Interested in a detailed summary with read-alikes?? Check out my Annotation of this book.
Author: Tirzah Price
Title: Sense and Second Degree Murder
Category/Type: Young Adult Fiction
Genre: Mystery
Subgenre: Historical
Publication Date: April 5, 2022
Number of Pages: 402 pages of story text
Series (if applicable): This is book 2 in the Jane Austen Murder Mystery series.
Content warnings: Murder, death of parent, death of a loved one, sexism (mostly due to the time period), child endangerment, substance use and abuse.
Summary: In a reimagining of one of Jane Austen’s most beloved stories, there’s a murder to be solved and some familiar heroines step up to the challenge.
The Dashwood family is shocked and reeling after Elinor discovers her father dead, apparently poisoned by a cup of tea, in his study one morning. Luckily, Elinor is a budding chemist and her sister Marianne is an amateur sleuth trained by their father. Determined to solve the case, things are complicated by their sudden change in fortune when their brother and sister-in-law kick them out of their home and provide them with barely a penny to live off of. Each sister must overcome their doubts about themselves and others if they are going to work together to solve the case. Along the way they will be aided and hindered by some of Austen’s other famous characters including the gentlemen Willoughby and Ferrars and the up-and-coming surgeon Mr. Brandon. Along the path to figuring out whodunit, they will also discover truths about the nature of love and relationships and the importance of family.
Price spins an engaging alternate Austen world giving the Dashwood sisters even more agency to be themselves, keeping Austen’s work relevant in an arguably more progressive age.
PERSONAL THOUGHTS
WARNING: May contain spoilers
While this was a fun read, I didn't find it as good as the first book in the series, Pride and Premeditation. Then again, none of Austen’s own works were as good as Price and Prejudice…
This retelling gives more agency to the Dashwood sisters and fleshes them out but at the detriment of the male leads, Ferrars and Brandon. And yes!, we want more feminist retellings, but flattening the male characters means that the their purpose in the story was more challenging to understand. Mr. Ferrars especially felt more like he was tacked on to maintain that particular connection to the original story. It also made the romances feel confusing and dull. I’m sure I’m not the only one who felt that, in both Austen's original as well as the 1995 movie adaptation, the main love affair should have been between Elinor and Brandon. The dimming of the male characters meant that this feeling was heightened in Price’s adaptation. Readers are given a lot of time with Elinor and Brandon and almost none with Ferrars at all.
Also, I somehow didn't recall Marianne being quite so obnoxious in the original story as she is in this one. Perhaps because this is a young adult book, her whininess was heightened but ugh, there was one point in the beginning where I didn’t want to finish the book because she was just so annoying.
Despite the gripes above, I felt that overall this was a fun read and I got through it quickly, always wanting to find out what happened next. Price adds action without making the story a thriller so it's still conceivable that the book is set in Austen's world. I also absolutely loved the Easter egg refence to the first book in the series and look forward to seeing how all the books will be connected at the end. And maybe have some crossover originals...???!!! Despite some complaints, this series is helping me break into the mystery genre which I rarely read.
Final resting place: The copy I read was a library book and has been returned.
WHAT I’M READING NOW
My annotations and reviews are always running a bit (or more) behind what I’m actually reading so here’s a little bit of a teaser, if you will, for reviews to come.
Her Majesty’s Royal Coven by Juno Dawson