The Phantom of Pemberley

The Phantom of Pemberley by Regina Jeffers is a very interesting book. I'm not sure if I liked it or not. In general, I think it's a bad idea to move a book forward after it's ended, unless it's a sequal by the original author. And even then, sometimes it's just best to leave it be. "Anne of Green Gables" (the movie) is a good example. "The Sequel" was fantastic. However, it ends with loose ends. You don't get to see the end of Anne and Gilbert's story. Because of that (or more likely money) another movie was made, "The Continuing Story". It's bad. Just bad. I bought it and watched it thinking "I can't get enough of these characters, surely I want to see more of the end of their story." Mistake. Sometimes a story should just end with loose ties. Let the readers imaginations take over and finish the ending.

This is kind of how I felt with The Phantom of Pemberley. It was a great story - a murder mystery. However, perhaps Jeffers should have just written her own original characters and left Darcy and Elizabeth out of it. But maybe not. I'm just not sure with this book. Most books I have strong opinions about - I either like them or I don't. This one really could go either way.

Here's what I do know: I liked that the culture of Pride and Prejudice was there, without the difficulty of reading an Austen novel. It was easy to read, which with four kids and a husband with the flu, I appreciated. I liked the twist that comes towards the end. It was unexpected and an interesting way to bring up a certain subject which must remain unmentioned here due to spoiler issues. But, it would certainly be an interesting book to debate in a book club due to this issue. (Piqued your interest?!)

Here's something I don't know: I'm not convinced the book is believable. And unless the genre is clearly not supposed to be believable, I don't like books that I can't believe would or at least COULD have happened.

This has turned out to be a little longer of a review than I anticipated and even though I have more to write, I'll end this with loose ends just like perhaps this book should have...