The Rushworth Family Plot: A Mr. Darcy & Miss Tilney Mystery

Gray’s clever fourth Jane Austen homage (after The Perils of Lady Catherine de Bourgh) keeps her winning streak alive. In 1823, Jonathan Darcy (son of Pride and Prejudice’s Fitzwilliam Darcy) and his sleuthing colleague, Juliet Tilney (daughter of Northanger Abbey’s Catherine Morland), are in London to participate in the social season and possibly find a mate—an unwelcome prospect, since each harbors romantic feelings for the other. When Jonathan’s family must return to Pemberley, he’s forced to board with his father’s friend, Sir Thomas Bertram. Jonathan and Juliet get a respite from their mandated socializing after Maria Rushworth, Bertram’s black-sheep sister, arrives at the family home, and then someone close to her is strangled to death with a length of rope. As a result, the amateur sleuths eagerly exit the London rat race and tap into their deductive acumen. Gray continues to effortlessly capture the language and tone of Austen’s novels, this time heating up the series’ sparkling romance plot while delivering her most intricate puzzle to date. It’s a delight. Agent: Laura Rennert, Andrea Brown Literary. (June)