Hello, bookworms!
Another day another (slay) mystery review. Can you believe I have read this many in a year? I personally cannot, because I always say I want to read more of them, but I actually never do, in spite of them being my favourite genre. I even have some more to review in the upcoming days. I know that for some of you these aren’t truly a lot, but I am so happy I have been getting back into reading mysteries, so I am going to count this as a win.
Anyways, back on track. Today I am here to talk about Manslaughter Park by Tirzah Price, the third and final book in the Jane Austen Murder Mystery series, which — as you may have gathered from the title — is a Jane Austen retelling companion series in which each book is based off one of Austen’s beloved classics. The first one was a retelling of Pride & Prejudice, the second one of Sense & Sensibility and this one of Mansfield Park.
But without any further ado, let’s get this review started!
About the book
Title: Manslaughter Park
Series: Jane Austen Murder Mystery #3
Author: Tirzah Price
Publisher: HarperTeen
Publication date: June 27, 2023
Pages: 404
Plot, as stated on Goodreads
In this queer retelling of the classic novel and third book in Tirzah Price’s Jane Austen Murder Mystery series, Mansfield Park is the center of a deadly accident (or is it). Perfect for fans of the Lady Janies and Stalking Jack the Ripper. Aspiring artist Fanny Price is an unwelcome guest at her uncle Sir Thomas Bertram’s estate. It’s his affection for Fanny that’s keeping her from being forced out by her cousins Tom and Maria and nasty Aunt Norris, back to a home to which she never wants to return. But then Sir Thomas dies in a tragic accident inside his art emporium, and Fanny finds evidence of foul play that, if revealed, could further jeopardize her already precarious position. Edmund, her best friend and secret crush, urges Fanny to keep quiet about her discovery, but Fanny can’t ignore the truth: a murderer is among them. Determined to find the killer, Fanny’s pursuit for justice has her wading into the Bertram family business, uncovering blackmail, and brushing with London’s high society when Henry and Mary Crawford arrive at Mansfield Park with an audacious business proposal. But a surprising twist of fate—and the help of local legends Lizzie Bennett and Fitzwilliam Darcy—brings Fanny more complications than she ever expected and a life-altering realization about herself she never saw coming.
My rating: 3 out of 5 stars
Review
I had literally no expectations going into this book for two main reasons: I did not like Mansifeld Park (which I read in order to prepare for this retelling) and Sense and Second-Degree Murder was bad. Like I still have to buy a physical copy for it bad. And I only want to buy one because I need to have the whole series on my shelves, but I digress.
Sometimes, though, going into books with low expectations means that they end up exceeding them and that is what happened to me with Manslaughter Park. It wasn’t a perfect book by any means, and nothing will ever compare with Pride & Premeditation, but I had a fun time reading it. And it was sapphic, which is always a plus, as far as I am concerned.
Anyways, this was a fun mystery. I had a good time reading it, even though it’s not the best in the series and it’s not the best YA mystery book I’ve ever read. However, I liked how the author took some troubling aspects of the original work (which, you know, was written in the 1800s) and spun it to make it more appealing to modern audiences, without losing the historical context and whatnot. Truly well done, I wish she planned on writing an Emma retelling next, but honestly the whole changing the title thing would not work there.
I am, however, really curious to read her new Lizzie & Darcy series. It is unclear to me whether it’s a Pride & Premeditation spin-off, or something new, but I will be reading it anyways, because if there’s something that can be said about Tirzah Price is that she can write quick, easy and compulsively readable YA mysteries and Mansalughter Park was no exception. I read it in two sittings, because I wanted to do nothing else.
My favourite thing about this book were most definitely the cameos of the other characters in the series. It’s always so cool when an author writes a companion series and there are little nods to the other books, or even the characters appearing like in this case.
As I was telling you, this was an enjoyable read and a good murder mystery. There were a few bits that were too obvious and I think could have been written more, which is why I gave the book 3 stars, but nothing that bad. Overall, really engaging and fun to read.
I also really liked the evolution of Fanny. If I have to be honest, I hated her in the original book, and I was hating her at the beginning of Manslaughter Park as well. Luckily, after she met two very specific people (not saying who, but you can guess), she changed and grew into someone with at least somewhat of a backbone. Thank you for your service, Miss Price.
The other characters were all interesting enough. They were close to the original, but with a few twists here and there which I appreciated, in particular when it came to Sir Thomas, which I found to be a very debatable character in Mansfield Park, to be honest.
So, overall I would not recommend the trilogy, because the second book was bad. However, if you don’t mind only reading the first and last book in a series, please go ahead and do it. If you can’t do that, I’d recommend considering the first book as the only one. If you really can’t do that either, I’m offering a chat to vent into after finishing the second book.
And that is going to be all for today, thank you so much for reading and I will talk to you very soon with a brand new movie review!
La Petite Pritt 