ARC Review: The Murder of Mr. Wickham by Claudia Gray

From New York Times bestselling author Claudia Gray—a summer house party turns into a thrilling whodunit when Mr. Wickham, one of literature’s most notorious villains, meets a sudden and suspicious end in this brilliantly imagined mystery featuring Jane Austen’s leading literary characters.

The happily married Mr. Knightley and Emma are throwing a house party, bringing together distant relatives and new acquaintances—characters beloved by Jane Austen fans. Definitely not invited is Mr. Wickham, whose latest financial scheme has netted him an even broader array of enemies. As tempers flare and secrets are revealed, it’s clear that everyone would be happier if Mr. Wickham got his comeuppance. Yet they’re all shocked when Wickham turns up murdered—except, of course, for the killer hidden in their midst.

Nearly everyone at the house party is a suspect, so it falls to the party’s two youngest guests to solve the mystery: Juliet Tilney, the smart and resourceful daughter of Catherine and Henry, eager for adventure beyond Northanger Abbey; and Jonathan Darcy, the Darcys’ eldest son, whose adherence to propriety makes his father seem almost relaxed. In a tantalizing fusion of Austen and Christie, the unlikely pair must put aside their own poor first impressions and uncover the guilty party—before an innocent person is sentenced to hang.

• Title: The Murder of Mr. Wickham
• Author:  Claudia Gray
• Publisher: Vintage
• Publication Date: May 3rd, 2022
• Genre: Mystery, Historical Fiction 
• Source: Digital ARC via Netgalley / Publishers in exchange for an honest review
• Targeted Age Range: Adult
• Content Warnings: Death of a child (off page), blackmail, death from illness (smallpox), murder, blood, repeated use on an anti-Roma slur, classism, sexist ideals, homophobia (including homophobia rooted in Christianity – challenged), mentions of a miscarriage, grief, brief discussion of slavery, implied intent of sexual assault, sexual harassment, blackmail
• Rating: ★★★★☆

The Murder of Mr. Wickham combines two of my favorite things: murder mysteires and Jane Austen. The second I heard about this book I knew that I had to add it to my TBR, and I was so excited when I got the ARC, so a huge thank you to Netgalley and Vintage for providing me with a copy!

What more could a Janeite want than a story that combines all of Austen’s most beloved characters? I loved the idea of these characters being connected in some way, and it was so fun to see them interact. The Murder of Mr. Wickham is described as being a mix of Jane Austen and Agatha Christie, and I think that comparison is absolutely spot on. I’ve read a lot of Agatha Christie over the years (she truly is one of the best mystery novelists) and I could feel her influence and inspiration in the storytelling. I also loved all the little references to Austen’s novels that Claudia Gray put into the story; each and every reference brought a smile to my face.

I loved a lot of things about The Murder of Mr. Wickham, but there were some things that didn’t sit well with me. Before I get into what I loved about this book, I want to take a moment to touch on the things that I didn’t love so much. Neither thing is particularly shocking for historical fiction, but that doesn’t change the fact that they’re not things that I particularly enjoy. 

There was a lot of talk about what is and isn’t appropriate for women and young girls to do in society, which, while definitely expected in a book set in 1820, it’s still annoying. It was nice to see it be challenged by a few of the characters, but it was still eye-roll worthy, especially when it came from some male characters with very strong willed and opinionated wives. Though annoying, that wasn’t the thing that bothered me the most. 

Early on, we find out that Wickham has discovered a secret about one of the characters that could ruin her brother, and by proxy, ruin her as well. This character’s brother reveals to her that he and his friend are lovers and intend to live as a married couple (which I didn’t find realistic for that time period, but I let it slide for storytelling purposes). Wickham being the…joy that he is, obviously uses this information as blackmail.

Unfortunately, we do not actually meet this gay character in the book. Everything we know and hear about him is from his sister and brother-in-law, and his homosexuality is used as character development for them. I do appreciate that the homophobia was challenged, though I do think that it could’ve been challenged more and in a less “well, I don’t agree but I love you anyway” way. What made it most difficult to read for me was the root of the homophobia was based in religion. I’m not going to use this post to get into a discussion on sexuality and religion, but I would like to state that as a religious person myself, I very strongly believe that using religion to excuse homophobia goes against the core Christian values of love and compassion, so this didn’t sit well with me. While I see how this side plot fit into the storytelling as a whole, and it definitely gave these characters motive to murder Wickham, I think that they could’ve been given motive with a storyline that did not involve a gay character without us ever meeting or hearing from him specifically, and using his sexuality to further develop straight characters.

Now, onto the things that I really loved! I thought that the characterization was done extremely well! When you’re expanding upon characters as cherished as Austen’s, readers are going to have expectations — I sure did —- and I personally felt that these expectations were met! Gray did a great job of writing the characters in a way that felt authentic to how they were originally written (Emma continuing to play matchmaker, Elizabeth being unafraid to speak her mind even if it’ll ruffle feathers, Miss Bates talking so much and just being an all around happy personality, etc), while allowing them to grow and mature with age. We get to see these characters in circumstances that are very different from their original stories, but none of their actions and choices felt out of place. 

George Wickham was once again the literal worst character in the history of literature. Gray wrote him so incredibly well that it was actually super upsetting. Every time he opened his mouth he made me more upset, which is exactly what I want with any version of George Wickham. From the events in Pride and Prejudice, we know that Wickham is not a character that we should trust and that he really has no moral compass and this version of Wickham really exemplifies that. Every single time I thought that he couldn’t get any worse, he did, and truly it didn’t even surprise me. He was simply vile, and to be completely honest, I was not sad to see him go!

Oh, I absolutely must point out that one of my favorite moments in the ENTIRE book was George Knightly being absolutely thrilled at the fact that he successfully grew a tomato in his garden and then eating it like an apple. It was hilarious, and he was like an excited puppy who was telling everyone he came in contact with, so obviously I read that scene about 3 times. George Knightly my beloved. This scene also led to one of the funniest lines in the entire book, which was when Emma said, “There is only so much entertainment to be found in a tomato”. Honestly, I could read an entire book about domestic life for Emma and George Knightly.

There were two new characters in The Murder of Mr. Wickham who played arguably the most important roles in the story. Juliet Tilney (the daughter of Catherine and Henry Tilney) and Jonathan Darcy (the eldest son of Elizabeth and Fitzwilliam Darcy) were wonderful additions to the story and I loved them! At the start of the book they reminded me a little bit of Elizabeth and Darcy (which I loved), as they have a little misunderstanding, but they quickly move past that once Wickham has been murdered and the two decide to work together to figure out who the murderer is. 

I personally found Juliet and Jonathan extremely likable. Jonathan was very analytical and methodical, which I think worked well with Juliet’s drive and curiosity. What I especially appreciated was that the two of them were able to see things from the other perspective, so their arguments never lasted long and they really listened to each other. Jonathan never questioned Juliet’s intelligence or the validity of her opinions simply because she’s a girl and it was not seen as “proper” for a girl to try and solve a mystery. Juliet was understanding of Jonathan’s reluctance to look at his parents as possible murder suspects, and let him process the reality of the situation on his own time. 

It was lovely to see the friendship (and possible budding romance…) between the two grow as the story went on, and I especially loved how safe they felt with each other, especially since there was a murderer among them and they weren’t completely sure who they could trust. When reading from Jonathan’s point of view, we learn that there are many times where he feels uncomfortable with people and doesn’t know how to act unless there are very specific societal rules in place, but he very quickly finds that spending time with Juliet is the exact opposite. He feels that he doesn’t have to pretend with her, and that he can be entirely himself when he’s with Juliet, which is just absolutely lovely.

Before picking up the book I was curious to see how Gray would weave all these characters together, and make it so that the culprit wasn’t obvious from the beginning. The idea that Wickham had started running an investment scam and that’s how he was connected to the other characters was really well done, and definitely a believable business endeavor for Wickham to take on. All the characters had a motive to kill Wickham and as you learned more about the characters and their lives, the theories and possibilities continue to pile up. It’s never really obvious who the murderer was, and I really liked that. I had a couple theories throughout the book and the argument for both cases continued to grow as the story went on, but just before the truth was revealed there was a moment that really sold me on one theory that just so happened to be correct. I thought that the reveal was very well done, and the reasoning behind the murder was definetly believable. 

If you’re a fan of Jane Austen and murder mysteries, I would highly recommend checking out The Murder of Mr. Wickham!

Links for The Murder of Mr. Wickham: Goodreads | TheStorygraph | Bookshop | IndieBound