Pride and Prescience: Or, A Truth Universally Acknowledged is a novel by Carrie Bebris who has written several Pride and Prejudice (or Austenesque) novels. It’s the first in the Mr & Mrs Darcy Regency Mystery series. It’s a murder mystery with Lizzie and Mr Darcy in the starring roles. At first, it seems to be just a murder mystery but later on some supernatural elements are added.
Plot
It starts at the double wedding of Lizzie and Mr Darcy, and Jane and Mr Bingley. Caroline Bingley announces her engagement to Frederick Parrish, a rich and charming American at the wedding breakfast. Mrs Bennet is infuriated by this blatant attempt to upstage the weddings, and Lizzie is none too pleased. Lizzie and Mr Darcy are hoping to go to Pemberley as soon as possible after the wedding but their plans are thwarted by Caroline’s plan to marry the week after their wedding. Then Caroline begins to behave strangely, and the plot develops from there.
Characters
Several of the characters from Pride and Prejudice make an appearance including Jane and Mr Bingley and Caroline Bingley. Caroline has a major role in the plot. Other characters such as Mrs Bennet and Mr Collins play cameos.
Several new characters are introduced in the novel, Frederick Parrish, Juliet Kendall, Professor Randal, Mr Kendall and Lord and Lady Chatfield, some of whom play a fairly major role in the story.
Lizzie seems fairly true to her character in Pride and Prejudice. Mr Darcy behaves much as you would expect. Lizzie is more open minded about the possibility of the supernatural while Mr Darcy has no truck with it.
There are no steamy scenes in the novel, so if you like that sort of thing, you’re going to be disappointed.
I enjoy mysteries so I enjoyed this Pride and Prejudice inspired mystery and will look forward to reading the next in the series.