When Bridgerton Meets Murder In Regency England

Regency Mysteries & Romance In Television & Lit

Welcome to the latest edition of Only Murders In The Inbox! If you’re a regular reader, thanks for being here; if you’re new, we’re excited to have you! Every week, OMITI covers murder mysteries in literature and entertainment. We delve into the ways the Mystery genre is significant in pop culture. You’ll also find lists and curated suggestions and a free and paid members chat in the Substack app where we swap recommendations! New subscribers, start here:

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Barbie Clip Courtesy of HBO/Max

When our family caught Barbie in theaters last year and this faux commercial ran about the fictional new Depression Barbie, everyone sitting in my row shot me knowing glances. All I could do was throw them a sheepish smile back.

So, why did they do that, you might ask? Do I like Starbursts? No. Did I (and do I still) go through a period of only wearing sweats? Kinda. But have I seen the BBC’s Pride and Prejudice seven times? No. I’ve seen it at least twenty. And in college, did I watch it late at night, wallowing in depression after a breakup? I did! What does this mean? Is Greta Gerwig my long-lost sister? What does this have to do with murder mysteries? Keep reading.

Bridgerton Season Three, Image Courtesy of Netflix

I’ve been on a crazy Bridgerton kick recently. This Netflix Regency Romance series is one of the rare examples of a show I enjoy outside of crime thrillers and whodunits. Am I drawn to this show because of the stress of a presidential election? Long Covid? Back-to-back hurricanes? Yes to all of the above. Time to put on some Bridgerton!

Side note: If you missed Queen Charlotte, go watch it right now. How that limited series didn’t sweep the 2023 Emmys, I’ll never know. Did Academy voters assume it was fluff because it’s a Bridgerton spin-off? Guys, come on. Although it was nominated for thirty-one Emmys it only won nine, which wasn’t nearly enough. It’s easily one of the best shows streaming on Netflix.

Regency Romance is having a moment right now, in television as well as fiction. Riding the coattails of Bridgerton is a new project from the BBC, The Other Bennet Sister, a period drama tied to Jane Austen and the Pride and Prejudice world with a focus on Mary Bennet, one of Elizabeth Bennet’s sisters. Variety is reporting indie production house Bad Wolf is heading up the project currently in development, based on Janice Hadlow’s novel, with Sony Pictures Television repping global rights. And, because Bad Wolf has quite a bit of buzz in television right now with its marked success with the hit series Industry, the BBC project has a lot going for it.

What is Regency Romance? It’s a love story set during the turn of the eighteenth century. The main characters are members of high society, and the stories are often peppered with clever dialogue, imbued with passion and sexual tension, and the protagonists always find their happy ending. Jane Austen’s works are considered to be the gold standard of Regency Romance.

My love of Bridgerton, especially its third and newest season centered on Colin and Pen, has me thinking about one of my favorite subgenres in Mystery that has recently experienced a surge in popularity due to one incredible writer, P.D. James: the Regency Romance Mystery.

Photo Courtesy of The Estate of P.D. James; Death Comes To Pemberley Images Courtesy of PBS

P. D. James — Phyllis Dorothy James White — was the author of twenty-one novels, and is well known in the Mystery genre for two important facts: one, she created the incomparable Adam Dalgliesh, a beloved detective in British Literature; and two, she herself was the inspiration for one of the most popular American amateur detectives ever written for television, J.B. Fletcher, Angela Lansbury’s character in Murder, She Wrote. In addition to those two facts, she won the Mystery Writers of America Grand Master Award among other accolades, and lived until the ripe old age of ninety-four. In 2011, one of the last books she wrote prior to her death was a Regency-era murder mystery, Death Comes To Pemberley. The significance of this story wasn’t only the historical setting and mashup of two very different genres, Regency England romance and murder mysteries, it was also a clever reimagining of two much loved Jane Austen characters, Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet, as amateur investigators solving a murder on their estate.

Georgette Heyer, Public Domain Images

But P.D. James wasn’t the first author to combine Regency-era romance with murder mysteries. Back in 1935, famous romance writer Georgette Heyer wrote the first-ever popularized Regency romance murder mystery, Regency Buck, a novel that clearly influenced P.D. James. Heyer began writing when she was nineteen, and was one of the most popular Regency romance writers in the early 1900s. She’d ventured into detective thrillers just a few years earlier with Footsteps In The Dark, but this was the first time Regency Romance was combined with crime. With Regency Buck, Heyer explored new territory by throwing in an attempted murder into her main plot. There’s love, romance, deception, and intrigue, not to mention poison!

But getting back to Death Comes To Pemberley. Since that P.D. James novel, historical mysteries set in Regency London have skyrocketed in popularity. These types of stories appeal to not only mystery lovers, but also Regency romance fans. If that’s you, you’re going to love this list of Regency-era British murder mysteries. Let me know what you think in the comments below.

Regency England Murder In Television and Film

Death Comes to Pemberley by P.D. James Try as I might, this was the one and only Regency romance murder mystery I could find on television or film. Fortunately, it’s a good one! This now-classic P.D. James novel was turned into a three-part limited series by the BBC and stars Matthew Rhys as Fitzwilliam Darcy and Anna Maxwell Martin as Elizabeth (Bennet) Darcy. It’s six years since the events of Jane Austen's original story, and Mr. and Mrs. Darcy have comfortably settled into their Pemberley home with a young son. On the eve of their annual Lady Anne ball, unexpected guests crash their preparations. There’s been a murder in Pemberley Woods! Elizabeth and Darcy are juggling a party, a murder, tension between her houseguests and a love triangle involving Darcy’s sister, Georgiana, in this Regency murder mystery. Available now on Hoopla, Prime Video, Britbox Australia, BBC One, and Apple TV

Regency England Murder Mysteries In Popular Fiction

All’s Fair In Love and Treachery by Celeste Connally The writer of Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Lord presents the second mystery in her Lady Petra Inquires Series. The sequences of events in the first book have hung around, so, in order to distract herself, Lady Petra takes on a task Queen Charlotte has assigned her — investigating the death of a matron at an orphanage. While snooping, she overhears plans of overthrowing the monarchy, and soon she’s trying to solve a murder while simultaneously saving her country from ruin. Available on November 11th, 2024 on Macmillan Press.

A Useful Woman by Darcie Wilde In Regency London, heiress Rosalind Thorne uses her social skills and connections in the ton to solve the mystery of a murdered aristocrat. This is the first in a new series by Darcie Wilde. Available on November 11th, 2024 on Macmillan Press.

The Lily Adler Mysteries by Katharine Schellman It’s 1815, and Lily Adler has just lost her husband. Unsure of how to navigate London’s high society as a widowed independent woman, she turns to her dear friend Lady Walter. While attending Lady Walter’s ball, a dead body is discovered in the gardens. Lily soon realizes a conversation she overheard at the ball could hold the key to the identity of the murderer, and when authorities try to sweep the case under the rug, Lily becomes determined to solve it. She’s aided by her husband’s best friend, Captain Jack, with whom she has serious romantic tension, so this first book in the series has a clever murder and romance, setting up the main character for future mysteries in the series. The most recent novel in the five-book series is A Scandal In Mayfair. All novels are available now from Crooked Lane Books.

Murder In Highbury by Vanessa Kelly This new mystery by Vanessa Kelly is a continuation of Jane Austen's Emma (the same Jane Austen novel that inspired Clueless) but now Emma isn’t only a matchmaker, she’s also an amateur sleuth. All’s well and good in married life and society until she stumbles upon the corpse of the vicar’s wife in church. Once Emma begins inquiring into the life of the victim, she learns there are almost as many suspects as there are residents of Highbury! So, with the dedication that she previously had poured into matchmaking, she investigates possible suspects and tracks down clues to find the killer before they find her. Available October 22nd, 2024 on Kensington Books 📚 For my Only Murders In The Inbox readers in Canada: Meet the author Vanessa Kelly at The Spaniel’s Tale Bookstore, Tuesday. October 22, 2024 | 6:30 pm — The Spaniel’s Tale Bookstore 1131 Wellington St. W Ottawa, ON K1Y 2Y6, Canada

A Most Agreeable Murder by Julia Seales, A Beatrice Steele Mystery Beatrice is a socialite who, when a wealthy bachelor drops dead at a ball, takes on the improper role of detective in this comedic whodunit. This locked room mystery has Beatrice stuck with all of the suspects and a handsome, roguish detective in a storm. Beatrice has to put the pieces together before the killer strikes again. Available now from RandomHouse.

Pride and Premeditation by Tizrah Price, A Jane Austen Murder Mystery, Volume One Fans of YA fiction will appreciate this novel based on Jane Austen’s characters. In this retelling, Lizzie Bennet is an aspiring lawyer who becomes embroiled in a case while attempting to push aside her feelings for her rival, Mr. Darcy, an heir to the prestigious lawn firm of Pemberley and Associates. The two follow-ups to this book is Sense and Second-Degree Murder, a mystery based on Sense and Sensibility, and Manslaughter Park, based on Mansfield Park. The aspiring scientist Elinor Dashwood and her sister Marianne, team up to solve the mystery of their father’s murder. Available now on HarperTeen.

Murder In Westminster: A Riveting Regency Historical Mystery By Vanessa Riley This is the first book in the Lady Worthing Mysteries series. This inclusive historical mystery series touches on racism and slavery. Lady Abigail Worthing finds the body of her neighbor on her property and is in a bind; her mother has a scandalous reputation within the ton, and she knows, as a black woman, she’s going to quickly become the main suspect. The victim’s husband is quick to give Lady Abigail an alibi, but she needs to find out why, because now he’s helping her investigate his wife’s death. There are three books in this mystery series, including Murder In Drury Lane and Murder In Berkeley Square. All books are available now through Penguin Random House.

Jane And The Waterloo Map by Stephanie Barron As you can tell from this list, there are huge stacks of Regency romance mysteries referencing Jane Austen and her books, but here’s something a little different. Stephanie Barron’s stories reimagine the author herself as the investigator (not unlike the PBS Masterpiece movies, Agatha and the Truth of Murder and Agatha and the Curse of Ishtar when Agatha Christie is the detective). This story throws the Prince Regent and Jane Austen together in a love/hate relationship. During an invitation to the palace, Jane stumbles upon a victim in the Regent’s library where she’s given a clue to the murderer, which leads her to a hunt for the Waterloo map…and the murderer.

A Regency England Murder Mysteries List

The Benevolent Society of Ill-Mannered Ladies by Alison Goodman; Wrapped by Jennifer Bradbury; Duels and Deception by Cindy Anstey; Pride and Prescience: Or, A Truth Universally Acknowledged, a Mr, & Mrs. Darcy Mysteries by Carrie Bebris; The Murder of Mr. Wickham by Claudia Gray, a Mr. Darcy and Miss Tilney Mystery, Vol. One; Captain Lacey Regency Mysteries by Ashley Gardner; Murder, Magic and What We Wore by Kelly Jones; Julian Kestrel Mysteries by Kate Ross; The Rosalind Thorne Mysteries.

Sources

Julia Quinn, writer of the original Bridgerton Regency romance novels, www.juliaquinn.com

The Other Bennet Sister, BBC

https://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/2024/bbc-announces-new-drama-the-other-bennet-sister

The Regency Era, Britannica

https://www.britannica.com/search?query=Regency+period

Entertainment Weekly, the Georgette Heyer reprints, 2018 article

https://ew.com/books/2018/08/16/see-new-covers-three-georgette-heyer-re-releases/

Jennifer Kloester, Georgette Heyer

https://jenniferkloester.com/the-eternal-appeal-of-georgette-heyer/

Variety Magazine on BBC’s new show The Other Bennet Sister, currently in development, https://variety.com/2024/tv/global/bbc-pride-and-prejudice-mary-the-other-bennet-sister-jane-austen-1236172914/#

The Estate of P.D. James, https://greeneheaton.co.uk/clients/the-estate-of-p-d-james

Song of the Day: “Dancing On My Own” by the Vitamin String Quartet