I really enjoyed this installment of the A Mr. Darcy and Miss Tilney Mystery series, The Rushworth Family Plot. The elder Darcys have decided young Mr. Darcy mush go to London with them, and when their visit is cut short, that he must stay as continue to socialize (reminder, the elder Mr. Darcy was not in favor of his son’s attachment to Miss Tilney). Miss Tilney’s grandfather, having hear that Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy has turned up his nose at his granddaughter, has decided that Juliet, accompanied by her mother, must go to London and sparkle. Neither is happy about an enforced stay in London, but when they meet up at a ball, with no murder in sight, they are delighted. Jonathan Darcy is determined that he will court Miss Tilney and bring his father around to the match. Alas, this is a murder mystery series with a romance B plot, so murders must occur and the romance must be thwarted. Again.
I admit that I went into this installment with a let’s get a move on attitude.
I had forgotten how much I enjoy Claudia Gray’s writing and the careful way she is working towards an eventual match between Jonathan and Juliet. By the end of the book, I have an idea where Gray is going with the Jonathan and Juliet romance, and I feel like it’s going to end a lot better than Romeo and Juliet’s romance.
The Rushworth Family Plot reintroduces us to Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park characters. You may or may not recall that in The Murder of Mr. Wickham, Mr. Darcy and Miss Tilney protected Mrs. Fanny Bertram during their investigation into Mr. Wickham’s murder. The Darcys ask the Bertrams to host Mr. Darcy in London, which nicely facilitates the continued connection between Jonathan and Juliet, and puts them in a position to investigate all the Bertram family related murders.
Throughout the series, Gray has examined the double standard between men’s and women’s behavior and reputation. Miss Tilney has always been criticized by others for investigating murders while Mr. Darcy’s reputation has benefited greatly from the same behavior. In Rushworth Family Plot, Gray revisits some of Jane Austen’s love triangles. Most prominently, we see Maria Rushworth, her ex-husband Mr. Rushworth, and her erstwhile lover, Mr. Henry Crawford. Gray also brings in Caroline Bingley, now Mrs. Allerdyce, and her determination that if she can’t be the mistress of Pemberly, her younger daughter will be. If the crassness of investigating murders doesn’t put Miss Tilney out of contention for Mr. Darcy’s hand, she’ll find something that does. Fortunately for us, young Mr. Darcy has been reading Ivanhoe, and has taken the correct lesson, rather than the lesson Sir Walter Scott was teaching.
Gray also expands on Fanny Bertram’s moral opposition to profiting off the enslavement of people. Fanny and Edmund are secondary characters, but their quiet conversations about Maria Rushworth, abolition, and their struggles with fertility are lovely and give depth to the story.
I received this as an advance reader copy from Vintage Publishing and NetGalley. My opinions are my own, freely and honestly given.