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Readingomnivore Reviews

THE GLORIOUS YACHT is a novella addition to fan fiction based on the Sherlock Holmes canon of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. It was written by Craig Stephen Copland and published in e-book format. It was inspired by the Holmes story “The Gloria Scott.”

When Victor Emmanuel Trentacost, the only true friend of Sherlock Holmes besides Dr. John Watson dies on the Titanic, it triggers the recounting of events of late July 1881 when Holmes, Watson, Victor, and Miss Molly Snow on the schooner Indefatigable win the first Fastnet yacht race. Summoned by his father to Cowes for regatta week, Victor invites Holmes and Watson to attend as his guests for company. Holmes soon discovers that the senior Trentacost and his former sailor friends are not what they seem; his revelation and warning to them result in the four young people being locked in the cabin on the abandoned ship in a storm off the Lizard Shoals. Miss Molly captains them safely into Plymouth after rescuing the crew of a yacht capsized in the storm, winning the race.

~~~SPOILERS~~~

There really is no mystery here, just the revelation of the criminal past of Captain Trentacost and his friends. They escape and go on to make new fortunes in America. Victor and his father reestablish contact later, and Molly Snow marries one of the young aristocrats rescued by the Indefatigable.

Holmes and Watson are reasonably faithful to the originals. Sense of place is developed but not exceptional. The storm and rescue provide the only excitement and, given the date of the action, it is obvious that Holmes and Watson must survive. What is the point of THE GLORIOUS YACHT? (C-)
 
THE MERYTON MURDERS is a cozy mystery variant of Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. It was written by Victoria Grossack and published in e-book format in 2016.

Jane Bingley is in the last months of pregnancy when her husband Charles seems to undergo a personality change, becoming irritable, worried, distracted, unwilling to talk to her. Concerned about his daughter, Mr. Bennet writes to Elizabeth Darcy to come discover what is upsetting Jane and to attend her during her confinement. Soon after Elizabeth’s arrival, Mary King, in Meryton to settle business matters before her marriage to Mr. Selby, commits suicide. Before her death, Miss King had withdrawn most of her inherited fortune from her London bank, with it and her jewelry now missing. Charlotte and William Collins arrive in Meryton on a brief visit, accompanied by Lady Catherine de Bourgh. Without explanation Lady Catherine interrogates Elizabeth on her knowledge of a Mr. Radclyff, then Mr. Collins is murdered, perhaps after recognizing someone in Meryton. Charlotte thinks the person may have been the former nurse to baby son Lewis at Hunsford, Mrs. Ford, who caused problems between the couple and left without notice. She thinks she saw Mrs. Ford entering the apartment rented by a newcomer to Meryton, Mrs. Smith. Elizabeth receives a blackmail demand, enclosing a forged letter she had supposedly written to George Wickham before her marriage to Darcy. If he’s sent the letter, will Darcy believe it and lose faith in her? To pay, or not to pay?

Long conversations between Elizabeth and Jane cover the same information repeatedly and make the story feel padded. No one even suspects blackmail until Elizabeth receives the demand. I classified THE MERYTON MURDERS as a cozy because Elizabeth is definitely an amateur detective. There was no organized police force in 1814 in England, but the Bow Street Runners had been in existence since 1749, responding to crimes reported throughout England with its men available for hire by private individuals to apprehend criminals. Local county magistrates investigated local crimes as well as trying petty criminals. Grossack mentions neither Runners nor magistrates. Until an attack on Elizabeth, the killer is a minor character on the periphery of the story with no foreshadowing of any involvement. The conclusion is less than satisfactory because the essential information comes through Lydia Bennet Wickham, who clearly has not changed since her marriage.

Characters are reasonably faithful to their originals, but there is an over-abundance of Mrs. Bennet, Mrs. Philips, and their gossip. So many obstetrical details are included that an equally appropriate title might have been Jane Has a Baby. Elizabeth puts herself in danger with TSTL moves while trying to identify the blackmailer. Darcy’s role is minor, with Mr. Philips as the prime mover after the discovery of the blackmailer’s identity. Bingley is ineffectual. Use of an unreliable narrator weakens characters by offering alternative reasons for their behavior.

Premise and basic story line of THE MERYTON MURDERS are good. It would profit from a thorough revision to remove padding, include appropriate clues, and strengthen characters. (B-)
 
WILD EAST is the seventh novella in the Butterscotch Jones series written by Melanie Jackson. It was published in e-book format in 2012. The series is set in McIntyre’s Gulch, an off-the-grid Manitoba community where all the people are redheaded, named either McIntyre or Jones, and speak Gaelic in the presence of strangers, regardless of their birth originals.

Pete Mitchell and Mark Stripe are surveying a route for an oil pipeline from Alberta to Illinois that will take it through the Gulch. The Gulch will become the latest oil boom town, but its citizens want nothing to do with the pipeline. Butterscotch Jones, married to RCMP Senior Inspector Chuck Goodhead, plans how to save the village. Delaying the surveyors in the Gulch while former surveyor Whiskey Jack lays out a superior route well away from their home, the townspeople deal with a lost child in the forest with a bear in the area, a new Mountie whom Chuck is to mentor in outback policing, the Wings’s commercial pilot license renewal, and building a cabin before the onset of winter.

The only crime in WILD EAST is using the surveyors’ equipment without permission and isolating them in the Gulch, and neither involves violence or illegal restraint. The plot is slice of life as the citizens go about their business and deal with the emergency. The conclusion is satisfyingly realistic.

It is important to read this series in order because the rampant individualists of the Gulch continue from book to book, and Jackson alludes to events from previous stories. Characters are engagingly eccentric. She introduces only three new people peoin WILD EAST: the two surveyors and the young Mountie Thomas Merryweather. Their culture shock is humorous.

Sense of place is well developed, with Jackson often using atmosphere to illuminate character. “Thomas was not completely ignorant of what bears could do. He had read reports and seen photographs of bear attacks as part of his training to become a biologist. A small child could literally be ripped to shreds. The town could end up having another funeral for a hand. Wendell’s ‘dogs’ ran ahead of them. There were two of them, the ones he said were the best bear trackers. Their...wails and yowls raised the hair on his arms. Wolf hybrids be damned. He hadn’t specialized in mammals, but these were pure-blooded timber wolves or he would eat his pressed wool hat. And knowing they were facing the meanest and strongest animal in the forest, he wasn’t prepared to quibble about anyone in town keeping them, even supposing there was any kind of ordinance against it, which seemed doubtful.”

I enjoy Butterscotch Jones and the denizens of the Gulch. (B+)
 
ONE FALSE STEP is a variant on Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. It was written by Elaine Owen and published in e-book format in 2015.

When Elizabeth Bennet loses the first page of Fitzwilliam Darcy’s letter of apology and a servant gives it to Lady Catherine de Bourgh, Elizabeth hopes that her compromised reputation may be kept secret. However, through the Collinses, rumors spread through Meryton and force Elizabeth and Darcy into a betrothal over the obsessive opposition of Lady Catherine. In the meantime, Charles Bingley experiences Jane’s rejection after his unexplained absences from Netherfield. As their engagement continues, Darcy and Elizabeth come to understand each other, and Elizabeth soon finds herself as much in love as Darcy. When Lydia Bennet runs away with George Wickham and while they are sought in London, Elizabeth and Darcy write faithfully, but neither receives the letters. Elizabeth fears that Darcy cannot accept a connection with Wickham and is using the situation to end their engagement. How can the lovers overcome these obstacles to their happiness?

Owen’s fundamental change--Elizabeth compromised by the first page of the letter and the marriage necessary to preserve her and her family’s honor--is well handled and believable, as are the doubts and angst from Elizabeth over her best course of action.

Some of the change in characters I do not like, most notably in Elizabeth. She confides in Charlotte full details of Darcy’s proposal and his apology letter before she discovers that she has lost the identifying first page, yet she is surprised when everyone in Meryton soon suspects an understanding between herself and Darcy. At times Elizabeth seems to look for reasons to doubt Darcy’s commitment to their coming marriage. I am also disappointed in Darcy. While in London for her trousseau, Elizabeth tells him she wanted to wait to see Darcy House until after their marriage because she does not want the spectacle Mrs. Bennet will make, but he invites the family anyway. This undermines his professed respect for Elizabeth. He also fails to confront Lady Catherine when her plans to sabotage his engagement come out.

Some changes in character I do like. Finally, after Charles Bingley overhears Caroline telling a casual acquaintance how weak he is, how easily she manipulates him, he grows a spine and evicts her from Netherfield. Unfortunately, he pulls a major TSTL by not communicating with Jane while he transports Caroline to live with the Hursts. Jane also shows spirit by refusing his proposal, telling him frankly that his letting others dictate his behavior makes her doubt his love. Mr. Bennet, by banning Lydia and Wickham from Longbourn following their wedding, prevents Mrs. Bennet from the worst of her excesses over “dear Lydia’s” wedding.

A growing trend in Jane Austen fan fiction is the use of long letters to carry necessary exposition. Austen did it herself. However, in ONE FALSE STEP the number and length become excessive. It is one of the better Pride and Prejudice adaptations. (A-)
 
BODY OF OPINION is the third book in the Superintendent Bone series written by Susannah Stacey. It was published in 1991. While the books read well as stand alones, reading them in order heightens the pleasure of attractive continuing characters and evolving relationships.

When pop music star Ken Cryer discovers the body of glamorous Alix Hamilton in his bed following a party at the Manor, Bone takes on a complex case. The first surprise is that Ms. Alix Hamilton is actually her employer Alex Hervey in drag so perfect that no one had questioned her gender. Search of the flat where she lived turns up evidence that Alix/Alex had been involved in dominatrix sex and subsequent blackmail of the men involved. She had been confronted at the party by local Justice of the Peace Noel Prestbury, incensed by the sarcastic article written about his home Prestbury Hall; she had been stalked there by Lamia Hervey, who believed her to be Alex’s girlfriend as well as his research assistant; she talked with an “old flame” at the party. In addition, Alix had been shot with two different guns, the second shot postmortem. Further complications include the theft of a sixteenth-century monstrance from Cryer’s bedroom. Militant Roman Catholic conservative Prestbury and Dr. Monte Walsh, called in to treat Cryer’s son’s stomach virus, had both condemned Ken Cryer’s possession of the holy vessel. Someone had even sent Ken Cryer death threats demanding its return to the Church. How, or are, the theft and the murder connected?

I like this series. The protagonist Superintendent Robert Bone is conscientious, hard-working, generous in his praise and support of his investigative team. His preferred scene of crime coordinator Detective Inspector Steve Locker is enough different in personality to make for an interesting partnership. Bone’s care for his teenaged daughter Charlotte, now mostly recovered from the accident in which her mother and brother were killed, is believable. Most of the action is presented through Bone, though judicious shifts of focus between characters reveal distinctive personalities.

Stacey excels at details that create the sense that the reader is on the scene with Bone: “Bone watched the road come toward them out of the dark, hedges and trees, sleeping houses, hollows the road swooped into and out of; pale village, then again hedges and trees, with the life of the night showing sometimes in the glint of eyes. The sky in the northeast began to draw from the dark of earth, where dawn would come. The street of Appledore gave back their engine’s sound, and the driver took the sharp corner over the old canal. Halfway across Romney Marsh they roused a heron that rose in magnificent flurry from the ditch, legs trailing in the loom of the headlights as he beat into the night. The road snaked into Romney; New Romney, straightened out and came to Littlestone. Jam-packed police cars lined the road, a blue, brilliant light revolved. Bone got out into relative silence in which he could hear the wash and thud of the sea.” (182)

Stacey is good at providing red herrings, subtle in foreshadowing but playing fair. Superintendent Bone is an excellent older series, highly recommended. (A)
 
UNEXPECTED VALENTINE is a variant of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. It was written by Charlotte Browning and published in e-book format in 2017.

UNEXPECTED VALENTINE opens in late January following the Bingley family departure from Netherfield after the ball. Jane, in London with the Gardiners, has not met with Mr. Bingley. Fitzwilliam Darcy returns alone to Netherfielld to seek a meeting with Mr. Bennet at which he secures her father’s permission to marry Elizabeth Bennet. Surprised by Darcy’s sudden proposal, her desire to marry for love and her hope that George Wickham would make an offer of marriage war with the reality of her situation. She is not likely to receive a more advantageous offer, her marriage to Darcy will guarantee her family’s security when her father dies, and neither parent will listen to her objections. Without support, she has no choice but to accept Darcy, who insists that they be married by special license on Valentine Day at Pemberley. The body of the story consists of Elizabeth’s developing love for Darcy as she comes to know him better, even as she deals with opposition from Lady Catherine de Bourgh, outrageous behavior from her mother, and the consequences of the elopement of Lydia and George Wickham.

The premise of UNEXPECTED VALENTINE--a marriage of convenience Elizabeth feels compelled to accept--is not unique, but it has potential for appealing development. Characters are reasonably faithful to Austen originals, though Mrs. Bennet is more annoying and Mr. Bennet oddly indifferent to initial objections to the marriage from his favorite daughter. Browning uses Elizabeth’s viewpoint throughout.

~~~POSSIBLE SPOILERS~~~

Where to begin? I almost gave up but finished reading in hope that Browning would somehow redeem UNEXPECTED VALENTINE. She did not. The writing style is much like the unedited first draft of a story by one of my former ninth-grade English students. Voice is modern conversational with no attempt to echo Austen. Run-on sentences, eccentric use (and disuse) of commas, odd paragraphing, incorrect use of apostrophes in plural possessives of names, poor word choice (harmonic rather than harmonious marriage, ambient rather than ambiance, download luggage from a coach), usage problems (lie-lay, lesser used as a noun, a lot, oxymoron--amused scowl), and use of second person address to the reader are common. They interfere with communicating the story.

Anachronisms abound. The sentimentality around Valentine Day is modern rather than Regency, as are the decorations for the wedding, the double-ring ceremony, and the serving of courses at dinner. A carrot cake recipe is found in a French cookbook by 1827, but the dessert did not become popular in England until the rationing during and after World War II. A night dress was a nightgown for sleeping, not an evening dress to wear to dinner. Anachronistic words include brunch (late nineteenth century), gift of gab (1839), bad news (used to refer to a person, 1917), croissant (late nineteenth century), and alright (1865).

Gratuitous changes and errors make me wonder if Browning read more than the Cliff Notes to Pride and Prejudice. The housekeeper at Pemberley is no longer Mrs. Reynolds. Pemberley receives a veranda (a ground-level structure) off the UPSTAIRS bedroom assigned to Elizabeth. To escape her mother in the coach as they travel to London to buy wedding clothes, Elizabeth rides on horseback for more than four hours; surprisingly, she is neither sore nor pained from this unaccustomed exercise. Mr. Collins will inherit Longbourn only if Mr. Bennet dies before one of his daughters has a son. Browning increases the disparity in income between Darcy and the Bennet family, making the Bennets too poor to buy books or to fund an appropriate ceremony and wedding breakfast for Elizabeth and Darcy.

The changes that most offend me involve religion. The opening chapters of UNEXPECTED VALENTINE imply that the Bennet family is Roman Catholic. Mrs. Bennet and later Mary go to mass, and Mary comments favorably on the sermon offered by the priest. The vows exchanged by Elizabeth and Darcy come from the Book of Common Prayer of the Church of England. Even worse, multiple characters use the word “God” (spelled “god”) as an expletive. Jane Austen is rotating in her grave. Are editors extinct? (F)
 
STILL WATERS is a Butterscotch Jones novella written by Melanie Jackson and published in a Kindle bundle with the Chloe Boston novella DUET in 2015. The Butterscotch Jones series is set in McIntyre’s Gulch, Manitoba, Canada, an off-the-grid community where everyone is named either Jones or McIntyre, ha red hair, and speaks Gaelic in the presence of outsiders.

Chuck Goodhead is Butterscotch Jone’s husband, a Senior Inspector with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, called for help by a voice from his past. Moira O’Grady, his college girl-friend now a coyote running refugees into the United States and Canada for a charitable organization, asks him for protection for herself and passenger Sonya. For back-up and as a witness for Butterscotch, he takes along former Russian mafioso Anatoli. Meantime, FBI Agent Desoto, wounded in action and required to take time off, returns to the Gulch as he ruminates on his future. Someone has been entering houses in the Gulch, rearranging or stealing photographs. In the Mountie’s absence, maybe he can identify the intruder. Desoto is fascinated by the Gulch and its inhabitants, including the nearby cemetery he’s told to avoid because it belongs to the Sasquatch. What does he discover?

There is no major crime in STILL WATERS. The main event is the detailed traditional Celtic funeral of elderly James McIntyre, aka the Bricks. The action is slice of life in a unique community as Desoto observes and changes to meet his possibility of a second chance. Characters range from eccentric to bonkers, but they form a chosen family whom it would be amazing to meet.

Jackson is good at using details of setting and atmosphere to reveal character. “The sounds around them were bizarre, sly, nothing like Desoto was used to in the city. At first the noise was meaningless but then growing more important when there was nothing new for the eye to see and the ears became the important news-gathering organs. He couldn’t identify what he was hearing though, beyond a wandering breeze in the rocks and sometimes the whine of some kind of bee or wasp or maybe a strange bird. He thought of what Butterscotch had said. The place was unquiet.”

STILL WATERS is another pleasant quick read. (B+)
 
DID DARCY DO IT? is a variation on Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. It was written by Sophie Lynbrook and published in e-book format in 2016. It is set in Hertfordshire some time after Elizabeth Bennet refused Fitzwilliam Darcy at Hunsford.

When Darcy arrives unexpectedly in Meryton on the day of an assembly, he attends and seeks out Elizabeth with whom he converses, she having an injured ankle that prevents her dancing. Both apologize for previous behavior, and each finds the other an attractive companion. At the assembly, Darcy observes George Wickham wearing his father’s signet ring that had disappeared some five years before; when Wickham refuses to return the ring, Darcy says he will have it if he must pry it off Wickham’s cold, dead hand. Since this threat is overheard by much of the assembly, including officers, Meryton is not surprised when a few days later, Wickham’s body is discovered, ring missing, with Darcy as the last person known to have seen him. The town and the stacked coroner’s jury, manipulated by Mr. Reeve, quickly conclude Darcy guilty of murder, and Darcy is remanded for trial. Darcy learns lessons in empathy and friendship as Elizabeth, Colonel Fitzwilliam, and his attorney Mr. Bancroft seek the evidence that will prove him innocent.

DID DARCY DO IT? is one of the best adaptations of Pride and Prejudice. The major characters continued from the canon are unusually faithful to the original, though the amount of independence allowed Elizabeth is more modern than Regency. Darcy’s change in attitude and behavior is demonstrated visibly as he deals with three months in jail awaiting trial. Bingley remains steadfast, marrying Jane quickly so, if necessary, they can offer Elizabeth a home (Mrs. Bennet and Lydia, convinced that Darcy killed their favorite, make her life at Longbourn miserable), looking after Pemberley and Georgiana, and searching for exculpatory evidence. Added characters include various officials and individuals associated with the inquest and trial, officers present at the inn the night Wickham is killed, and servants and townspeople who support Darcy during his incarceration. Except for the officers who tend to form a largely undifferentiated red mass, these newcomers are distinctly individual. Lynbrook even includes a vicar who consoles Darcy without being offensively preachy.

The plot unfolds logically to its foregone conclusion. The final chapter follows Darcy and Elizabeth longer than necessary, making the acquittal and their wedding anticlimactic. Lynbrook’s writing style is more modern than Austen, and she largely passes up opportunities for humor.

I do not know the duties of the coroner or the conduct of a coroner’s inquest, but I noted no flagrant anachronisms. Lynbrook does glaringly omits the only organized investigative unit in Regency England, the Bow Street Runners, operational since the mid-eighteenth century and available to travel throughout the country investigating crime. They could be summoned by magistrates or by private individuals. A real-life Darcy likely would have the Runners investigate the theft of his father’s ring at the time it went missing. He likely would have asked for their aid to recover it rather than confronting Wickham himself. It is even more likely that the Runners would be called on to locate the money missing from Wickham’s body and the missing Captain Carter, since recovery of stolen goods and finding missing persons were specialities of the Runners.

DID DARCY DO IT? functions adequately as a historical mystery story as well as a superior example of Austen fan fiction. (A-)
 
MAKE OVER is a Chloe Boston novella written by Melanie Jackson. It was published in a Kindle bundle with STILL WATERS from her Butterscotch Jones series in 2013.

I do not understand this story. It is composed of disparate elements: community volunteers restoring the old Stubbs mansion, widely believed haunted by the ghost of Elizabeth Stubbs, youngest daughter of Maynard Stubbs who built the house; lazy story-telling volunteer Mr. Peterson, who aggravates Chloe Boston exceedingly; Pricilla Copeland, President of the Hope Falls Historical Society, who constantly puts Chloe down; Chloe’s determination to rehabilitate homeless Dumpster Dave, whether or not he wants rehabilitation; and a spot of Ghost Busters as Chloe frees the spirit of Elizabeth Stubbs. These components never gel into a cohesive story, so the conclusion seems contrived, an abrupt unrealistic “everything works out for the best.”

Characters are sketched. Most are simply names. Even though Chloe is the first person narrator, she never clarifies the motivation for most of her actions. Sense of place is absent. No more Chloe Boston for me. (F)
 
HER FINAL WISH is an alternative rendering of Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. It was written by Renata McMann and Summer Hanford and published in e-book format in 2016. Its premise is original.

On the same day that Elizabeth Bennet at Hunsford learns of Fitzwilliam Darcy’s interference in the courtship of Charles Bingley and her sister Jane, she receives an express from her younger sister Mary, begging her immediate return home. An epidemic is devastating the area around Meryton with many people ill and many dead. Lydia, Mr. Bennet, and Mrs. Bennet are all stricken, Mrs. Bennet not expected to live. Jane is in London with the Gardiners and unable to return home, leaving the inexperienced Mary in charge. All the servants have left Longbourn except Mrs. Hill, who is ill herself, and Becky, a kitchen maid with nowhere else to go. Food supplies are inadequate, and neither she nor Kitty is experienced in household work. When Lady Catherine refuses her carriage to return Elizabeth, Charlotte Collins, and Maria Lucas to Hertfordshire (Sir William is also dying), Darcy and Colonel Fitzwilliam escort them home. Colonel Fitzwilliam assumes command of the militia regiment in Meryton and institutes strict quarantine rules to halt the spread of the disease, while Darcy remains at Longbourn to help Elizabeth. Mrs. Bennet elicits the promise from Elizabeth and Darcy that they will marry, so that her other daughters will be safe financially if Mr. Bennet dies. Mrs. Bennet dies; Mr. Bennet survives, determined after his near-death experience to enjoy his second chance at life. Elizabeth seeks to free Darcy of the death-bed promise to her mother. As they work together, they thrash out their misunderstandings, including the lies told by George Wickham, and their engagement becomes a mutually desired commitment. Quickly married by special license, on their wedding day Elizabeth is stricken with the same illness. Before the quarantine is lifted, George Wickham and Colonel Forster die of the disease, the 17-year-old widowed Mrs. Forster is quarantined at Longbourn, as are Lady Catherine and Anne de Bourgh, now married against her mother’s wishes and run away from Rosings.

It is hard to say more about the plot without giving away the surprise ending. The story is well constructed to the quarantine of Mrs. Forster with the Bennets, but that element quickly becomes improbable. The epilogue is not foreshadowed and coms as an unsatisfying shock.

Darcy and Elizabeth are consistent with Austen originals. The scene in which Elizabeth mediates a quarrel between Lady Catherine and Anne is worth the price of the book. Mary Bennet shows strength and determination in the face of genuine adversity; Kitty and Lydia both mature greatly and become useful, not just hoydens. Even Lady Catherine improves in manners and behavior. The major change is in Mr. Bennet, not for the better.

Without Mrs. Forster and the epilogue, HER FINAL WISH (A). With them, (B).
 
THE GLASS ROOM by Ann Cleeves was published in 20012. It is the fifth book in her Vera Stanhope series, set in the area around Kimmerston in Northumberland.

When guest speaker Tony Ferdinand is stabbed to death at a week-long seminar on writing detective fiction at the Writers’ House, Vera becomes SIO on the crime. She is also involved because the woman found with knife in her hand is her next door neighbor Joanna Tobin, for whom she’d already been looking to reassure Joanna’s partner Jack Devanney. Left on the case despite the potential conflict of interest, Vera quickly learns that Ferdinand had not been killed with the knife Joanna held. So who wanted him dead? He had not been liked despite his media celebrity as an arts critic, and former student Nina Backworth remembers him as a destructive critic of students‘ work and confidence including her own. His reviews years before had created the brief best-selling career of Miranda Barton who runs Writers’ House, so when Miranda is also murdered with the same serrated knife, Vera begins looking to the shared academic histories of Ferdinand, Miranda, and Nina, as well as current dealings between the seminar attendees.

Cleeves is skilled at hiding the killer and motive in plain sight while still presenting sufficient foreshadowing to support the conclusion and leave the reader satisfied. The red herrings are unusually believable, though Vera remaining on the case despite her friendship with one of the suspects is less probable. My complaint is that the connection between the killer, motive, and victims should have been uncovered much earlier in the investigation.

Characterization is a strong point in the entire series, and THE GLASS ROOM is no exception. Vera is essentially unchanged, but fresh glimpses into her back story keep her fresh. Joe Ashworth, her sergeant and protege, reveals a more human side in his attraction to Nina Backworth, while Holly Clarke, though little is made of her mistakes, proves herself fallible despite her self-confidence. Cleeves shifts points of view skillfully to develop character, moving between Vera (with occasional glimpses through Joe or Holly) and Nina Backworth.

Cleeves is unusually adept at using setting and atmosphere as a vehicle for revealing character. “Now Vera had turned another corner and was on a paved veranda that looked out over the sea. On the grass below was a bird table and a set of elaborate feeders filled with nuts and seed. She could see the lighthouse at the Farne Islands to the north and Coquet Island to the south. In the summer this would be a magnificent place to sit. Vera pictured them here after a day’s writing, drinking fancy wine and sharing their ideas. Posing. Why did she feel the need to sneer? Because people who talked about books or pictures or films made her feel ignorant and out of her depth.” (17)

I have already read and reviewed the final Vera Stanhope book to date, HARBOUR STREET (Christmas season 2016). I regret seeing this series stop, because it has been one of consistent excellence. THE GLASS ROOM is fine. (A-)
 
WORDS SPOKEN IN ANGER is one of the most original variations on Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen that I have read. It was written by Margaret Gale and published in free or inexpensive e-book format in 2017.

What would happen if characters in Pride and Prejudice, instead of not acknowledging disrespectful behavior towards themselves, responded frankly to the offender? That is what happens when Caroline Bingley pushes Elizabeth Bennet too far while she is tending Jane at Netherfield. To Caroline’s surprise, instead of condemning Elizabeth for impolite behavior to her hostess, Darcy denounces Caroline to Charles Bingley for her lack of manners and blames Bingley for failing to govern her. Bingley forces her to apologize, exiles her to live with an elderly aunt in Yorkshire, and cuts off her allowance; Caroline is no longer welcome in his homes. His defense of her begins the change in Elizabeth’s attitude toward Darcy from resentment over his comment at the Meryton assembly to developing friendship. Elizabeth’s confrontation with Caroline is the first of many such scenes: Mr. Collins hears home truths from Mr. Bennet and Lady Catherine de Bourgh; George Wickham endures condemnation from Darcy, Elizabeth, and Georgiana; Mrs. Bennet has her gentility and parenting skills challenged by Mrs. Phillips and Mr. Bennet; Lydia has her tavern-wench behavior blasted by Jane Bennet; Lydia and Kitty have Bingley’s witness that their inevitable loss of virtue is a subject for bets in the Officers’ Mess at the militia encampment; Mr. Bennet receives criticism for his unsatisfactory conduct as husband and head of family.

WORDS SPOKEN IN ANGER has some of the strongest non-Austen development in current fan fiction. Nowhere is this better shown than in the sections dealing with William Collins: “As a young clergyman, he had dreamed of being able to chastise the rich as well as the poor, demonstrating his own superior moral sense, but had never had need to actually do so before. Those of elevated station he had encountered had acted according to their station in life, with the very best conduct at all times. Now at last fate had thrown the exception in his path. Mr. Darcy might be rich, and related to people of good character, but he was sorely in need of moral guidelines and if William Collins was in the right place at the right time to provide such guidance, he would not shirk his duty to do so. As he ushered his cousins back to Longbourn, he felt a frisson of delight at finally fulfilling his mission to bring the teachings of the church to high and low alike.” Each episode of truth telling is seen from the target character’s point of view, opening with his or her self-image, the face-off with the critic, and thresponse texo the received information.

Judicious editing could streamline t he pace of WORDS SPOKEN IN ANGER. After Collins overhears Lady Catherine’s opinion of himself, Gale interrupts the flow of the current story to follow the rest of his life, including the enjoyably ironic outcome of the Longbourn entail; she reveals in this section Anne de Bourgh’s unexpected future. The epilogue flashes back to Caroline Bingley’s post-Netherfield experiences. Gale uses numerous long letters approved by Mr. Bennet, both to delineate Darcy and Elizabeth as individuals and to move their secret courtship forward while they are separated by his dealing with Lady Catherine’s death and his three months of full mourning. However, the length and repetition in the letters slow the action. Actual face-to-face discussions are more set speeches than dialogue. Gale uses lines from Persuasion, Emma, and Much Ado About Nothing as well as many from Pride and Prejudice itself, creating a mixture of classic and modern-sounding styles.

Lesser problems that editing should have caught include Longbourn being spelled Longbourne at first; Mrs. Gardiner serves a desert at dinner. Anachronisms include modern dinner service rather than period courses; discombobulated is mid-nineteenth century, not Regency. The major time glitch has Elizabeth looking out to the site of the medieval London Bridge to be torn down when Rennie’s new bridge was finished. Construction of the new bridge did not begin until 1824, and the old bridge was not demolished until 1831.

WORDS SPOKEN IN ANGER is excellent. (A-)
 
EMMA CHUZZIT AND THE QUEEN ANNE KILLER was published in 1989 by Mary Bowen Hall. Its first person narrator is Emma Chuzzit, a retiree who operates the A-1 Salvage Company out of Sacramento, California. She clears old houses set for demolition or renovation, rescuing architectural elements and other sellable items to supplement her Social Security and to keep busy. When she goes to Fairville to clean out a Queen Anne Victorian house being remodeled as the clubhouse for the Victorian Villa condominium community built by Damian Enterprisesa , she discovers a handmade antique cradle and the mummified remains of a garroted female infant hidden under the verandah. Curious, she pokes about asking questions and finds Rebecca Higgins, a waitress at a nearby diner whose boss reports her to Emma as fixated on the house. Before Emma can talk to her, Rebecca is shot to death.

This is where I give up, page 76 of 177. I know the conventions of the cozy mystery genre, but sometimes their characters are so divorced from reality and common sense that I cannot take them. Emma Chuzzit is a good case in point. While her discovery of the baby is reasonable, she has absolutely no reason besides her rampant curiosity to involve herself--she is not a suspect in the decades-old death, nor are friends, family members, neighbors. Even worse, her blundering around asking questions leads directly to the murder of Rebecca Higgins. Emma does not recognize that her TSTL creates responsibility for Rebecca’s death. Seeing events through her eyes does not make her more appealing.

Emma assumes ties between the cradle and the Damian family who owned the property for many years, but to this point Hall has done little to develop the plot. There is little sense of direct action. Fairville police, as is too common in cozy mysteries, are uninterested and ineffectual. Sense of place is missing.

No grade because not finished.
 
A VALENTINE FOR DARCY is a novella variant written by Jane Grix, based on Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. The novella was published in e-book format in 2017.

Fitzwilliam Darcy is in love with Elizabeth Bennet, so when he receives a Valentine that he recognizes as her drawing, he assumes she is the sender and that she indeed waits eagerly for his question. He immediately heads for Hertfordshire for Mr. Bennet’s consent to his courtship, not realizing that the valentine came from Caroline Bingley. Elizabeth is surprised, confused, and aroused by his passionate embrace. Straightening out their misunderstanding leads to Elizabeth’s denunciation of Darcy’s interference between Jane and Charles Bingley and his reported mistreatment of George Wickham; Darcy has already apologized to Bingley, who is now officially engaged to Jane, and he explains his family’s history with Wickham, including his attempted elopement with Georgiana. Elizabeth agrees to a courtship while she learns his character and promises Darcy to answer his proposal before Jane’s wedding. Problems arise when Lydia runs away from Longbourn with George Wickham, and Caroline makes one last desperate attempt at capturing Darcy for herself.

Grix varies from the canon only slightly in changing locations and timing of speeches, many of which are verbatim. She introduces no major new characters. Elizabeth and Darcy are both open emotionally than in many fan fiction adaptations, making them appealing for modern readers. Her writing style is simple and direct. I noted no problems with editing or anachronisms. My only complaint is the lack of a sense of dramatic action, even at crisis points like Lydia’s elopement. The events seem reported, not lived. (B+)
 
FOUR SEASONS was written by Melanie Jackson and published in e-book format in2014. It continues the life of Butterscotch Jones of McIntyre’s Gulch, Manitoba, Canada. I recommend reading the series in order because characters and their story lines continue through the installments.

Jackson’s Butterscotch Jones mystery series reminds me of Charles Dickens’s serialized novels in several ways. It too has a complex of characters with diverse life experiences who interact on many different levels to a variety of threats, many external but also internal struggles to do the right thing personally and for the good of the community. Man against nature conflict is constant. So is their determination to stay off the grid. “We have a few ironclad rules in the Gulch. The first one is that we don’t do anything to invite government awareness of our existence. Governmental attention, we had discovered, could cling like a tattoo once it was fixed on something or someone and we didn’t want it. We had to be like Caesar’s wife while saving these people [from plane crash]. That is to say, beyond reproach. But unlike Caesar’s poor wife, we wanted a little less notoriety and to be forgotten at once. We don’t want the way to our little town to become a beaten path.”

The Gulch and its citizens are unique: “They [the survivors] were stuck--if not actually lost--in the Canadian wilderness while a storm that looked a hell of a lot like a blizzard raged around them. Their rescuers seemed to be some local inbred family living in the style of Daniel Boone who spoke no English--except the woman whose name couldn’t really be Butterscotch, could it? And the Gaelic they were speaking among themselves...was some archaic version of the tongue... they were weird folk, wary as stray cats, and had faces that had mapped a lot of hard miles. Excepting the woman, they were all past middle age and had been battered by life, though probably not in the normal ways. All of them, excluding Wendell who was Native American, was pale enough to be sleeping in coffins. But he supposed their being up and about in the daylight precluded them actually being vampires.” And they are all red-haired, and all named either McIntyre or Jones.

FOUR SEASONS follows a year in the life of McIntyre’s Gulch, opening with Fall. The Gulch is prepared for the community Thanksgiving Day feast (mid-October in Canada) when they must go out to rescue survivors of a plane crash, just as the first snowstorm of the season closes in. The plane carried a CIA station chief who is documenting malfeasance within the Agency and a donor kidney for a Canadian millionaire unwilling to wait; Leon Rausch’s field experience makes him doubt that the plane crash was accidental. Even worse from the locals’ viewpoint, the storm forces them to take the survivors to shelter in the old Hillview Lodge hotel abandoned in the 1960s after a series of horrific murders. It lies in the heart of territory on Potter’s Ridge that the locals do not enter because it belongs to the enemy Others--Sasquatch.

Winter involves the arrival of new priest Father Frank, who makes a token appearance to preside over the funeral and to escort the body of his predecessor Father White back to Winnepeg. He has no intention of living there or ministering to the area, just of collecting the stipend to help pay off his gambling debts; his plans are reinforced by the heathen exhibition put on by the residents to encourage his speedy departure, but circumstances can change instantly in the Gulch.

Spring consists mostly of gentle memories from the Flowers (Judy McIntyre) as she and her son Rick dig up ground that has not been turned for years so they can expand their garden. She had created and buried a “time capsule” containing emblems of her childhood the summer her mother died.

Summer has two problems. Chuck Goodhead, aka the Mountie, married to Butterscotch Jones, goes after the Beast, a ferocious unidentified animal who destroys their garbage bins, or is it a Wendigo as the Native Americans claim? The other has Wendell Thunder worried because someone has been leaving home-crafted toys in the woods around the camp for the children to find. Are the toys benign gifts from the Spirit of the Woods, or are they lures?

I do not know exactly why I enjoy this series so much. The characters are over the top, but all have unique back stories that Jackson uses effectively to keep them fresh. By concentrating most of the action on Butterscotch and a few characters in each of the installments, we get to know them as individuals. I like the variety in the story line, not so much set mysteries as slice of life in the town. I am curious about where Jackson will take the Sasquatch strand. Setting and atmosphere are adeptly presented. McIntyre’s Gulch seems a real place, distinctly odd but with a genuine sense of sanctuary. FOUR SEASONS (A); series (A-)
 
NOTHING BUT THE DEEPEST LOVE is a variant on Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. It was written by Madeline Kennet and published in e-book format in 2016.

Elizabeth Bennet is visiting Ramsgate on holiday with the Gardiner family when she accidentally meets Georgiana Darcy and her companion Mrs. Younge. Mrs. Younge promotes Georgiana’s romantic feelings for George Wickham while he manipulates the girl to consent to an elopement. Elizabeth and Georgiana become friends, at first encouraged by Wickham who hopes Elizabeth’s confidence and joie de vivre will influence Georgiana to be less cautious. However, Elizabeth becomes suspicious of Wickham’s intentions and, when Georgiana confides her engagement and the projected elopement, Mr. Gardiner at Elizabeth’s behest writes Fitzwilliam Darcy to apprise him of the situation. Darcy arrives in time to foil the elopement, and Georgiana takes great pleasure in matchmaking her brother and Elizabeth.

~~~POSSIBLE SPOILERS~~~

Moving the scene to Ramsgate and back in time gives Kennet the chance to develop the manipulation Wickham uses to influence Georgiana, but it raises problems in the development of other characters. Elizabeth is more tom-boyish and outspoken than Austen wrote, while Darcy is much less aloof and arrogant. Georgiana expresses token guilt over her involvement with Wickham, but her heart and spirits are untouched. Introduction of the Sinclair siblings and Miss Leavitt in the final chapters seems padding rather than necessity.

Because they meet for the first time in Ramsgate, Elizabeth and Darcy have no negative preconceptions to overcome, no need to change their opinions of themselves or their behavior. Indeed, Georgiana describes her brother to Elizabeth as a paragon, and her to him in equally glowing terms. Shifts in view point between the lovers leave no doubt about either’s feelings. The only real suspense is how long it will take him to propose. The epilogue details what become of all the single individuals.

Kennett uses more description of setting and atmosphere than many Austen fan fiction stories, but its reflection of the emotions of the major characters is obvious enough to disrupt plot flow. She does not attempt Austen speech patterns. Editing problems were few but include word choice: Georgiana prevaricates when the sense of the sentence is procrastinates--a major difference. Longbourn is spelled at least once with -e on the end.

The largest problem with NOTHING BUT THE DEEPEST LOVE is the discrepancy between the loving, attentive, overprotective brother Georgiana describes to Elizabeth and the behavior Darcy exhibits before he comes to Ramsgate. He hires Mrs. Younge just before he dispatches Georgiana to a crowded resort area where she has no friends and no relatives. Mrs.Younge is NOT someone Georgiana or Darcy has known, and still he leaves Georgiana dependent solely on her for the entire summer. Darcy, meantime, is swanning about in Brighton, looking for a wife who can meet his high standards. He has not seen Georgiana during her time at Ramsgate and does not know what is happening with his sister. Darcy does not receive Mr. Gardiner’s letter, so his arrival just in time to foil Wickham depends on sheer luck.


As Austen fan fiction goes, NOTHING BUT THE DEEPEST LOVE is plain vanilla pudding--good enough but nothing memorable. (C)
 
“Mayhew in Scotland” is a short story by Melanie Jackson, published in e-book format in 2015 as part of her MIDSUMMER MURDERS anthology. It is the fifth in her Kenneth Mayhew mystery series.

Kenneth Mayhew and his manservant Bentley travel to northern Scotland to escape his family, going to visit Archibald Claverhouse, owner of Cill Fhinnein House. He and the neighborhood are threatened by the reappearance of a murdered witch’s hell hound cursed on the Claverhouse family in the time of George I. The hound has been seen and heard, his gigantic paw prints and claw marks found multiple times. The reappearance coincides with plans to tear down the dilapidated remains of the witch cabin and to develop the property, a scheme fostered by Alistair Claverhouse, estate agent for his brother, but opposed by Archibald. Archibald asks Kenneth Mayhew to get to the bottom of the hell hound mystery.

I can’t discuss the plot in any more detail without doing a spoiler. The story is a variant of The Hound of the Baskervilles, with appropriately spooky setting and atmosphere, ancient and unfriendly servants, and a mixed bag of Claverhouse relatives.“The village was eventually discovered and they parked outside the largest of the seven buildings which comprised the center, guessing it to be the shop since the only other edifice of any size was obviously a church. All the buildings were made of gray stone that repelled what little there was of the daylight. One of the houses had some sort of fruit tree near the door, but it looked as though it had not prospered in the constant wet and winter cold. The first word that came to mind was downtrodden. The second was sullen.”

The story is set between the World Wars and opens like a 1930s house party mystery. Characterization is scanty, with Mayhew and Bentley very much in the Lord Peter-Bunter vein. Jackson uses our memories of The Hound of the Baskervilles to set up a neat surprise ending. Good fun. (B)
 
MORE THAN ADMIRATION is a 2016 e-book variant on Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. It was written by Wynne Mabry.

The essential change in premise comes when the Gardiners and Elizabeth Bennet rescue Georgiana Darcy, who has changed her mind about eloping with George Wickham, from first a carriage accident and then from kidnapping. When they return Georgiana to her brother Fitzwilliam Darcy in London, he is abrupt, ungrateful, and condescending. Elizabeth takes him to task but, on Georgiana’s request, he allows them to correspond. As she and Georgiana exchange confidences, Elizabeth’s opinion of Darcy gradually softens as he apologizes to and becomes friends with the Gardiners, whom he invites as guests to Pemberley when they and Elizabeth travel in Derbyshire the following summer. Darcy accompanies Charles Bingley to Netherfield because he knows it close to Longbourn and Elizabeth. Darcy’s attentions to Elizabeth are marked, and he proposes to her before the ball; she refuses him because she thinks he offers marriage only to obtain a suitable mentor for Georgiana. Then Wickham joins the militia in Meryton and, when he sees Elizabeth with Darcy, determines on revenge against both.

Much of the change in Elizabeth’s attitude toward Darcy develops through a series of letters between Elizabeth and Georgiana and between Elizabeth and Mrs. Gardiner, both of whom emphasize his loving care for his sister and his easy, elegant manners. This device distances the reader from the couple as it filters their relationship through the perceptions of the letter-writer, the selection of information required by the act of writing, and the understanding of the letter’s recipient. The epilogue is gratuitous. It is not necessary to account for the future life of every character mentioned in the book. Discrete (separate, distinct) and discreet (tactful, circumspect) are not the same word. Writing style is modern, not Austen-esque.

~~~POSSIBLE SPOILERS~~~

Characters in MORE THAN ADMIRATION are reasonably faithful to the originals, and Mabry introduces no new major characters. However, Elizabeth makes a supremely TSTL decision when she, knowing Wickham’s character and history with Georgiana, agrees to meet him alone in a deserted churchyard. Despite advice from Mrs. Gardiner, Georgiana, and Charlotte Lucas, she fails to recognize Darcy’s feelings. I find it impossible to believe that Darcy does not learn that Wickham is the man involved in the plot against Georgiana. It is unlikely that Mr. Gardiner failed to identify the man or that Darcy accepted Georgiana’s identification of “Mr. Smith” without further investigation or attempt to apprehend the kidnappers. MORE THAN ADMIRATION is a comfortable variant weakened by these character inconsistencies. (B-)
 
“The Secret” is the second short story in the MIDSUMMER MURDERS anthology published by Melanie Jackson in e-book format in 2015. It is part of her Butterscotch Jones series set in McIntyre’s Gulch, Manitoba, Canada.

While the Mountie is in Winnipeg to have his father Horace Goodhead checked for damage from a minor heart attack, Butterscotch ponders over what the most recent outsider to enter the Gulch may have discovered on Potter’s Ridge. A caver, he had been exploring a cave complex when a rock slide broke his ankle. Fortunately Big John McIntyre, mayor of the Gulch, and the Reverend McNab fishing nearby hear and rescue him. Butterscotch ponders over what Caver Jim may have found and what its disclosure might mean for the continued existence of the Gulch and its inhabitants. She and young Ricky go to find out, to discover another secret that McIntyre Gulch must hide from the outside world.

Point of view moves between Butterscotch as first person narrator and omniscient third person covering everyone else. She is not easy with the decision that the town meeting reaches: “A part of me felt like we were about to burn down the library of Alexandria, but I kept these misgivings to myself. We had all agreed that this was the best solution... We are not barbarians. We do not seek to destroy knowledge, or art, or stifle scientific discovery, but sometimes pragmatism dictated that we behave in a way that made us closer to Genghis Khan than Florence Nightingale. Sometimes there is no good solution. Then you pick the lesser evil and hope you can live with the choice.”

Jackson is skilled at serial publication. She draws the main story to a current closure but leaves unresolved story lines for future development--the cave itself, Caver Jim’s return, the Others. More details of Ricky’s background open a possible story line involving his drug-lord father, newly released from prison. I do enjoy this series. (A-)
 
THIS DISCONCERTING HAPPINESS is a variant of Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. It was written by Christina Morland and published in free or inexpensive e-book format in 2016.

Two difficult situations produce a sudden wedding between near-strangers Elizabeth Bennet and Fitzwilliam Darcy. After her near-elopement with George Wickham, her aunt Lady Catherine de Bourgh and uncle Lord Matlock take physical custody of Georgiana Darcy from her brother since they consider he and Colonel Richard Fitzwilliam have failed as her guardians. Unless Darcy agrees to their demands, Lord Matlock promise to bring suit to have himself appointed guardian. Darcy allows the removal but is tormented by guilt over his negligence that allowed Ramsgate to happen and by Georgiana’s letters of miserable unhappiness. The only way to prevent this is to marry, which will override the contingency-guardianship provision in their father’s will and allow him to reclaim custody. Lady Catherine plans to leverage the situation into Darcy’s marrying Anne, while Lord Matlock will gain access to the Darcy wealth and influence to grow the power of the Fitzwilliam family. Thomas Bennet has been diagnosed with cancer with only a short time to live; he tells only Elizabeth and swears her to secrecy. What will become of his widow and five unmarried daughters when Reverend Collins inherits Longbourn? Must Elizabeth marry him so that her family will be secure? Marriage between Darcy and Elizabeth has the potential to solve both problems, but it ushers in a new set of difficulties.

~~~SPOILERS~~~

THIS DISCONCERTING HAPPINESS has a 4+ stars rating on Amazon. Most reviewers liked it. I do not, for several reasons. One is the length and the pace of the story. It tries to cover too broad material in too great detail with too many long letters used to carry too much of the exposition. This “reported, not seen” quality distances the reader. The surprise outcome of Lydia’s elopement is gratuitous. The cook chasing a chicken around the front lawn at Longbourn (similar to the pig in the house vignette from the 2005 film adaptation of Pride and Prejudice) exaggerates the social distance between the Bennets and Darcy. In addition, Morland does not use apostrophes and plural forms of names correctly, which is one of my pet peeves.

Several major Morland characters are unappealing. Mr. Bennet puts an intolerable burden on Elizabeth when he, literally saying he wants to die in peace, keeps his condition from Mrs. Bennet and his other daughters; he requires Elizabeth to promise not to marry Collins, but he offers no advice on how else his family is to survive financially. He does nothing to put his affairs in order. Colonel Fitzwilliam, well aware of his father’s attitude toward enhancing Fitzwilliam family status by whatever means including extortion, tells him of Georgiana’s near disaster, then advises Darcy to avoid scandal by surrendering to Lord Matlock and Lady Catherine’s demands. Georgiana goes willingly with Lord Matlock to live with Lady Catherine at Rosings and to have her Season in London with the Matlocks, while bemoaning her misery in every letter to Darcy. When Darcy confronts his uncle to regain her, Georgiana refuses to leave the Matlocks. She seems intent on making Darcy suffer by remaining the center of family attention. Elizabeth, acting from her love for Darcy to help him recover Georgiana, compromises her self-worth to try to win approval from the hostile Fitzwilliam family.

I dislike this Darcy intensely. He assumes guilt for Georgiana’s near elopement with Wickham, blaming it on his neglect since their father’s death while emoting about his deep love and devotion to her. He convinces Elizabeth that their immediate marriage will solve the problem but, instead of marrying her, presenting Lord Matlock with a fait accompli, and bringing the suit to set aside the contingency guardianship provision, he compromises with Matlock and leaves the decision to Georgiana. He agrees he and Elizabeth will live in London for the Season to be near Georgiana as she makes her social rounds. He is oblivious to the contempt with which Elizabeth is treated in the lesser social circles to which they are admitted, while they are ignored or insulted by the Matlocks. Worst of all, Darcy hires Mrs. Annesley to transform Elizabeth into the kind of Society woman he had so intensely disliked. He shows little respect for Elizabeth’s individuality or personal integrity during much of the story, and his loving affirmations remain unconvincing.

THIS DISCONCERTING HAPPINESS has good potential, but it is too ambitious. The death of Mr. Bennet and subsequent events in the Bennet family make up a coherent story line, as does the issue of custody of Georgiana. Treating them separately would allow better character development and possible introduction of lighter moments to leaven the heavy subject matter. (C-)
 
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