Pemberley, 1799, Georgiana Darcy, trying to escape from an unwanted marriage proposal, finds herself catapulted through time to Saltram, 1995, where a film crew is filming a Jane Austen adaptation. When she’s the only witness to a crime there, she realises that she’s been sent there to investigate! With the help of a handsome, Irish love interest called Quinn and a border collie called Watson, she’s on the case! But is time on her side?

Amelia Blackwell is a great lover of Jane Austen, and this book is the first in a new series, with a second book ‘The Haunting Of A Bronte’ coming out later this year. Blackwell is the descendant of Baron John de Halighwell, whose name is used for that of Georgiana’s suitor.

Georgiana is, of course, Mr Darcy’s younger sister from ‘Pride and Prejudice’, and the book takes place after the events of that story, while Elizabeth is pregnant with Darcy’s and her first child, and Georgiana is 20, and facing being married off to an eligible bachelor. The story features little appearances of characters from Pride and Prejudice, with part of the narrative taking place in the 1700’s and part in 1995.

I don’t always love this re-hashing of texts like Austen or Conan Doyle, into other stories. They often seem to borrow the characters and places of those authors, without the meaning or full comprehension of them, and they pieces get moved about and reused til they lose all sense and meaning, and are just dark facsimiles of themselves. So I was cautious going into this one, but I decided to have a sense of humour about it, since the book seems to be sharing a knowing wink with the reader.

The first thing you notice about this book is that it tries to gently mimic the style and verbiage of Jane Austen and her contemporaries, but in a nice way. It’s not trying too hard or anything, it feels natural, but it helps to evoke the feeling of sinking into Pemberley and Georgiana’s mind. In the early parts of the book, Georgiana compares some characters she meets in the 90’s to ones from Pride and Prejudice’s story world, so Quinn reminds her of Elizabeth, and she immediately feels comfortable with him, while the producer Clinton reminds her of Wickham, and it gives her the creeps. All of this is to evoke the world of Jane Austen’s story, and it has a certain style to it that, while not really Austen, feels cozy and gives the book a narrative style.

The book is broken up into lots of very short chapters, giving the story a staccato style. On the whole, it’s paced well, dropping us into the action right away, and giving us little bits of story and drama, intrigue, as we go. The plot does meander a little bit, though. While I really liked Georgiana’s youthful can-do attitude and willingness to get into investigating, she does this about as well as any 20 year old might, wandering around and rushing here and there, with no real idea how to investigate. In the end, she stumbles onto the answer to the mystery, which all feels a bit rushed, and you couldn’t really have used clues in the story to figure out the ending. It’s that kind of mystery story.

The romance part of this novel is quite nice. Quinn is a lovely, kind hearted and friendly Irish man, classically romance novel handsome without being vain, and there’s the drama of not knowing what he knows. He seems honest and trustworthy, but could he be the killer? It adds a little frision to the narrative, and I liked the melodrama of her perhaps having to marry someone awful in her own time, while having a potential real love in another. It’s dramatic, and it works for this kind of story.

If I’m being nit picky, there are some small problems in the novel. A 20 year old from 1799 would not likely be exposed to crime and it’s investigation, and may find it more frightening than exciting. Technically, Georgiana seems a little too worldly for a girl of her time, age and station in life. She also has the problem of having to stop and figure out what all the things she sees around her in the modernity of the 90’s are, which can slow down the narrative, and she often can’t comprehend what people are talking about, because of modern idioms and slang, which means she would in reality make a poor investigator. But I think if you’re reading this book, you know that it’s meant to be cozy and Austen-esque, a mystery series with a theme, not Jane’s book itself, so it’s quite fun to just go with it and let it be.

On the whole, though, this was a nice bit of escapism, a gentle read that’s fast paced and dramatic, with its romance plot line, beautiful houses, the occasional appearances of the helpful border collie, and its hints of magic. The book left some things open ended for the next book, and I am curious to find out what happens with those threads… which I wasn’t sure that I would be when I picked this one up.

Read It If: this one is for cozy mystery lovers who like time travel or Regency and 90’s stories. Perhaps the more serious Austen fans might not like this one, but I think it will find a happy audience.

With thanks to PGC Books for the copy of this book for review.