Review: ‘Death Comes to Pemberley’ by P.D. James

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Updated: February 2, 2012 8:01AM

With the publication of Death Comes to Pemberley (Knopf, $25.95), P.D. James, the doyenne of British crime fiction, can now add heir apparent to Jane Austen’s creative legacy to her literary accomplishments.

Pemberley, Austen fans know, is the estate of Mr. Darcy, the man Elizabeth Bennet marries in Pride and Prejudice. Death Comes to Pemberley is a murder mystery that takes place six years after they wed.

In James’ deft hands, the couple’s life after Pride and Prejudice is imagined in a delightful, although eerily prescient way. It’s as if James is channeling Austen, perfectly emulating her in language, rhythm and tone.

But this is no cozy tale. On a blustery evening, as the Darcys and their guests, including Elizabeth’s sister Jane and her husband, Bingley, prepare to call it a night, a chaise is seen “lurching and swaying” toward the house. When the coach grinds to a halt, a screaming and hysterical Lydia (Elizabeth and Jane’s high-strung sister) topples out. A person known to all of them, she wails, is dead. Austen fans need no reminder of the trouble Lydia brought to her family when she eloped with the roguish George Wickham. Nothing, apparently, has changed. What ensues is the discovery of a body in the woods, an investigation, an arrest and a trial with a shocking outcome.

Last year, James announced she was writing something “entirely different” from the 14 Cmdr. Adam Dalgliesh novels for which she’s famous.

“I’m writing a shorter novel” because “I wasn’t quite sure whether I could begin a new Dalgliesh, which takes about three years to do. I hate the thought of not completing it,” she said with a subtle acknowledgment of her advanced age.

Now 91, she’s released this magnificent novel. We can only hope for a sequel. We wish P.D. James all the time in the world.

Carol MemmottGannett News Service