Description (from cover):'Suspicion at Sanditon, a new adventure in Carrie Bebris's award-winning Mr. & Mrs. Darcy Mystery series takes Fitzwilliam and Elizabeth Darcy to Sanditon, the setting of Jane Austen's final work. There, accompanied by their friend Miss Charlotte Heywood, they encounter an array of eccentric villagers and visitors. Among Sanditon's most prominent residents: Lady Denham, a childless, twice-widowed dowager with a fortune to bequeath and a flight of distant relations circling for a place in her will.
The Darcys have scarcely settled into their lodgings when Lady Denham unexpectedly invites them to a dinner party. Thirteen guests assemble at Sanditon House--but their hostess never appears. As a violent storm rises, a search for Lady Denham begins. The Darcys, like most of their fellow attendees, speculate that one of her ladyship's would-be heirs has grown impatient..until the guests start to vanish one by one.
Does a kidnapper lurk in the centuries-old mansion, or is a still more sinister force at work? As the night grows short, the dwelling's population grows thin, and tales of Sanditon House's storied past emerge, Mr. and Mrs. Darcy find themselves leading a desperate effort to discover what has happened to Lady Denham and the missing guests, before they all--perhaps even Elizabeth and Darcy themselves--disappear.
The Regency era's answer to Nick and Nora Charles, the Darcys once again demonstrate their quick wits and signature wit as they search for the truth--universally acknowledged and otherwise.'
My thoughts:
I have a love of all things Jane Austen. I love her novels and her writing and most definitely the Darcys. I was absolutely thrilled to have found this series years ago and was quite sad when I thought that this author was done writing this series. It was a several years gap between books, but this newest installment was released in July of this year and I couldn't have been more happier. I love the thought of two of my most favorite literary characters acting as sleuths and solving Regency-era mysteries. Sanditon is the only novel written by Jane Austen that I have not yet read so it was a little hard to gauge this book with the original. With the other books in this series, the author tends to mix parts of the real story with her version of events. It was hard to do that with this book having never read Sanditon to compare it with.
Darcy and Elizabeth have decided to take a little vacation to a resort town of Sanditon. Little do they know that their vacation will turn out to be anything but. Upon their arrival, they are invited to dine with local noblewoman, Lady Denham at her residence, Sanditon House. When they arrive to the dinner, they discover that their hostess is missing under mysterious circumstances. It seems that the other guests that have been invited all have motive for wanting Lady Denham out of the picture or worse. Darcy and Elizabeth begin an full investigation into the other guests and the mysterious circumstances of Lady Denham's disappearance. They are shocked when several other guests start to disappear throughout the night.
I liked this book because I like the series. I will say that this is probably my least favorite of the series. I can't tell if it was because of this book or because it has been so long since I have read a book in this series. I like the characters of course, but this mystery was a little too easy to figure out and it lacked the elements of its predecessors. Not a bad read, just not what I have come to expect from this author and this series. I am hoping that this series will continue and that there will be other Darcy and Elizabeth mysteries to read in the future.
Overall Rating: 3.5
Title: The Suspicion at Sanditon (Or, the Disappearance of Lady Denham)
Author: Carrie Bebris
Series: Mr. and Mrs. Darcy Mysteries #7
Publisher: Tor Books
Publication Date: July 14, 2015
Pages: 336
Genre: Historical Mystery
Get It: Amazon; Barnes & Noble
Disclaimer: This book was selected from the library by myself and I reviewed this book without compensation of any kind. All thoughts and opinions are solely mine.
