The Rushworth Family plot

Gray's clever fourth Jane Austen homage (after The Perils of Lady Catherine de Bourgh) keeps her winning streak alive. In 1823, Jonathan Darcy (son of Pride and Prejudice's Fitzwilliam Darcy) and his sleuthing colleague, Juliet Tilney (daughter of Northanger Abbey's Catherine Morland), are in London to participate in the social season and possibly find a mate--an unwelcome prospect, since each harbors romantic feelings for the other. When Jonathan's family must return to Pemberley, he's forced to board with his father's friend, Sir Thomas Bertram. Jonathan and Juliet get a respite from their mandated socializing after Maria Rushworth, Bertram's black-sheep sister, arrives at the family home, and then someone close to her is strangled to death with a length of rope. As a result, the amateur sleuths eagerly exit the London rat race and tap into their deductive acumen. Gray continues to effortlessly capture the language and tone of Austen's novels, this time heating up the series' sparkling romance plot while delivering her most intricate puzzle to date. It's a delight. Agent: Laura Rennert, Andrea Brown Literary. (June)

The fourth installment in Gray's series starring the next generation of Austen heroes (after The Perils of Lady Catherine de Bourgh). Together, Jonathan Darcy and Juliet Tilney know how to solve mysteries--but they can't quite crack the codes of how to find their Austen ending, at least not in one book. Like its predecessors, this novel playfully weaves central and side characters from Austen's novels together with new stories of their children. Here, crime-solving Jonathan and Juliet reunite, still hoping to defy their families' prejudices about class, money, and appropriate activities for women while figuring out how to resolve a scandal that turns murderous. The death of Mr. Rushworth, the former husband of Mansfield Park antiheroine Maria, awakens reexaminations of what exactly happened between Maria, Rushworth, and Henry Crawford. Jonathan and Juliet are in the right place at the right time to investigate. VERDICT Austenites will delight in Gray's deft retellings of the scandals at the center of Mansfield Park, with plenty of sly allusions woven into a plot that will keep readers guessing, as much about murders as about marriages.--Emily Bowles

A pair of unlikely sleuths face yet another murder in Regency England. Born more than a century too early to be formally diagnosed, Jonathan Darcy, the son of Fitzwilliam and Elizabeth Bennet Darcy, has all the hallmarks of autism spectrum disorder: dislike of noise and crowds, discomfort with social interactions, avoidance of eye contact. Fortunately, his family's wealth and prominence keep his neurodivergence from damaging his value on the 19th-century marriage market. When his parents arrange an invitation for Jonathan to stay in London with Sir Thomas Bertram's family while they tend to his injured brother, a bevy of eligible young ladies are eager to meet him at this season's round of balls. Jonathan, however, is fixated on Miss Juliet Tilney of Gloucestershire, a young woman of superior intellect who has collaborated with the perceptive Jonathan in solving several crimes. His frustration at being parted from Miss Tilney subsides temporarily when she too is brought unwillingly to the city by a parent hoping to find her a marriage partner. But not even a murder in Sir Thomas' surprisingly chaotic household enables the pair to cement their relationship. Their investigation into the death of Sir Thomas' disgraced sister Maria's former husband, freely sanctioned by the overburdened London police, permits them frequent contact, but objections from both sets of parents prevent them from declaring their affection. Their latest adventure joins a whodunit to an exploration of what it takes to make a family, as the two quirky young mutual admirers struggle to create a lasting bond. PartBridgerton and partMonk, Gray's latest has something for everyone. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.