Library Journal04/01/2014
An interesting premise—crime novelist McDermid exits her comfort zone, taking on Jane Austen—works well, up to a point. Austen's most gothic-toned story is well modernized by McDermid, who demonstrates her fondness for the sometimes foolish heroine in witty asides. The updates are clever and creative as well, but some plot points are difficult to revamp. In this version of the 1817 classic, dreamy, fanciful village girl Cat Morland, a vicar's daughter, is homeschooled and addicted to paranormal fiction books and movies. Her horizons expand when she gets a chance to attend the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, where she makes new friends and falls for a young and handsome lawyer, Henry Tilney. When Henry and his family invite her to their family mansion, Northanger Abbey, her imagination races to some interesting conclusions about the Tilneys.
