THE PERILS OF LADY CATHERINE DE BOURGH
This time, the bull’s-eye is trained on Lady Catherine de Bourgh, whom Elizabeth Bennet fans may have occasionally wanted to take a potshot at themselves. Gray makes the entitled heiress more sympathetic than Austen does. She’s still vain and preening, but genuinely frightened by the escalating attempts on her life. Some of the sympathy is generated by the protagonists, young Jonathan Darcy, the shy, introverted son of Elizabeth and Fitzwilliam Darcy, and Juliet Tilney, the daughter of a country parson. Having solved the mystery of Mr. Wickham’s death in The Murder of Mr. Wickham (2022), the pair are eager to save Lady Catherine from a similar fate. As readers root for the mission’s success, they will also hope for a happy resolution to the characters’ tender, tentative steps toward forging a bond closer than friendship. True to the Austen tradition, Gray celebrates love of all kinds. She explores myriad varieties of marriage—marriages of love, of convenience, even of desperation—and gives due respect to all. She also honors Austen in portraying her characters, both those invented by Austen and those of her own devising, giving each a strongly marked character but leaving them open to hidden depths that will surprise and delight readers. The puzzle is intriguing, but its solution is only part of the reward of Gray’s ingenious new franchise.
