3.5*
I've read many Jane Austen continuation stories, and I enjoyed this one. Of course it is necessary to tell each character's past events, balancing that requirement with what has occurred since we last knew them. But too often in this book it felt like the character had not grown at all.
Like Knightly continuing to not trust Churchill because of his choice for a secret engagement with Jane Fairfax 16 years ago. Even after Frank redeemed himself by staying in the area to raise his motherless daughter, and who helped the Bates women out of destitution. It seemed a way to plug a fact into the story, but it makes them flat characters who do not live and breathe.
Or how pride and the Elliots had to be connected. Captain Wentworth thought Mrs. Wentworth prideful because of her family? I thought Ms. Gray was talking about sister Mary at this point, but not Ann. Her husband already knows his wife is not like the family she grew up with.
Or how life aboard a ship for a woman is undesirable? Ann's desire was to be alongside Frederick--she loves him, and her looks must have reassured him on a conscious level that she was content, even though it was not Kellynch Hall he was providing. She was not happy there anyway!
I always prefer a little more balance with current events tied nicely into the plot. I wanted a bit more description of places, clothing, equipage, to make the story more rich and authentic. ( )

Cute, with all the main characters from Austen's books in one place. ( )

“The Murder of Mr. Wickham” is a hard book to review and I really wish I could give it a higher rating because there were aspects of it that I loved. The beginning of the book is amazing and it is immediately evident that Lady Gray really gets these characters. There are plenty of moments throughout the book where a character will do/say/think something and it will feel like what that Austen character would do in that moment. I really wished that everything could be nice and that we could all enjoy the nice house party where our beloved characters all interacted. Alas, that was not to be because of the villainous Mr. Wickham.

There are lots of twists and turns and connections that I loved, but ultimately I did not care who killed Wickham. I was not invested in the investigation and I wasn’t invested in the investigators: Juliet Tilney and Jonathan Darcy. I really just wanted a happy moment with characters that I loved to appear on the page! But that wasn’t possible because of plot. And the longer tensions raised amongst the characters, the less like the characters they seemed, but it’s fair to say we’ve never seen Austen’s characters in this type of situation and so it’s natural that they wouldn’t seem themselves. That being said, it was interesting to see each couple work through the problems that arose. Speaking of couples... I wouldn't recommend this to die-hard Fanny/Edmund shippers as they're not shown in a good light.

I normally avoid sequels like this because I worry that it will ruin my view of the characters, but in this case I mostly liked Gray’s version of the characters and it was the mystery I found to be lacking. If you’re a Janeite I do think “The Murder of Mr. Wickham” is worth reading because there are definitely some gems in this book for fans of Miss Jane Austen.

*Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing this E-ARC in exchange for an honest review. ( )

I really enjoyed this book. This was a def a book the suffered because i have not read all of jane austens work but i really loved the murder mystery element and loved the the two new main characgters i def liked the rep for the male and loved the regency elements. It was a fun read and i will def read more by this author!! ( )

I really enjoyed this book. This was a def a book the suffered because i have not read all of jane austens work but i really loved the murder mystery element and loved the the two new main characgters i def liked the rep for the male and loved the regency elements. It was a fun read and i will def read more by this author!! ( )