What an ingenious idea for a whodunit! Take most of the heroes and heroines from Jane Austen's books and force them together during a house party at Emma and Knightley's house. Next, add Wickham, make him as smarmy and slimy as ever, and have someone murder him. Add to this mystery, a romance plotline between next-gen Austen characters John Darcy and Juliet Tilney, and get ready for Austen fans to squee. I mean, any super-fan of Austen (like myself) should totally eat this up, right? I'm sad to say I didn't, and I'm still wondering why.

There are a ton of characters in this novel, and to see the "after" of the various Austen marriages is lovely, yet it's too overstuffed to truly make an impact. The plotting is a bit all over the place, too. Add to that the idea that any of my favorite characters would murder a person--even someone as odious as Wickham--and I didn't really want the mystery to be solved. I also think that with everyone together at once, the individual Austen characters and couples lost the charm they had in their own novels.

I will say, author Gray does a wonderful job getting their personalities in line with Austen's work. Yet, there are so many characters, each hero and heroine really doesn't get much time to shine. The resolution of the mystery was OK, yet I still expected more from this clever idea. I'm upset I didn't connect with the novel as much as I had hoped to.