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Readingomnivore Reviews

Leenie Brown’s NO OTHER CHOICE is an e-book continuation of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. It’s one of her Choices series of sequels, but no publication date is given. It focuses on the much-neglected middle daughter Mary Bennet.

At Netherfield, Mary Bennet has become acquainted with Lady Sophia Rycroft, Darcy’s aunt, and with Georgiana Darcy. Lady Sophia enjoys the company of young women and often has one as a houseguest during the Season, introducing her to the Ton and helping her to make a suitable marriage. She concludes that Mary is the ideal wife for her son Lord Samuel Rycroft. Mary, unknowingly, is this Season’s “project,” with Lady Sophia drawing Lord Rycroft into the design as escort about London for Mary and Georgiana. Rycroft thinks he’s entirely uninterested in Mary, who has not been shy of correcting his manners, but when he discovers his friend Mr. Blackmoore has dishonorable intentions toward her, his feelings clarify speedily. Mary takes a bit longer.

There’s a great sense of speed and rush in NO OTHER CHOICE, at least in part because Mr. Bennet has been ill and is not expected to live long. Darcy and Elizabeth are already married, Bingley and Jane are engaged to be married shortly, and Mr. Bennet is pleased that Mary also may soon be married. Caroline Bingley, increasingly desperate since Darcy’s marriage, is after Rycroft and exceeds her viciousness toward Elizabeth in trying to put Mary off Rycroft. The time period covered in the story is less than two weeks.

Other characters are reasonably faithful to the canon, though both Lydia and Kitty seem less silly and hopeless of remedy. Darcy and Elizabeth are distinctly secondary characters. One thing that irks me is the incomplete identification of Lord Samuel Rycroft. It’s dropped into the story that he’s an Earl, which makes his mother the Countess, but his title is never given. Shouldn’t it be given in formal introductions, “Lord Samuel Rycroft, Earl of ____”?

NO OTHER CHOICE is above average as Austen fan fiction goes. (A-/B+)
 
Margaret Gale’s “Ice and Fire at Pemberley” is a Jane Austen short story variant of Pride and Prejudice available in e-book format. That’s all I can tell you about the story. The cover is illegible on Kindle; the story contains no publication date, no title page, and no table of contests. It does, however, use dialogue from Austen’s Emma and from Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing.

Four named characters populate the story: Elizabeth Bennet, Georgiana Darcy, Fitzwilliam Darcy, and the housekeeper Mrs. Reynolds. There is no indication of when the events in “Ice and Fire at Pemberley” occur in relation to the events in the original. Elizabeth and Georgiana are friends with Elizabeth visiting her at Pemberley; nothing indicates when or how they met. A single man having an unmarried, unchaperoned woman in his home even with his sister present is a glaring anachronism.

When they are playing in the garden in the snow and Georgiana falls through the ice on the lake, Elizabeth rescues her. Realizing that Georgiana will not survive soaked through, Elizabeth strips to her undergarments and puts her own clothing on Georgiana to keep her warm while she goes to the house for aid. Georgiana is carried to the house and warmed, suffering no long-term damage.

Elizabeth, in the meantime, concludes that she has brought scandal on herself by stripping off her own and Georgiana’s clothes in the open to redress her warmly, that the accident was her fault for their being in the garden and near the lake in the first place, that she’s compromised herself by sitting alone with Darcy when clothed only in her underclothes and her fully-buttoned long overcoat. Moreover, she thinks the Darcys will be mortified by scandal for having such a woman in their home. She resolves to leave immediately, Darcy realize his feelings and proposes, Elizabeth accepts, and they all live happily ever after.

This summary is about as exciting as the action of the story. The time frame of “Ice and Fire at Pemberley” is less than 24 hours. Other than Darcy and Elizabeth acknowledging their love for each other, there’s no character development whatsoever. Don’t bother. (F)
 
Jennifer Joy’s ACCUSING ELIZABETH is an e-book variant published in 2016 of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice.

ACCUSING ELIZABETH begins at Darcy’s proposal to Elizabeth Bennet during her visit to married friend Charlotte Lucas Collins at Hunsford. As Darcy and Colonel Fitrzwilliam linger at Rosings, Darcy to try to change Elizabeth’s opinion of him and Fitzwilliam to handle some undisclosed problem and to help Anne de Bourgh, Lady Catherine pressures Darcy to propose to Anne, who wants the marriage as little as he. When Anne’s diamond earrings go missing, Elizabeth Bennet and Maria Lucas are Lady Catherine’s prime suspects, and she plans to prosecute to the fullest extent of the law. To protect her pregnant friend Charlotte and her obnoxious cousin Collins, Elizabeth confesses to the theft and is locked up. Can Darcy and Fitzwilliam find the thief without the incident becoming major scandal?

Characters are much as presented in the original, though Lady Catherine de Bourgh is more manipulative and vicious and Mr. Collins more obsequious and vindictive. This intensification casts some doubt on the two’s apparent reformation as the truth emerges. The plot is drawn out with angst that could have been settled with a few minutes’ frank discussion between Elizabeth and Darcy and between Darcy and Fitzwilliam. Her naive trust that Maria Lucas will do the right thing adds to the problem that Elizabeth complicates with her confession.

Two things that bothered me. Without specific details of the entail that settles Longbourn on Mr. Collins following Mr. Bennet’s death, it’s impossible to certain, but Mr. Collins selling his claim to Longbourn to Darcy seems to violate the whole idea of entail, which is to preserve an estate within a blood-kin family. The second is the use of a phrase straight out of the 2005 film version of Pride and Prejudice, when Darcy is described as “perfectly, incandescently happy,” as well as the early morning meetings motif.

ACCUSING ELIZABETH is a pleasant enough read. (B)
 
THE WOLF AT THE GATE is the third book in J. J. Sakeld’s Natural Detective series featuring Owen Irvine along with DI Andy Hall and his crew from Kendal Nick of the Cumbria Constabulary. It was published in e-book format in 2016.

When Keith Woolfenden’s daughter dies of an overdose of designer drugs and the police can offer no solution, Andy Hall sends him to Owen Irvine, who’s been thoroughly warned off investigative work. Woolfenden convinces Irvine to see what he can do, which is to provoke the dealers into a confrontation that allows Irvine to learn the names of some of the dealers one step up the ladder. With help from ex-con Graham Fell, now working as farm labor for Irvine, and retired cop Ray Dixon, who’s keen on investigation now that he’s no longer on the job, Irvine and Hall manage to set up a highly successful raid on the organization. But then Irvine’s son Danny and Tom Atkins of MI5 are drawn in, and all bets are off.

***POSSIBLE SPOILERS***

THE WOLF AT THE GATE features characters who are attractive and believable, with realistic relationships both personal and professional, but character development is sketchy. Salkeld foreshadows Keith Woolfenden as being up to something, but there’s no follow up unless a sequel is planned. It’s as if Salkeld planned for Woolfenden to be involved, then changed his mind without revising. I like that Sandy Smith, head of the Cumbria Constabulary’s Forensics Unit, is back as irascible and profane as ever, but I’d like to know the outcome of her cancer treatment begun in the last book.

The plot seems malformed. The raid on the drug premises comes too early, with the final confrontation involving MI5 and the dealers as anticlimax. There’s little sense of danger or suspense to draw the reader in, though the subject--sale of artificially-concocted designer drugs with the money then used to finance terrorism--is topical. Sense of place is sadly lacking.

THE WOLF AT THE GATE feels rushed, almost phoned in, when compared with other Salkeld novels. (C)
 
Harold Schechter’s THE MAD SCULPTOR: THE MANIAC, THE MODEL, AND THE MURDER THAT SHOOK THE NATION is a true crime published in e-book format in 2014. It is the story of a series of horrific murders committed by Robert Irwin in and around Beekman Place in New York City in the late 1930s.

I’m giving up at 48 per cent. The storyline is too long and too disjointed. It begins with discussion of two other murders in the same area within the previous year. The first murderer confessed but got off on a plea of self-defense. A neighborhood man was executed for the second murder. To this point, Schechter has not tied either case to Robert Irwin.

Schechter seems to have mentioned by name every victim, witness, policeman, lawyer, doctor, relative, friend, and every other person who came in contact with Robert Irwin. He provides copious information on each of the major figures involved with the development of Irwin’s delusional system. The writing style is distinctly reminiscent of the sexually-oriented themes and expressions of the pulp fiction of the 1930s.

THE MAD SCULPTOR seems to have the makings of an interesting true crime book. It reflects the long-lasting problem in managing mentally-ill patients who are dangers to themselves and others, still relevant.. It offers insight into police and legal practices of the earlier period. However, I don’t find it worth wading through the tangential verbiage. No grade because not finished.
 
May Lydon Simonsen’s “Darcy and Elizabeth Answered Prayers” is a short story variant of Jane Austen’ Pride and Prejudice. It was published in e-book format in 2015.

In “Darcy and Elizabeth Answered Prayers,” Fitzwilliam Darcy returns home to Pemberley a day before his sister Georgiana and the Bingley party, to find Elizabeth Bennet and her relatives the Gardiners touring the gardens. Having received several days of heavy rain, the Wye River between Pemberley and Lambton reaches flood stage, cutting off the visitors at Pemberley. Darcy welcomes the chance to welcome Elizabeth and demontrate his changed attitudes. During the evening, Elizabeth and Darcy talk in his study and resolve their misunderstandings. And they all lived happily ever after.

There’s nothing new in “Darcy and Elizabeth Answered Prayers.” Characters are not developed beyond Austen’s, with much of the story devoted to showing Darcy as a kind, considerate employer. Readers know this from Mrs. Reynolds in the original. The only new character who is more than a name is Darcy’s friend John Hulstead, who’s only referred to as his host before Darcy leaves the house party at Hulstead. As with Austen, there’s little sense of place. In places Darcy and Elizabeth show attitudes much more twenty-first than early nineteenth century.

“Darcy and Elizabeth Answered Prayers” is a pleasant quick read, but nothing distinguishes it. (C)
 
Helen Stone’s A PEMBERLEY BRIDE is a 2016 e-book variant of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. It is one of the stronger fan fiction adaptations.

A PEMBERLEY BRIDE begins as Elizabeth Bennet and her relatives Mr. and Mrs. Gardiner are visiting Pemberley during their trip to Lambton. Elizabeth, running through the woods, trips and severely sprains her ankle. Mr. Darcy, coming a day early to conduct business before the arrival of Georgiana and the Bingley family house party, finds Elizabeth, carries her to Pemberley, calls the physician to examine her, and insists that she and the Gardiners join his guests until Elizabeth is healed enough to travel. This will provide him with the opportunity to convince Elizabeth that he has corrected the faults she’d criticized at the time of his less-than-romantic proposal at Hunsford. They soon reach a mutually agreeable engagement. Caroline Bingley still is determined to marry Darcy; she’s convinced that, should Elizabeth become a disgrace to the Darcy name, Darcy will drop Elizabeth and choose herself. But how can Caroline cause a scandal involving Elizabeth Bennet without her machinations becoming known?

I can’t summarize the plot further without doing a spoiler. Characters are carried over from Pride and Prejudice without much change except for Caroline, whose delusion about marrying Mr. Darcy emphasizes her nastiness and hatred for Elizabeth. Caroline performs two dastardly acts to hurt Elizabeth, and it’s gratifying to see Miss Bingley hoist on her own petard. In a few places, Darcy and Elizabeth show modern attitudes.

A PEMBERLEY BRIDE is well worth the time. (A-)
 
Collin Wilcox’s HIRE A HANGMAN is one of his mystery series featuring Lt. Frank Hastings of the San Francisco Police Department. It’s available in e-book format but no publication dates are given. Based on internal evidence, its setting is mid-twentieth century, before forensics became so important.

Dr. Brice Hanchett, egomaniacal, womanizing head of surgery at Barrington Medical Center in San Francisco, leaves the home of his mistress Carla Pfiefer and is shot to death. As Lt. Hastings and his crew work the case, they turn up an indifferent current wife Barbara who has a lover of her own; an alienated ex-wife and son who hate him; Carla’s daughter Paula whom he’d abused sexually; and Paula’s father Edward Gregg. Besides these personal enemies, Hanchett chairs the Barrington Transplant Team, deciding which patients receive an organ transplant and who dies without it. Is the motive for his death personal or professional?

I’m giving up at about 25 per cent. I can’t get into the story. There’s no immediacy or tension in the plot. The story is presented as very much a one-man show for Hastings with almost no development of character. At this point the reader knows that Hasting’s divorced and remarried with a stepson, he formerly played football for the Lions, and he abused alcohol in the past. Colleagues are names only, except for Inspector Joe Canelli, an overeager bumbler who may be meant as a comic foil for Hastings. The tone reminds me of Sergeant Joe Friday of Dragnet: “Just the facts, m’am, just the facts.”

Sense of place is the best-written element in HIRE A HANGMAN, but it is barely above average. No grade because not finished.
 
Caitlin Williams's ARDENTLY is a 2015 e-book variant of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. It contains the most comprehensive revision of the plot than I've read in Austen fan fiction. To keep from doing spoilers, I'll only note some of the most significant changes.

ARDENTLY opens in May 1813, less than a year after Elizabeth Bennet's return to Longbourn following her visit to Reverend and Mrs. Collins at Hunsford, where she'd turned down Fitzwilliam Darcy's inept proposal of marriage. She received his explanatory letter but has no further communication with him. Mr. Bennet calls to Elizabeth's attention the notice of the marriage of Darcy to Anne de Bourgh. Mrs. Elizabeth Mountford, Mr. Bennet's younger sister, invites one of her nieces to come for a visit to her estate Oakdene in Staffordshire. Elizabeth volunteers to go. The two-month visit extends to three years, with the understanding that Elizabeth will make her home with Mrs. Mountford permanently. On a whim in spring 1816, they travel to Bath, where the action of ARDENTLY occurs.

Other major changes include Jane Bennet marrying Edward Turner, a young businessman who starts with nothing and becomes wealthy; Lydia eloping to Gretna Green with Captain Denny; Charles Bingley marrying one of his sister Caroline's friends, Cecelia; George Wickham marrying Mary King; Anne de Bourgh Darcy dying; and Elizabeth being courted by a young gentleman Frederick Yorke.

Point of view shifts between Elizabeth and Darcy as they work through their feelings and slowly establish a more adult understanding of each other. Williams introduces a host of new characters, the most attractive of whom is Mrs. Mountford, who is much more maternal to Elizabeth than is Mrs. Bennet. The change in Darcy that had him marrying Anne so soon after his proposal to Elizabeth bothered me until the story of his marriage gradually emerged. Caroline Bingley is even more determined to marry the widower Darcy and more vituperative toward Elizabeth, and it's enjoyable when Caroline's karma kicks in.

Several things bother me. One involves occasional glitches where spell check did not recognize an error in world choice (moments/ monuments). Darcy once calls himself a "self cuckold"; I don't know what Williams was trying to say, but I'm pretty sure this isn't correct usage. The epilogue is overly long, pulling together all of the characters` lives since Darcy and Elizabeth became engaged, including the beginning of a courtship for Georgiana Darcy by the heir of the Viscountess Winslow. It makes the conclusion proper into anticlimax.

What bothers me most is the extent to which Williams "borrowed" from other Austen works to build the plot of ARDENTLY. There are at least four distinct scenes and/or speeches from Persuasion, plus the running through the streets of Bath scene from the 2007 film version of Persuasion. There's more than a touch of Anne Elliot and Frederick Wentworth in Darcy and Elizabeth's tentative second approach to love. There are also at least one clipping each from Northanger Abbey (John Thorpe's wild drive in his gig), Sense and Sensibility (Marianne's anxious wait for Willloughby to contact her in London), and Emma.

ARDENTLY is the best fan fiction variant on Pride and Prejudice that I've read to date. (A-)
 
Christopher Warwick’s GEORGE AND MARINA: DUKE AND DUCHESS OF KENT is a joint biography of the youngest son and daughter-in-law of George V of England. Marina was the granddaughter of King George I of Hellenes; her maternal grandfather was Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich, giving her both royal and imperial descent. GEORGE AND MARINA was originally published in 1988, then reissued in e-book format in 2015.

Having read Deborah Cadbury’s 2015 Princes at War recently, I am much disappointed in GEORGE AND MARINA, which is sketchy at best in its coverage of anything personal about both its subjects. George’s bisexuality, his elder brother David (temporarily Edward VIII) and his being arrested for public late- night cross-dressing complete with women’s make-up, his drug addiction, the widowed Marina’s affairs are alluded to without specific details. I do not get a sense of either George or Marina’s personality.

Warwick makes much of the closeness of George with his elder brother David, but he ignores their support of the pro-Nazi peace movement during the 1930s. He emphasizes the important role George played before World War II in improving working and living conditions for the poor and, during the War, serving as the King George VI’s eyes and ears in military affairs. He was on a mission to Iceland (supposedly) when he died in a plane crash over Scotland. Warwick reveals nothing new about the crash.

The writing style is bland, with no footnotes or endnotes. Instead Warwick uses the name of the source in the text, which is awkward and inadequate. Most sources are secondary and/or, if written by a participant, published later, thus edited both by requirements for writing about English royalty and by time. The family tree is illegible in the Kindle edition. A character list with titles, official names, and family nicknames is badly needed, since Warwick uses them interchangeably so that it’s not always clear exactly to whom he refers. The account seems padded. GEORGE AND MARINA reminds me of raisin bread, mostly plain bread with only an occasional raisin for flavor. Not recommended. (D)
 
IMPERTINENT STRANGERS is one of P. O. Dixon’ variations on Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. It is available in e-book format.

Dixon begins this variant with Darcy and Elizabeth first acquainted when she visits newly-married William and Charlotte Lucas Collins at Hunsford while Darcy and Colonel Fitzwilliam are on their annual visit to Rosings and their aunt Lady Catherine de Bourgh. The Bingleys have not taken Netherfield, and there has not been an assembly at Meryton. Darcy and Elizabeth are mutually attracted, but Elizabeth believes George Wickham’s stories of mistreatment by Darcy. She ignores advice from Charlotte, Lady Catherine, Colonel Fitzwilliam, and Darcy that she tell her parents about Wickham’s dissolute character. Darcy brings his sister Georgiana to Rosings to meet Elizabeth, their acquaintance progressing smoothly until Lydia elopes from Brighton with Wickham. Darcy offers to help and does mastermind Wickham and Lydia’s wedding. Elizabeth knows of his help throughout, since she stays in London with the Gardiners through the nuptials. How can Darcy, with his pride and family feeling now marry Elizabeth, making himself Wickham’s brother and possibly damaging Georgina’s prospects for an advantageous marriage?

Major characters are not changed significantly, though Lady Catherine is even more malevolently determined that Darcy will marry her daughter Anne, to the point of concocting a vicious plot. Anne de Bourgh is selfish, and Mr. Collins so vindictive as to resent Elizabeth’s leaving Hunsford for the Gardiners before he has time to censure her and to banish her from the parsonage. The Bingleys arrive at Netherfield, with Darcy in tow, only after Wickham and Lydia’s removal from Longbourn to Newcastle.

A few small things bother me about IMPERTINENT STRANGERS. One is the lack of commas where needed with subordinate clauses. Occasionally words are omitted that alter the meaning of sentences. Mrs. Jenkinson’s addressing one of the Rosings footmen as “Mr. Thomas” is anachronistic. Worst is Mrs. Bennet’s remark to Elizabeth about a mother’s concern for getting daughters married, taken not from Austen’s original but from the 2005 film adaptation.

IMPERTINENT STRANGERS is still one of the better fan fiction variants on Pride and Prejudice. (B+)
 
ENTANGLEMENTS OF HONOR is Renata McMann and Summer Hanford’s novella variant of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. It was published in e-book format in 2016.

Jane Bennet is ill at Netherfield Park, attended by her sister Elizabeth, when the house suddenly begins to fill with thick smoke. Mr. Hurst evacuates Louisa and Caroline, while Darcy goes to Jane’s room, thinking to find Elizabeth there. She lsn’t, but Jane is. Darcy gets her out of the house but the smoke has so worsened Jane’s coughing and breathing problems that he’s afraid to leave her. Elizabeth, in the meantime, meets Bingley as he’s en route through the dense smoke to rescue Jane. He falls and knocks himself unconscious; when Elizabeth can’t rouse him, she drags Bingley into a bedroom where smoke is less dense. Despite the emergency and the innocence of their activities, in the rigid rules for association of unmarried men and women, Darcy has compromised Jane, and Bingley has compromised Elizabeth. The only recourse to save their honor is for the men each to marry the woman he compromised regardless of their personal feelings. Can the entanglements be managed so that the couples may follow their hearts?

I’m giving up at 25 per cent of ENTANGLEMENTS OF HONOR. The characters seem much like their originals, though Caroline is less attractive than ever in her snobbery, but cutting between points of view every few pages makes the action choppy without adding much characterization. Mr. Hurst’s ability to assume command and effectively organize the servants to find and deal with the fire is a pleasant surprise. I don’t, however, see Darcy and Bingley discussing the problem of the Bennet women for the first time in the presence of the Hursts and Caroline. Perhaps because modern mores are so different, I can’t get into the whole “compromised” situation. No grade because not finished.
 
Bruce Beckham’s MURDER AT THE WAKE is the seventh book in his DI Daniel Skelgill series set in the Lake District of northern England. It is available inexpensively published in e-book format in 2016.

Sir Sean Willoughby O’More dies of old age at his family home Crummock Hall. His daughter Shauna Regulus-O’More drowned in a boating accident with her husband years before, so his survivors are his younger never-married identical twin Declan Thomas O’More and his five grandchildren. His grandchildren inherit the estate jointly, to decide themselves whether to maintain Crummock Hall in the family or to sell out. Declan summons the family solicitor to draw his will, but on Sunday following Sir Sean’s Friday funeral, someone bludgeons Declan to death. Marooned at Crummock by huge snowfall, only the youngest of the Regulus-O’Mores has an alibi; she’s lost on the mountain at the time of death indicated by the stopped clock in Declan’s study. But Skelgill, who’s dropped off by air-rescue helicopipter to begin the investigation, discovers the clock had been adjusted and that there’s no evidence of a break-in or anyone (except himself) entering Crummock Hall from the outside. Who needed to murder a 93-year-old man? The mystery only deepens when the elderly butler Thwaites dies following Declan’s funeral. What is going on at Crummock?

MURDER AT THE WAKE disappoints me greatly. One of the main attractions for me in police procedurals is the relationship between a team of professionals, individuals working together toward a specific goal. The Skelgill series began that way, but the last couple of books, and especially MURDER AT THE WAKE, lose that. Beckham has introduced an unreliable narrator, offering multiple possibilities of what Skelgill MIGHT be thinking about but giving no insight into his thought processes or conclusions. There’s little character development to reveal new aspects of the teams’ personalities. Skelgill himself is a black hole into which information flows but from which nothing emerges until the denouement. Beckham’s having him bed down with a female suspect in each of the last two books is off-putting.

The plot grows out of a situation begun in the seventeenth century involving a treasure known to only two living people, Declan and his killer. Beckham focuses attention away from the killer effectively and conceals the information about the treasure, which is the motive. It isn’t very satisfying. Sense of place remains firm.

Beckham’s Skelgill books have been an automatic new release buy for me since I began reading it, but MURDER AT THE WAKE makes me question that decision. (C-)
 
ILLUSION TOWN is the latest to date (2016) in the Jayne Ann Krentz, writing as Jayne Castle, series set on psi-rich Harmony, settled some two hundred years before from Old Earth. Over the years, the settlers create a stable society based on the sanctity of family and evolve rapidly, developing various para-psychic “talents” that allow at least some control over the powerful energies left by Aliens who’d abandoned Harmony millennia before humans arrived.

Hannah West, known in the Dark Zone of Illusion Town (the Las Vegas of Harmony) as “Finder,” specializes in locating missing, stolen, or lost items, especially antiquities. She’s a powerful dreamlight talent. An orphan reared by a pair of former showgirls, Hannah is obsessed with finding her family history; she’s recently located the central stone of an inexpensive necklace that is her only legacy from her murdered parents. She has completed a job for Elias Coppersmith, head of Coppersmith Research and Development Labs, who’s working on Illusion Town’s Alien ruins, Ghost City. He calls for a dinner date, but an emergency in Ghost City intervenes. When she wakes up the next morning, she’s in a by-the-hour motel with no memory of the events of the previous night, beside Elias Coppersmith, to whom she’s wed in a Marriage of Convenience (legally recognized temporary affair). As memories return, they realize they had escaped from would-be kidnappers. What is going on, and why?

Hannah West and Elias Coppersmith are standard protagonists in the Harmony series of books: both off-the-charts in psi-talents, working together on some important project, one or both with major emotional baggage. Though ILLUSION TOWN ends with the celebration of Hannah and Elias’s Covenant Marriage (totally permanent), somehow the chemistry between them seems artificial.

Two sex scenes (nothing too graphic) feel included because required in the genre. Both are a bit more developed than in the past few books in the Harmony series. My favorite character is Hannah’s dust bunny Virgil, who gets stuck inside a prize-dispensing carnival machine while collecting an Arizona Snow action figure that becomes his talisman. (This is an inside joke--Arizona Snow is a character in Krentz’s Arcane Society series set on present-day Earth. Arizona’s regarded as a full-blown conspiracy-theorizing, paranoid kook, except she’s often right.)

Through the severe limit placed on the number of characters, Krentz telegraphs the identity of “The Collector.” Having others besides Hannah and Elias find much of the information needed to identify the antagonist lessens the impact of the protagonists. The story ambles, then rushes the denouement.

Overall, ILLUSION TOWN is better than the previous Harmony novel, but it’s nowhere near Krentz’s best writing. (C)
 
AS GOOD AS A LORD is another of P. O. Dixon’s fan fiction novella variants on Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. It is available in e-book format, but I did not find a publication date.

Elizabeth Bennet has been home at Longbourn long enough to have second thoughts about her ungracious refusal of Fitzwilliam Darcy’s botched marriage proposal at Hunsford. When she finally tells Jane, Mrs. Bennet overhears the conversation and determines that she will bring about the opportunity for Darcy to propose again. After all, in her scheme come of things, £10,000 per year is “as good as a lord.” To this end, Mrs. Bennet accompanies the Gardiners and Elizabeth on their tour in Derbyshire and manages to fall into the lake at Pemberley. catching a severe cold which confines her to bed there. The Gardiners are recalled to London, so Darcy promises that he will personally escort the Bennet ladies to Longbourn when Mrs. Bennet recovers. He’s eager to keep Elizabeth at Pemberley until he can show her that her reproofs have taken effect and that he still loves her. But, determined to do his family duty to marry and beget an heir, he’d become close to Lord Harold Davenport, the Earl of Stafford, inviting him and his family for a long visit at Pemberley; Darcy planned to choose either Lady Althea or Lady Bethany Davenport to wife, since Elizabeth refused. But now her feelings have changed and his only deepened, so how can he with honor extricate himself from the Davenports?

The four Davenports are the only character additions to the Austen originals, who remain much as she created them. Some attitudes are more modern than nineteenth century. The Davenport girls compete for Darcy’s attention, each calling attention to her own suitability and criticizing the other, uniting only to bad-mouth Elizabeth and to insult her to her face. They out-Caroline Caroline Bingley. Members of the Davenports repeat verbatim many of Lady Catherine de Bourgh’s remarks to and about Elizabeth.

What bothers me is the extent to which AS GOOD AS A LORD is “cut and paste” from Pride and Prejudice. Dixon lifts bodily large sections of the key letters so important in the original, as well as major chunks of dialogue from key confrontational scenes. If an author’s writing is in the public domain, is it legally or morally fair game for another author to publish without attribution? Still, AS GOOD AS A LORD is an enjoyable, quick-read variant. (B+)
 
Barbara Pym’s LESS THAN ANGELS is available in e-book format. I do not find a publication date.

I’m giving up at about twenty per cent because I can’t tell where the story is headed. Pym has so far introduced characters, all connected themselves or through family to a newly-opened anthropology library and research center somewhere in London. Most characters are little more than names. Pym has not indicated who is her intended protagonist. None is particularly appealing or seems to share an emotional tie with anyone else.

Sense of place is lacking. Pym does not name the library or indicate any educational institution with which it is associated. Atmosphere is lacking, with names of streets and suburbs establishing the physical locale. She gives few clues to the time of the story, though it’s presumably post-World War II. Pym has not introduced a problem.

No grade because not finished.
 
Jayne Ann Krentz wrote DARK LIGHT under the pseudonym Jayne Castle that she uses for her science fiction titles. It’s another in her series set in the city-states of Harmony, the psi-rich planet to which humans immigrated when the energy curtain opened and allowed access to other worlds. DARK LIGHT was published in 2008.

Sierra McIntyre works as an investigative reporter for the tabloid The Curtain, where she specializes in stories involving the Crystal City Guild. the semi-secret organization that controls much having to do with the Aliens-created Underworld. Her recent stories about ex-Guild men addicted to the new street drug “ghost juice” and numbers of homeless hunters who’ve disappears attract the attention of new Guild boss John Fontana, who’s been brought in to clean up corruption. To protect Sierra and to use her sources, Fontana convinces her to enter a Marriage of Convenience (legally recognized, temporary marriage easily dissolved at the end of the contract, or sooner) in exchange for inside information on the Guild. Complications ensue as they investigate what’s going on with the Guild and with their growing feelings for each other.

DARK LIGHT is one of the stronger books in the Harmony series. The protagonists are more realistic than most, both with believable baggage from their upbringing--Sierra is an underachieving misfit, Fontana is illegitimate in a society in which family is revered and protected above all else. Each has an variety of likable friends and colleagues. My favorite is Sierra’s dust bunny Elvis, who wears a blinged-out, stand-u p-collared white cape and tiny sunglasses.

Krentz excels in keeping attention focused away from the perpetrator, who’s certainly the least likely person. She does, however, use the TSTL by Sierra of going off alone in response to a phone call up to set a meeting with Fontana, thus putting herself in danger and requiring him to rescue her from the Underworld. Atmosphere and sense of place are better than usual. (B)
 
MURDER ON BRITTANY SHORES is the second book in Jean-Luc Bannalec’s mystery series set in Brittany and featuring Commissaire Georges Dupin, transferred from Paris some four years before. It was published in 2012, translated from German by Sorcha McDonagh, and published in e-book format in 2016.

Point of view is strict limited third person, with everything presented through Dupin. This usually fosters readers’ identification with that character, but when the character dithers and doubts, it can be off-putting. Dupin faces his feelings about former lover Claire as he contemplates an imminent visit from his uncompromisingly Parisienne mother Anna, while working a case involving three bodies washed up in the Isles of Glenan off the coast of Brittany. As he and his team identify the men and look into their backgrounds, they discover many enemies and motives: deep philosophical differences between Lucas and his sister Muriel Lefort over the preservation vs development of the Glenans; Lucas’s relationships with women; political and institutional corruption; treasure hunting in the islands; conflict between Lucas and his investors over control of the development; and secrets from the past. Dupin does not come to grips with the murder in any convincing way.

By far the strongest element in MURDER ON BRITTANY SHORES is the setting. Bannalec is skilled at using atmosphere and culture to establish character and to define place. As to be expected, food plays a major role: “The lobster was incredible. If the Breton lobster, which was a little smaller than the American kind and still dark blue, was already a particular delicacy with its delicious, white flesh, the culinary reputation of the Glenan lobster was--along with that of the other sea creatures of the archipelago--even more impressive. It was self-evidently the ‘best lobster in the world’ but even Dupin, who still smirked to himself sometimes about the proto-Breton tendency to comparatives and superlatives when it came to anything Breton (even though he himself had more or less internalised the habit by now) found the pride completely justified in this instance. The lobster was delicate and at the same time very aromatic, with the exquisite, nutty, bitter note that Dupin liked so much. You had everything that made up the sea on your tongue, magically distilled with every bite.” (49)

The plot seems best measured on a geologic timescale, it moves so slowly. The book at 374 pages is inexplicably drawn out throughout most of the case, as it takes Dupin forever to have his team find the information he needs. Then the ending is both rushed and ambiguous about who killed the men. I can say no more without doing a spoiler.

Too many characters are little more than names, often names that Dupin (nor the reader) can say accurately. Need for a character list with pronunciation key is obvious. There’s little sense of relationship between the members of Dupin’s team. Nolween, Dupin’s all-Breton fountain of wisdom and personal assistant, is minimized in MURDER ON BRITTANY SHORES.

It’s difficult to evaluate a translated book accurately since the translator is always a filter between the original manuscript and the reader. I don’t know how much of the dilution of character owes to that, but MURDER ON BRITTANY SHORES disappointed me. (C+)
 
Cheryl Bolen’s MISS DARCY’S NEW COMPANION is a novella sequel to Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, set immediately after the marriage of Elizabeth Bennet and Fitzwiliam Darcy. The first book in her series of three Jane Austen novellas, it is available as a free or inexpensive e-book.

Georgiana Darcy’s previous companion Mrs. Annesley leaves Pemberley to rear her deceased sister’s children just as the Darcys leave for their honeymoon trip to Italy. Aunt Gardiner’s recommendation and Lucy Wetherspoon’s education and manners lead to Lucy’s becoming Georgiana’s new companion. Lucy’s father, an Oxford professor, lost his money and his house through get-rich-quick investments, his family is broken up, and Lucy must earn her keep. Elizabeth has invited Charlotte and Mr. Collins to visit Georgiana briefly while she and Lucy are alone at Pemberley; Darcy has invited near neighbor Alexander Farrington, the Earl of Fane, who needs to marry money to rebuild Bodworth House, to visit Georgiana in his absence. Fane is Darcy’s good friend, and he favors a match between his sister and Fane. But when Fane meets the beautiful, educated, self-confident Lucy Wetherspoon, they fall in love. As usual, Mr. Collins causes trouble. Can Fane and Lucy ever possibly marry?

Georgiana Darcy and the Collinses are the only major characters taken directly from the original. Lucy and Fane are interesting new additions, though they seem more modern than early-nineteenth-century in character and attitude. I like the role reversal that it’s Fane who becomes ill when his love seems lost to him. I enjoy the occasional flashes of irony that enliven the story.

A pleasant though perfectly predictable quick read. (B+)
 
“From Ashes to Heiresses” is a short story variant on Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice written by Renata McMann and Summer Hanford. It was published in 2016 in e-book format.

“From Ashes to Heiresses” is the first Austen fan fiction that I’ve read in which the Bennet girls’ Uncle Phillips is an active participant. He’s usually mentioned in passing, if at all, as a country solicitor in Meryton, one of the Bennets’ “low” connections. When Longbourn burns to the ground, killing Mr. and Mrs. Bennet and the three younger girls, Jane had been in London with the Gardiners and Elizabeth on the way home from her visit to Hunsford. Uncles Phillips and Gardiner become co-executors of Mr. Bennet’s will; the surviving Bennets will divide their year between Gracechurch Street with the Gardiners and Meryton with the Phillipses. Charles Bingley receives the news of the Bennets’ deaths and learns that his family and Darcy had concealed Jane’s presence in London, which decide him to return to Netherfield immediately. Darcy, who’s come to see the error of his attitude toward Elizabetth’s family and whose feelings for Elizabeth remain unchangd, accompanies him. They arrive just in time to help deal with Lieutenant George Wickham who’s made a determined attempt to compromise Jane to force her into marriage. Seeing Wickham get his just deserts in public is satisfying.

It is a bit callous to kill off the objectionable Bennets in the first paragraph of the story, but featuring Uncle Phillips as an intelligent, sympathetic man is a pleasant change. Other characters follow the canon closely, though McMann and Hanford use some anachronistic terms (among others, ”snootiness” is an early twentieth-century usage, while “takedown” dates from 1893).

No major surprises in the story, but “From Ashes to Heiresses” is enjoyable. (B+)
 
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