Sense and Second-Degree Murder (Jane Austen Murder Mysteries, 2)

I really enjoyed Sense and Second-Degree Murder, but not quite as much as Pride and Premeditation. It might be because I knew more about Pride and Prejudice than I do about Sense and Sensibility. But this was still so much fun to read. I loved the sisters and their relationship. I’m a murder story girl, but I almost loved the relationship more in this. Almost. Elinor is the oldest sister and is very interested in chemistry. Marianne is the middle child and she helped her father with his investigations. Margaret is the youngest and wants to be a writer. She uses real life things in her books to make them more realistic. After their father is found dead, Marianne believes that it was murder and not a heart attack. The two oldest look into it and find a weird substance in his tea cup. Elinor takes it to run some experiments. When the will is read, everything is left to their half brother. Their father wrote his will before the girls were even born. Their brother’s wife, Fanny, is a horrible person and she makes them move out of their home. They’re only given a small amount of money to live off of. The family gets a small home in town. Their mother isn’t coping well with the death, but the girls are focused on finding out what happened. Fanny’s brother seems to want to help the girls and Elinor is crushing on him. But Marianne doesn’t trust him. Marianne meets a young man that she likes spending time with. They also meet another man, Mr. Brandon, that works at an apothecary. The three men could all be suspect. The girls start connecting another case to their dad’s murder, but investigating risks their lives. None of the girls is willing to give up and they risk everything to figure out who killed their dad. And they might just find love along the way. I gave this book 4 1/2 stars rounded up to 5 on Goodreads. Thank you to the publisher and Edelweiss for my earc.

I really enjoyed this! Ms. Price sure knows how to capture Jane Austen’s characters and model them into her own. The sisterly bond was my favorite part about this book. I loved how Each girl had their own interests. The murder mystery in this book was good and inky slightly predictable. However, I didn’t predict all of it which was nice. Highly recommend if you want a quick read and are a huge Jane Austen fan like me. Also, I think I liked this better than Pride & Premeditation.

As a fan of Jane Austen, I have expectations when I read a retelling. The author has more than exceeded my expectations twice. This mystery masterfully weaves all of the connections of the original with a fresh mystery. I really appreciate that the author keeps the females as strong characters. Her hallmark is to make them mavericks; in this version, Elinor is a budding chemist and Marianne an investigator. I very much enjoyed how she tied everything together.

I stopped reading spin-offs of Jane Austen after Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. There’s just too many out there. But when this novel was released last month, it caught my eye. So I took a chance and bought it. I’m glad I did because it was delightful. The Dashwood sisters aren’t running about society looking for husbands, they have their hearts set on being independent women. Elinor the chemist, Marieanne the private investigator, and Margaret the author. Marieanne is on her way to achieving that dream, being her father’s protegé at his investigation firm. Or at least, she was until his untimely death. When the girls discover their father was poisoned, they set out to catch the murderer. But without his journal, they have no idea who had a motive. Is their brother John in financial straits? Was it their maid who delivered the tainted tea? Could it have been that odd surgeon Mr. Brandon who didn’t trust their father’s conclusion to his case? Everyone is a suspect and no one can be trusted. But trust they must, since the Dashwood sister’s reputations and livelihoods depend on solving the case. At the risk of being redundant, this was truly delightful. It’s been many years since I’ve read Sense & Sensibility but this book brought it right back. The plot points from the original hit at all the right places and I loved the character adaptations. The independent Dashwood sisters. Edward Farrow the accountant. Mr. Brandon the surgeon. The horrible Fanny and irritating Lucy Steele. Although obviously, the focus is on a murder mystery and not on romance, there’s some of that too. Toss in some period-appropriate social commentary and I call it a winner. Even if you’ve never read Sense & Sensibility or aren’t a Jane Austen fan, this novel can stand on its own. All in all, just a fun read.