Murder at Mansfield Park is a witty and clever re-imagining of Jane Austen's much-loved novel Mansfield Park. But in this Mansfield Park, things have changed…Formerly Austen's meekest heroine, Fanny Price has become not only an heiress to an extensive fortune but also a heartless, scheming minx. Hiding her true character behind a demure facade, Fanny is indeed betrothed to Edmund, now Mrs Norris's stepson; but do the couple really love each other? Henry and Mary Crawford arrive in the country ready to wreak havoc with their fast city ways, but this time Henry Crawford is troubled by a suspicious past while his sister, Mary, steps forward in the best Austen style to become an unexpected heroine.Meanwhile, tragedy strikes the safe and solid grand house as it becomes the scene of violence. Every member of the family falls under suspicion and the race begins to halt a ruthless murderer.Funny and sharp, Murder at Mansfield Park is simply a delight to read.
At Mansfield Park:
Sir Thomas Bertram, Baronet
Lady Bertram, his wife
Thomas Bertram, his eldest son
Miss Maria Bertram, his eldest daughter
William Bertram, his second son, away at sea
Miss Julia Bertram, his second daughter
Miss Fanny Price, niece to Sir Thomas; daughter to Mr Price of Lessingby Hall, Cumberland, and his wife Frances, sister to Lady Bertram
Baddeley, the butler
Mrs Baddeley, the housekeeper
Mr McGregor, the steward
Mr Fletcher, the bailiff
Mrs Chapman, attending Lady Bertram
Mme Dacier, attending Miss Price
Hannah O'Hara, attending Miss Price
Kitty Jeffries, attending Miss Bertram
Polly Evans, attending Miss Julia Bertram
At the White House
Mrs Norris, sister to Lady Bertram
Edmund Norris, her stepson
At the Parsonage
The Reverend Dr Grant
Mrs Grant
Henry Crawford, half brother to Mrs Grant
Miss Mary Crawford, his sister
At Sotherton
James Rushworth, son to Sir Richard Rushworth
The Honourable John Yates
From London
Charles Maddox, a thief-taker
George Fraser and Abel Stornaway, his assistants
About thirty years ago Miss Maria Ward, of Huntingdon, with only seven thousand pounds, had the good luck to captivate Sir Thomas Bertram, of Mansfield Park, in the county of Northampton, and to be thereby raised to the rank of a baronet’s lady, with all the comforts and consequences of an handsome house and large income. All Huntingdon exclaimed on the greatness of the match, and her uncle, the lawyer, himself, allowed her to be at least three thousand pounds short of any equitable claim to it. She had two sisters to be benefited by her elevation, and her father hoped that the eldest daughter’s match would set matters in a fair train for the younger. But, though she possessed no less a fortune, Miss Julia’s features were rather plain than handsome, and in consequence the neighbourhood was united in its conviction that there would not be such another great match to distinguish the Ward family.
Unhappily for the neighbourhood, Miss Julia was fated to confound their dearest expectations, and to emulate her sister’s good luck, by captivating a gentleman of both wealth and consequence, albeit a widower. Within a twelvemonth after Miss Ward’s nuptials her younger sister began upon a career of conjugal felicity with a Mr Norris, his considerable fortune, and young son, in the village immediately neighbouring Mansfield Park. Miss Frances fared yet better. A chance encounter at a Northampton ball threw her in the path of a Mr Price, the only son of a great Cumberland family, with a large estate at Lessingby Hall. Miss Frances was lively and beautiful, and the young man being both romantic and imprudent, a marriage took place to the infinite mortification of his father and mother, who possessed a sense of their family’s pride and consequence, which equalled, if not exceeded, even their prodigious fortune. It was as unsuitable a connection as such hasty marriages usually are, and did not produce much happiness. Having married beneath him, Mr Price felt justly entitled to excessive gratitude and unequalled devotion in his wife, but he soon discovered that the young woman he had loved for her spirit, as much as her beauty, had neither the gentle temper nor submissive disposition he and his family considered his due.
