The ninety-something P.D. James decided to take a break from her Adam Dalgliesh novels and try her hand at a murder mystery featuring characters by her favorite novelist, Jane Austen. She spoke to NPR this morning about the resulting book, Death Comes to Pemberley, (RH/Knopf; RH Large Print; RH Audio).

The book has been enjoying strong reviews. Says USA Today, “Countless authors writing in a plethora of genres have tried to re-create Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, but James’ new novel is incomparably perfect.” Michael Dirda, in the Washington Post, calls it “a solidly entertaining period mystery and a major treat for any fan of Jane Austen.”

Libraries are showing heavy holds in some areas. The book came out on Tuesday and has already risen to #20 on Amazon’s sales rankings.

New information about Austen has come to light in the last week. An Austen scholar is pursuing a hypothesis that arsenic poisoning was the cause of Jane’s early death (it was an element in several medications at the time).  Also, a previously unidentified portrait recently emerged, which may be of Austen. The Telegraph, reports the story with the upbeat headline, “Jane Austen wasn’t as ugly as people think.”

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 8th, 2011 at 4:48 pm and is filed under 2011 -- Fall, Fiction, Mystery & Detective. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.