Suspense and Sensibility: Or, First Impressions Revisited

The second Mr & Mrs Darcy Mystery has Lizzie & Darcy settling comfortably into married life. They invite Kitty to spend the season in London with them and Georgiana, where they make the acquaintance of Harry Dashwood and his relations. The favourable connection starts to sour, however, when strange occurrences begin after Mr Dashwood takes possession of a portrait & mirror belonging to an infamous ancestor.

Of course, Lizzie sticks her nose in and takes it upon herself to invseitgate; Darcy is skeptical but along for the ride; and Professor Randolph pops back up with exposition and the key to solving it all.

As in the previous novel, the interaction between Lizzie and Darcy was brilliant - just the right balance of teasing banter and true affection. The pacing of the plot was good, no part of the story felt like it was too rushed along or drawn out, with the one exception that it seemed puzzling to me how quickly the Ferrars' accepted Lizzie's word and took her into the fold as if she was an old friend and not practical stranger.

I also felt that Professor Randolph was not as well integrated into the narrative, being much more of a side character in this novel, so when he pops up to explain the supernatural elements and at the end with the deus ex machina it does seem quite contrived in places.

I do have two big gripes though: first has to be when Darcy voices his admiration of Lizzie's telling falsehoods, as in canon he famously declares that he ‘abhors deceit' - it jolted me out of the story a bit. Second is the continual fat-shaming of Regina and mocking of her size by Lizzie and Darcy.

Despite all this though I did enjoy the book and will continue on with this series.