The Rushworth Family Plot

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.