Review by Kelly Jarvis: The Perils of Lady Catherine de Bourgh by Claudia Gray

Are you a fan of Jane Austen? Do you enjoy a murder mystery? If you answered yes to these questions, put The Perils of Lady Catherine de Bourgh on your reading list! This delightful novel is the third in a series featuring young sleuths Juliet Tilney, who currently resides on her grandfather’s estate, Northanger Abbey, and Jonathan Darcy, son of Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet from Pride and Prejudice. After solving two murders in the first two installments of the Mr. Darcy and Miss Tilney Mystery Series, the two amateur detectives are enlisted to prevent the murder of Lady Catherine de Bourgh who has been nearly shot, poisoned, and pushed down the stairs.

Juliet and Jonathan report to Rosings with their fathers in tow, confronting a long list of suspects including William and Charlotte Collins (also of Pride and Prejudice fame). The investigators unravel a complex set of clues while discovering their own deepening feelings for one another which are met with opposition by their respective fathers. Elizabeth Darcy makes a late appearance on the estate, reuniting with her former friend Charlotte and helping to smooth the tensions between the Darcy and Tilney families.

Claudia Gray has created two engaging protagonists in her mystery series. The novel opens with Juliet plunging knives into spare meat in the kitchens, hoping to learn how to identify the different cuts of various murder weapons. She looks forward to the thrill of investigating murders to relieve her of the boredom of piano lessons and polite society. Jonathan is a neurodivergent character who sees the world through a unique lens and must use a “curtain” to obscure his peculiarities. The two sleuths turn their personality quirks into strengths, using their keen observational skills to save the day and move toward a potential relationship which will no doubt be fully explored in future installments of the series.

This was the first book in the series that I read, and I plan to go back and enjoy the first two as well. Fans who long to learn more about their favorite characters from Jane Austen’s world will find much to love in these pages! You can pre-order the book here.

Thank you to NetGalley for a free copy of the book in exchange for a fair review.

Kelly Jarvis works as the Assistant Editor for The Fairy Tale Magazine where she writes stories, poems, essays, book reviews, and interviews. Her poetry has also been featured or is forthcoming in Blue Heron Review, Mermaids Monthly, Eternal Haunted Summer, Forget Me Not Press, The Magic of Us, A Moon of One’s Own, Baseball Bard, and Corvid Queen. Her short fiction has appeared in The Chamber Magazine and the World Weaver Press Anthology Mothers of Enchantment: New Tales of Fairy Godmothers. You can connect with her on Facebook (Kelly Jarvis, Author) or Instagram (@kellyjarviswriter) or find her at https://kellyjarviswriter.com/