It's P.D. James's Jane Austin murder mystery fanfiction! How could it NOT be awesome? Well . . .

[xiphias]

Pride and Prejudice is one of the best novels ever, with some of the best characters ever, best writing ever, and best setting. The plot's a little light, but that's okay -- the plot's just there to hang the characters, language, and humor on, anyway.

P.D. James is one of the best mystery writers of the 20th, and now, 21st, centuries.

So, if P.D. James wrote a murder mystery set at Pemberly, with the characters from Pride and Prejudice, that would HAVE to be awesome, right? How could it go wrong?

Well, it could have an incomprehensible and boring murder, which is cleared up by an eleventh-hour deus ex machina deathbed confession with no foreshadowing or clues whatsoever, cardboard pastiches of Austin's characters, and flat, leaden writing. There is no detecting going on -- the mystery is solved, as I said, when someone just up and confesses out of left field.

In all honesty?

Pretty much ANY of you reading this could have done better, and many of you have.

Comments

[tournevis.livejournal.com]

Read the TLS review today. They agree with you.

[greenlily.livejournal.com]

lillibet (who's currently directing P&P for Theatre@First) told me the same thing.

[gingicat]

The best Jane Austen profic writer is Joan Aiken.

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

The thing is, it's not a trainwreck. PRIDE AND PREJUDICE AND ZOMBIES was a trainwreck, which means it can be enjoyable. DEATH COMES TO PEMBERLY is, unfortunately, merely a boring leaden mess, and doesn't rise to the level of trainwreck, which might be fun.

[metaphortunate.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I only hear that it's dull and bad. So sad!

[pameladean]

Oh dear. My mother just gave me this as a birthday present, and I thought that James was really not at all an Austenian writer; she has very little humor and really lacks a light touch. She can be restrained, but that doesn't really substitute for a light touch.

P.

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

Yeah. My wife gave it to me. And the thing is, it's a really thoughtful present. It SHOULD be exactly the sort of thing that I like.