Truly, I loved the premise of this novel. And having read several regency novels in my day, I was amazed at how closely the author matched the writing style to the original novel. Splendid character tweaks and a well constructed story line…so why didn’t I rate this book? At this point in my life, regency novels are not catching hold of me. I have set this book aside for a later date until I can finish and review it properly.

Si hay un personaje de Jane Austen que despierta rechazo, esa es Fanny Price, la moralista, insípida y tímida protagonista de Mansfield Park. Por eso Lynn Shepherd no ha podido resistir la tentación de transformarla en un personaje radicalmente opuesto. Fanny es aquí una rica y malcriada heredera, y Mary Crawford se ha convertido en un ser bondadoso que sufre todo tipo de humillaciones a manos de su vengativa vecina. Cuando Fanny es asesinada en los jardines de Mansfield Park, Mary asume el protagonismo, aliándose con el investigador Maddox para resolver el crimen.

Lynn Shepherd does a nice job of turning Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park into a light mystery.

I honestly did not think Shepherd needed to make Fanny Price into an arrogant bitch to justify her murder, and think that the original Fanny Price whom Austen wrote was such an insipid character I wanted to murder her myself.

Shepherd stays true to the Austen style of writing and the overall Regency feel. And of course the main character, Mary Crawford (in this case) winds up living happily ever after as do all of Austen’s heroines.

Considering Mansfield Park was one of my least favorite Austen books, I think Shepherd does a commendable job in the retelling of it and makes it a little more fun having Fanny finally get her comeuppance.
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Ms Sheperd really did her homework. The sense of place and manner of dialogue was very well done. Her use of Austen's own "turn of phrase", pitch perfect. It was intriging to see the storyline in another perspective, skewed (if you will) to a murder mystery where some of the characters are so far beyond what they were. If you like Jane Austen and love mysteries, you might find yourself with this book upon your lap. Read away, dear friend, read away! ( )

This is the second literary spin-off I have read by this author, following her re-imagining of Dickens's Bleak House, Tom-All-Alone's. The early part follows the narrative of Jane Austen's novel very closely, but with some subtle differences in who is related to whom, and many of the characters have differing traits and driving forces, especially Fanny. The novel becomes a Georgian whodunnit when a body is found in the grounds of the Park and a thief-taker from London, Charles Maddox, who also appears in Tom-All-Alone's, is called to the scene. I won't give away any spoilers, but this is very well written, with a style similar to Austen's, which at times felt almost disconcerting to me, having read Austen's novel only two weeks earlier. The later scenes where Maddox investigates combine this Austen style with dramatic confrontations and quite shocking events in a very successful way. When I reviewed the earlier book, I said I thought that it had slightly besmirched my view of Bleak House, but I don't feel the same way about this one - the re-imagining is done in a different way that doesn't spring so directly from the themes of the original (though if I were to re-read Austen's novel now, I would surely have some new images in my mind). ( )