it was not well understood.  He is working on looking people in the eyes and being better at social occasions.  He believes that Juliet was in love with someone else, while Juliet thinks he doesn’t love her as he hasn’t spoken for her.  I love the two of them as characters and love this relationship.  It’s moving very slowly, but I have hopes for another novel and for Juliet to one day see Pemberly.  I think it would be very fun to have their relationship progress to engaged, and then married and still solving mysteries together.

·       Mr. Darcy meeting Henry Tilney is the Austen mash-up I never knew that I needed.  I laughed out loud at how they really did not get along.  Mr. Darcy’s seriousness with Henry Tilney’s humor did not mesh well.  I love Henry Tilney as a character in Northanger Abbey and I was so happy to get more of him in this novel.  I did wish that their relationship would have grown better throughout the novel, but it didn’t really.  Hopefully it will in future novels.

·       I also enjoyed getting to know more about Anne Fitzwilliam and Colonel Fitzwilliam and their relationship.  Anne truly loved Colonel Fitzwilliam, but fears he only married her to make the family happy.  They loved their son Peter, but after Lady Catherine sends Peter away to school at only age eight, their little family is adrift.  Anne wonders about the Colonel’s love and also why he keeps disappearing.

·       The mystery was interesting, and I went along with the red herrings and did not guess the murderer until the end.

Overall, The Perils of Lady Catherine de Bourgh by Claudia Gray is an intriguing mystery with a fantastic cast of characters and a great setting.  Gray perfectly captures the Regency world of Jane Austen and her characters.

BOOK DESCRIPTION

The third book in the Mr. Darcy & Miss Tilney Mystery series, which finds the amateur sleuths facing their most daunting challenge yet: preventing the murder of the imperious Lady Catherine de Bourgh.

Someone is trying to kill Lady Catherine de Bourgh. Esteemed aunt of Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy, generous patroness of Mr. William Collins, a woman of rank who rules over the estate of Rosings Park with an unimpeachable sense of propriety—who would dare? Lady Catherine summons her grand-nephew, Mr. Jonathan Darcy, and his investigative companion, Miss Juliet Tilney, to find out.

After a year apart, Jonathan and Juliet are thrilled to be reunited, even if the circumstances—finding whoever has thus far sabotaged Lady Catherine's carriage, shot at her, and nearly pushed her down the stairs—are less than ideal. Also less than ideal: their respective fathers, Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy and Mr. Henry Tilney, have accompanied the young detectives to Rosings, and the two men do not interact with the same felicity enjoyed by their children.

With attempts against Lady Catherine escalating, and no one among the list of prime suspects seemingly capable of committing all of the attacks, the pressure on Jonathan and Juliet mounts—even as more gentle feelings between the two of them begin to bloom. The race is now on to provoke two confessions: one from the attempted murderer before it is too late—and one, perhaps, of love.

AUTHOR BIO

Claudia Gray is the pseudonym of Amy Vincent. She is the author of the Mr. Darcy and Miss Tilney Mysteries, which began with The Murder of Mr. Wickham. She is also the writer of multiple young adult novels, including the Evernight series, the Firebird trilogy, and the Constellation trilogy; in addition, she’s written several Star Wars novels, such as Lost Stars and Bloodline, and is one of the story architects of the High Republic series. She makes her home in New Orleans with her husband Paul and assorted small dogs.