Since I am always on the prowl for a new author to discover, I am delighted to tell readers that I recently discovered Tirzah Price, who writes for young adults. I read Pride and Premeditation, a pastiche of Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. In Price’s story, readers will delight in the same characters that Austen created along with the same period in history.
Price has made Mr. Bennet a barrister, an expert in business law. Mr. Collins, set to inherit the business because the Bennets have only daughters, is a clerk, learning the law and expecting to be a solicitor some day with grandiose plans to become a barrister and eventually Queen’s Counsel. Lizzy longs to be a solicitor herself, but that dream is not likely to be fulfilled because of the restrictions on women at the time.
Price has made Mr. Collins as odious in Pride and Premeditation as he was in Pride and Prejudice. Early in the story as Mr. Collins tries to woo Lizzy, much to her mother’s delight, Lizzy quotes a line from Shakespeare to him: “I do wish that we could become better strangers.”
When Mr. Bingley is accused of murdering his ne’er-do-well brother-in-law, Hurst, Lizzy is determined to prove to her father that she is capable of working for his firm. She is also interested in seeing justice done because she quickly comes to believe in Bingley’s innocence after she does some sleuthing in Bingley’s and Hurst’s households. To muddy the waters, Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy and his father’s law firm are representing Bingley in the pursuit of justice.
Darcy sees Lizzy as a buzzing fly in the ointment and resents her interference until she proves that she is more than an irritant and that she can help prove Bingley’s innocence. The story moves along quickly and offers readers some heart-stopping moments as Lizzy gets more than she bargains for and trusts one person she should not have trusted.
The story is delightful, and I highly recommend it. The second book in the series is Sense and Second-Degree Murder. In it, Elinor Dashwood and Marianne, her sister, work to solve their father’s murder. Manslaughter Park is the third book; it features Fanny Price at her uncle’s estate. Fanny decides to uncover the truth about the Bertram family business, blackmail, and more. In Manslaughter Park, Lizzy Bennet and Fitzwilliam Darcy also appear.
Reading Pride and Premeditation along with Pride and Prejudice would make a delightful book club discussion.
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