Q&A with Claudia Gray

  

 

 

Claudia Gray is the author of the new novel The Fatal Unpleasantness at Netherfield, the latest in her Mr. Darcy & Miss Tilney mystery series based on Jane Austen's classic novels. She lives in Turin, Italy.

 

Q: Why did you decide to set your latest Mr. Darcy & Miss Tilney novel at Netherfield, featuring the Bennet and Bingley families?

 

A: One thing I've learned while writing this series is that there's more than one reason Pride and Prejudice is Jane Austen's best loved novel. 

 

Yes, it has the unforgettable romance between Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy--but it also has the most memorable and most entertaining supporting characters. There are just so many that we want to spend more time with; we want to learn more about what might have happened to them since the events of the novel. 

 

So even though I had written one book featuring some characters from Pride and Prejudice, namely The Perils of Lady Catherine de Bourgh, I still felt like we had more people to catch up with! Mr. and Mrs. Bennet, Charles and Jane Bingley--they're too delightful to leave in the margins forever.

 

Q: The Kirkus Review of the book said, “Gray peoples her tale with so many lively, complex, and vividly drawn characters, and involves them in such a variety of intrigues, that the reader’s attention will never flag. A new generation of heroes and heroines is bound to delight a new generation of Austen fans.” What do you think of that description?

 

A: I love it! Let's put it on billboards. T-shirts. Bumper stickers. Though I guess it's kind of a long bumper sticker, isn't it?  

 

Q: This is the fifth book in your series--how would you describe the relationship between Jonathan and Juliet at this point?

 

A: They've really been on an extraordinary journey, haven't they? 

 

Part of the fun of writing Jonathan and Juliet is that they're trying to obey so many of the conventions of the Regency era, yet at the same time, their murder investigations have necessitated all kinds of conversations and confidences that go far beyond what we think of as the ordinary Regency courtship. There's greater trust and mutual understanding, and a very deep affection.

 

And yet, the events of the fourth book of the series have put some very real obstacles between the two of them. This next book is the one where they truly have to decide how far they're willing to go for the sake of love.

 

Q: Do you have a particular favorite Austen character you enjoy reimagining?

 

A: There are so many of them! For this particular book I really enjoyed revisiting Mr. and Mrs. Bennet--his dry wit versus her irrationality--and especially Jane.

 

She's such a sweet and loving person but in the course of this novel I had to ask myself: what would it take for Jane to actually get mad? And what would it sound like when she did? I hadn't dreamed how much fun I could have with that.  

 

Q: What are you working on now? What's next in the series?

 

A: I've just finished the initial draft of book six in the series, namely Here Lies Sir Walter Elliot. As you've probably guessed, that's the Persuasion novel. 

 

In January I was able to visit Bath for a week and actually scout real locations, which is a rare luxury when you're writing primarily about fictional places. 

 

Until I was walking around Bath, specifically looking for places noted in Persuasion, I hadn't realized just how precise Jane Austen is in describing the place; you can literally trace the characters' paths through various neighborhoods. That should be coming out in summer 2027.

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: This November I'm releasing an Austen-esque book that is not a part of the mystery series; it's a completion of Jane Austen's abandoned novel fragment, The Watsons.  

 

The beginning of that book is so tantalizing that I just couldn't stand the fact that we didn't know what would become of the characters--so I decided to do something about it! 

 

My goal from the beginning was to try to finish the book at least a little like the way Jane Austen herself might have finished it, to really try to guess where she might be going. So I re-read that fragment. I don't know how many dozens of times, but after a little while, a few themes started to make themselves known. 

 

Of course inevitably, some of my 21st-century mindset has crept in; nor was I suddenly visited with the pure genius of Jane Austen. But my hope is that it will feel a little like getting to read a new Jane Austen novel--even if I get remotely in the ballpark, I mean, what fun, right?

 

The Watsons will be coming out in mid-November, and fans of the mystery should definitely keep an eye out for it.

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb. Here's a previous Q&A with Claudia Gray.