Sequel AND crime story: the ultimate guilty pleasure

Heard the news? P.D. James is writing a sequel to Pride and Prejudice! A sequel and a crime story to boot. What's extraordinary about that is not the idea itself - it has been done before - but that such a prestigious writer (yes, a crime writer, but very highly regarded one) should try her hand at a genre combination with such a poor standing in literary circles. Crime may be the genre that has come in from the cold (every second author seems to dabble in murder these days) but the sequel/prequel/retelling genre is still viewed with a great deal of suspicion by the culture vultures. And as for a crime and sequel combo - well, it's hardly going to get reviews in any upmarket newspapers, unless a reviewer wants to make a point about leaving dead authors' deathless creations alone. To those of us who can't help enjoying sequels and other riffs on the classics, it's very good news indeed that we have a heavyweight like P.D. James on our side.

A sequel/crime story take on Austen is, as I mentioned, not a new thing in itself. Here are some examples of the sequel/crime story genre (and by sequel I include prequels, retellings from another point of view, resettings of the story in modern times etc.):

The Mr and Mrs Darcy Mysteries by Carrie Bebris: When I bought the first of these novels, I expected it to be quite trashy. I mean, Elizabeth and Darcy as mystery solvers? Come on. Unexpectedly, though, the books in this series turn out to be some of the best in the Austen sequel genre. Bebris captures the personalities of Austen's characters well, and the relationship between the Darcys is sweet without being cloying. The two first mysteries contain supernatural elements, but this feature is hardly in evidence in book three, "North by Northanger", and not at all in subsequent books. That may be a relief to some, but I didn't mind the supernatural factor. In fact, I think my favourite of the mysteries is book number two, "Suspense and Sensibility". As the title suggests, characters from "Sense and Sensibility" make an appearance, and thanks to a magic mirror a rake from the Hellfire Club days is let loose in Regency London, in the guise of Kitty Bennet's fiancé Harry Dashwood. When the bewildered Kitty takes her suddenly errant fiancé to task and asks him if he has a lover, he answers calmly: "Yes. Do you?"

Murder at Mansfield Park by Lynn Shepherd: I read this novel partly during a train journey, and it passed the long train journey test with flying colours. I didn't fidget, I just read on. It's an enjoyable Austenesque romp and a good old-fashioned whodunnit rolled into one, with a bright-eyed sleuth in the Bucket/Cuff mould. Be warned, though: this is not Mansfield Park as we know it. This is a kind of parallel universe where things are slightly different: for instance, Fanny Price is not a poor relation but a spoiled heiress; the Crawfords are in straitened circumstances; and Edmund is Mrs Norris's stepson rather than the younger son of the Bertram family. Geek as I am, I'm familiar with and enjoy a parallel universe story. It did annoy me, though, that some of the characters, notably Fanny, were so unlike their "real" counterparts, and that the dissimilarity could not be put down to altered circumstances alone. You have to be a hardened anti-Pricean (though there are many of them out there) to think that Fanny would be a conceited monster in any universe. I look forward to reading Shepherd's next book, inspired by "Bleak House", but I wonder what she will make of Esther.

Shakespearean Whodunnits, Shakespearean Detectives and The Mammoth Book of Dickensian Whodunnits, edited by Mike Ashley: It was the collections of Shakespearean murder mysteries that made me change my mind about the sequel genre. Before that, I was just as sniffy about it as many others. It's years since I read them now, but I remember the high quality of many of the stories, and one of them lingers particularly in the mind: "The House of Rimmon" by Cherith Baldry, a mystery featuring the characters from "The Merchant of Venice" which treats not only Shylock but also Antonio with sympathy. Then fairly recently, the collection of Dickensian whodunnits came out. Yay! Ashley must be a good editor, because again there were many strong stories, though I didn't care for the "Dombey and Son" one. (In fairness, it would take much to make me relish a story where the suggestion is that darling Jem Carker's death wasn't an accident.) The "David Copperfield" short stories were among the best - no Uriah in sight, though.

Death by Dickens and Much Ado About Murder edited by Anne Perry: More uneven collections, these, but worth getting hold of for all that, especially the Dickens-themed one. The "Christmas Carol" story by Lillian Stewart Carl is particularly charming, and I enjoyed Perry's own "Tale of Two Cities" story set in revolutionary France and featuring some figures from Robespierre's closest circle.

The Ladislaw Case by Imke Thormählen: Yes, all right, I must admit a personal bias in favour of this novel. Let's just say Sweden's a small country, population-wise. I think I can safely say, however, that those who love Victorian novels and classic whodunnits will enjoy it hugely. It gives "Middlemarch" the sequel/crime story treatment, but there are also references to Dickens: in the end, it is Inspector Bucket who solves the murder of Will Ladislaw's political rival, for which Will is the prime suspect. Though the book is set in London in the 1840s rather than in Middlemarch, past events and long-dead Middlemarchians still influence the protagonists' lives: Bulstrode has also copped it by now, but in a way his soul goes marching on. Will hasn't forgotten Casaubon either, however much he would wish to.

To sum up, if you think P.D. James's P&P murder mystery sounds intriguing, there's a lot more reading to be had along the same lines. That doesn't make James's forthcoming book any less welcome, however. Who murdered Wickham? My money is on Mrs Bennet - or Lady Catherine de Bourgh.