Title: Death Comes to Pemberley

Author: P. D. James

Type: Fiction

Page Count/Review Word Count: 310

Rating: 3.75*/5

 

P. D. James - Death Comes to Pemberley

P. D. James – Death Comes to Pemberley

 

I picked this book up as a buddy read with some of my BookTube friends and I was pleasantly surprised by it. I haven’t read Pride and Prejudice and so I guess that counts against me, but I’m familiar enough with the basic idea behind it that I could pick up on the story here without needing to read Jane Austen. Although I will admit that now I actually want to, and that’s saying something.

The thing here is that there’s something just a little off about it, and it actually reminded me of reading the Enid Blyton for Grown-Ups books. You can tell that it’s somebody imitating somebody else’s style, but it’s done in a way that feels believable. It’s just not quite right. For that reason, I’m not too sure if I agree with this being published by Faber and Faber when it feels more like it should have been published by Quercus.

Still, it does read like what I imagine it would read like if Jane Austen wrote a detective novel, so that’s pretty cool. In fact, the two settings worked pretty well together, and I think that as long as you enjoy it for what it is, you’ll have fun. The problem would occur when you try to overanalyse it or to start talking about it as though it’s literary fiction. Granted, I’ve never really understood what literary fiction actually is, but I’d class this more as a sort of parody mystery.

All in all, I’m still glad that I read this, and I’m pleased to say that it’s also put me in the mood for reading the original Pride and Prejudice. I think that alone earns this one a thumbs up.

 

P. D. James

P. D. James

 

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