If Jane Austen hadn't been too gentile to include murder in her novels, I'm sure she would have written it in a similar fashion to Lynn Shepherd's tribute mystery Murder at Mansfield Park (#283). And Fanny Price is certainly a character JA's fans would rejoice to see in the role of victim. (At least this one did!)
If you've ever read the original Mansfield Park, or seen any of the film adaptions of it, you know the general story and characters. Even if you haven't, you can still enjoy Ms. Shepherd's story on its own merits, as my husband did (and he's not a JA fan!).
I recently read Ms. Shepherd's take off of Charles Dickens' Bleak House entitled Solitary House (See my post of 3/17/13.) and was so taken with it and the references to the older Charles Maddox's work in solving the murder at Mansfield Park during the Regency period, that I had to go back and read this first novel. Much as I enjoyed reading Murder at Mansfield Park, I think Ms. Shepherd has really found her metier in the London of Dickens' time. She has based her next novel on Charles Maddox the younger, and I think that's a wise choice. That's not to say that I wouldn't welcome any further ventures into the world of Jane Austen - I'd be right there in line to read the next the one!
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