Book Review: Murder in Highbury by Vanessa Kelly

 


Murder in Highbury by Vanessa Kelly 
4 Stars 

Felt like this one was a good, classic mystery! Reminded me of like an Agatha Christie style mystery. Although I haven’t read Emma by Jane Austen and can’t personally compare how closely this aligns with it, I still found this to be an excellent read. From what I’ve gathered from others, it stays true to Austen’s style by going into themes of class, marriage, and social status. I could definitely recognize those elements myself, having read Pride and Prejudice, Persuasion, and Northanger Abbey.

A year into her marriage to Mr. Knightley, Emma is working through things with her family estate, social engagements and whatnot, when things get crazy after she finds Mrs. Augusta Elton, the vicar's wife, has been murdered. Emma and Mr. Knightley become the newlywed sleuthing duo, trying to figure out who really murdered Mrs. Elton. 

I think readers who enjoy a good classic mystery will enjoy this book as I did! Sometimes the pacing was a bit slower with drawn-out scenes, but overall I really enjoyed the story. I listened to the audiobook over the course of 2 weeks here and there and the narration is chef's kiss! Really pulls you in. 

As far as content, this is close to cozy but a smidge more details about the murder then you usually see in a cozy mystery. Nothing graphic or offensive in my opinion, some occasional mild swearing but very few words, and more so like swearing "of the times" of a book written by Jane Austen, so not very explicit to me. The violence or murder details in my opinion were brief with mentions of blood, body on the steps, bludgeoned with the murder weapon explained, so its a bit more than a cozy mystery but nothing very explicit either in my opinion. etc.

Overall, I think this is a delightful regency mystery that will be perfect for Jane Austen fans, if you are good with reading about actual Jane Austen characters from her books. I feel like Vanessa captured the essence of what I know from Jane's writing and I look forward to her next book soon!

PS I actually picked out the killer from the beginning for once, yay!


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