Review: Pride & Premeditation

It's time for another book review--only this time, we are reviewing a trilogy of books within the same series: Tirzah Price's The Jane Austen Murder Mysteries.

The author describes The Jane Austen Murder Mysteries as "a series of standalone mystery retellings of Jane Austen’s beloved classics, by way of Agatha Christie". Apparently you can read them in any order, but I chose to read them in chronological order:

1. Pride & Premeditation by Tirzah Price (based on Pride & Prejudice)
2. Sense and Second Degree Murder by Tirzah Price (based on Sense & Sensibility)
3. Manslaughter Park by Tirzah Price (based on Mansfield Park)

Although I am much more familiar with Jane Austen than I am with Agatha Christie, I do enjoy a good murder mystery in general, so I wanted to give these a try. The books fall within the YA category, which indicated a lack of smut that was appealing to me (as I generally just don't enjoy that kind of thing). I did experience some apprehension about the blurb on the back espousing the series as "a feminist twist" on Austen's works, as I disavow the notion that her work isn't feminist simply because each book takes place within the patriarchal society during which she lived. It is true that the characters either choose to adhere to societal norms or suffer the consequences, and that these norms include obstacles for all sexes but cause specific disadvantages of women. That said, Austen's novels are a reflection (and more often than not, a critique) of society, and focusing on these particular issues can be read as feminist in that they are telling women's stories, directly linking them to sociopolitical issues of the time, and reflecting the woman author's perspective of said topics. But 1) I'm getting ahead of myself, and 2) I'm not a purist when it comes to Austen's works, so I resolved to keep an open mind. 

So, let's start with Pride & Premeditation. 

WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD

The plot summary is as follows: "It is a truth universally acknowledged that a young woman who desires a law career must be in want of a case. So when seventeen-year-old Lizzie Bennet hears about a scandalous society murder, she sees an opportunity to prove herself as a solicitor by solving the case and ensuring justice is served. Except the man accused of the crime already has a lawyer on his side: Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy, the stern young heir to the prestigious Pemberley Associates law firm. Lizzie is determined to solve the murder before Darcy can so that she can show the world that a woman can be just as good as a man. (The fact that Darcy is an infuriating snob doesn’t help.) But there’s still a killer on the loose, and as the case gets more complicated, Lizzie and Darcy may have to start working together to avoid becoming the next victims themselves."

Firstly, I must address that Price creates a trap for herself by confining these novels to the retelling box--or as she calls it, giving them "a makeover". A good retelling breathes new life into a beloved work by honoring its core messages, while providing a unique perspective or new dimension to the story. It should deepen the reader's relationship to the original story, but it should also stand on its own merits in terms of character, setting, and plot. Unfortunately, when viewed as a retelling of Pride & Prejudice, this book fails in that regard. 

Is it fun? Yes. 

Is is interesting? Yes. 

Would it have been far more successful as its own thing, with completely new characters divorced from Jane Austen's works entirely? Also, yes.

(NOTE: this is not unique to the first novel in the series; although Manslaughter Park takes the complete opposite route and still fails in its attempts. But more on that later.) 

Additionally, the decision to set these books in their original time period, while often ignoring societal rules for said time period, while also relying on said rules every so often in order to move the plot along, is frankly bizarre. Price admits via an author's note that she is entirely aware of the anachronisms and historical inaccuracies, and that they are not a result of lack of research, but a choice made so she could write the stories she wanted to write. After all, her entire plot would not exist if she were to adhere to historical accuracy--women would not be allowed to practice law in London until a hundred years after Pride & Premeditation is set. Understandable, but this creates a persistent confusion for the reader, as we are never sure what the rules are or whether we should be following them. To give a more innocuous example, rules of propriety dictate that an unmarried, unrelated man and woman should not be alone together. Lizzie, however, ignores this rule with various different men, often with the knowledge of others. To add to the confusion, sometimes this is met with concern about her reputation, either from Lizzie herself or from other characters, whereas other times it is treated as no big deal. 

That said, this book does have some good points:

- Historical inaccuracies aside (as I said, I'm not a purist), Lizzie's motivation to become a female solicitor and her investigation is interesting. Her journey to realizing her own biases and that she still has a lot to learn does somewhat reflect her humbling in the original novel, and I enjoyed the evolution of her relationship with her father. 

-I enjoyed especially the inclusion of Charlotte, who in this novel is a biracial woman of color who works for the family law office. Price's version of her involvement with Collins and the conflict between her and Lizzie was one of the more successful elements of the retelling. I wish her role had been larger!

-The meeting scene between Lizzie and Bingley was actually one of my favorites! The caveat is that it did give me the strange experience of seeing romantic sparks between them??? That has literally never happened to me before, haha!

-Some backstory for Caroline Bingley--unexpected and totally unnecessary to the plot, but it's a bold move and I can respect that

-Some understanding shown towards Mrs. Bennet's difficult position, although her character was underutilized (as were the rest of the Bennets, which was a huge shame)

-Price does raise the stakes by raising the body count, a strong choice!

Now, for the qualms:

Expectations for this book were set by a set of words on the back cover: "smart, romantic, and thrilling"--aka, everything a murder mystery/romance should be. But for me, the "romantic" element was not quite what was promised. Personally, I found this particular book to be about 60% mystery, 30% journey of self-discovery, and only about 10% romance. Perhaps it is because the target audience is young adult rather than adult, but the love story was often on the back burner...which wouldn't necessarily be a problem, if this weren't a retelling of a very popular, very romantic novel. 

Look, I'm not saying Lizzie can't focus more on the murder or on proving herself than on her budding feelings for Darcy. That's totally fine. I even understand why the author may have regulated him to a background character for a large portion of the novel, as his absence is what allows Wickham to get so close to Lizzie. Unfortunately, because Darcy's character is often missing for huge chunks of time, the chemistry between him and Lizzie doesn't have enough time to build. Their attraction is whittled down to physical intrigue, and save for the scene where they get trapped together in the law office and Lizzie learns of Darcy's fear of the dark--a welcome moment of connection after several interactions that are the same repetitive "I told you not to investigate, you silly girl" "Well I'm gonna anyway, you nepo baby" argument--there is little emotional attachment between them to indicate to the reader that they are a good match. Because there are such huge gaps between their interactions, the heat between them cools down before the next time they meet on page, so it constantly feels like we are starting from zero chemistry-wise instead of building on what came before. This has the unfortunate consequence of botching Darcy's drastic decision to take a bullet for her in the final quarter--instead of proving both his good character and amorous feelings, it just seems silly and over the top. 

Another huge issue in this book (and the second in the series) is that because the characters all have the same names and moral alignments despite the change in plot, it is extremely obvious who is "good" and who is "bad". Though the reader will not have all the information as to how or why the crimes were committed, anyone with a working knowledge of Pride & Prejudice will immediately understand that Wickham is not to be trusted. Price could have leveraged this by making use of dramatic irony; unfortunately, in P & Premed the choice deflates all suspense and entices the reader to judge Lizzie harshly for her lack of suspicion. After all, shouldn't someone planning to make a career in investigative work be a little more cautious? (This exact sentiment appears in the other two novels in the series.)

Other problems I had with this novel:

-There was NO reason to change Lizzie's age to sixteen (per the text) or seventeen (per the inside flap), especially considering Darcy was described as being in his twenties??? GROSS. She is still being pushed to marry Mr. Collins, and she often goes out unchaperoned at all hours, so keeping her original age of twenty would have actually made things less weird. Twenty is still considered "young adult", so if the reason was because Price or her publisher believed the target audience would relate better to a teenager, well...that's ridiculous, frankly.

-The relationship between Lizzie and Jane, which was so important in the original novel, is almost entirely cut. Subsequently, Jane and Bingley's romance is also eliminated, regulated to only a throwaway line at the end about a burgeoning attraction. :(

-Lydia's plotline is also entirely cut--the author had time to invent a whole forbidden romance for Caroline Bingley that turned out to be unrelated to the crime, yet not a crumb of plot for the youngest Bennet???

-While also a victim of prejudice and misunderstanding, Austen's Darcy makes mistakes and has to work to rectify them; Price's Darcy vacillates between being absolutely correct (Lizzie is investigating illegally, after all) or at a total standstill (waiting around for Lizzie to hand him a clue or information). 

Alright, let's call it now that I'm nice and fired up. Overall, I'd give this book 3/5 stars as a murder mystery, and a 2/5 as a retelling.