The Late Mrs. Willoughby by Claudia Gray

Following the delightful introduction to Mr. Jonathan Darcy and Miss Juliet Tilney in 2022’s The Murder of Mr. Wickham, Gray returned with a sweet little sequel that reunited this crime-solving duo in another reimagining of a continued and united Austen-verse.

Gray orders the timeline in this series with an eye for a winning outcome — twenty-some-odd years have passed for seemingly all the Austen crew except the Brandons . . . Colonel Christopher and Marianne Brandon (from Sense & Sensibility). They are still happy newlyweds, although they continue to deal with the fallout from the events of the previous book.

Now, with their eyes on having to cope with Mr. Willoughby (who treated Marianne so poorly in S&S) following his taking up residence at his neighboring, inherited estate, the former Misses Dashwoods and current residents of Devonshire prepare to socialize with Willoughby and his new bride. But, when her sudden death at a welcoming dinner turns out to have been due to poisoning, Mr. Darcy and Miss Tilney feel obligated to put their heads together once again to get to the truth of what happened and discover who is responsible.

Gray gets the tone just right for her Austenverse take, while also loosening the narrative a wee bit for a modern audience. This installment went on a little too long, and I spotted the guilty party almost immediately. That combination made it a little harder to fully enjoy as the pages turned, but this felt more like a second-book blip than a real concern for the storytelling and the future of this wonderfully cozy series. I’m looking forward to the incredibly enticing-sounding third installment this summer, The Perils of Lady Catherine de Bourgh.