Who wouldn’t want to read another story about the brooding and beautiful Mr. Darcy?!

This story follows Fitzwilliam Darcy and his best friend, Mr. Bingley, and the unfortunate circumstances of theft. Bingley’s Afrodite statue has been taken, and the only way to get it back is to hire “Mr. Bennet,” who happens to be the cousin of the infamous Miss Bennetts. What follows is mystery, love, and a secret that is frankly astonishing!

I loved this book! As a huge fan of Pride and Prejudice, I could not think of anything better than being able to read about all these characters in a new and fresh setting. The author does every one of these famous characters justice in her rewriting of them. Her prose is very like Jane Austen’s, with a bit of a modern turn to it, and I found the whole book exceedingly enjoyable. I truly hope there will be a whole series of these mystery books including these characters!

I recieved an ARC of this book from NetGalley, all opinions are shared freely and my own.

This is an extremely non-traditional Pride & Prejudice alternate storyline!
Yes, it's set in the same era, but other than that you will need to be prepared to give the plot a real carte blanche to just do its thing. It won't be for everyone, but if you can handle the audacity of it, you might have fun. I'm still a little on the fence, but kudos for the bold vision! I just might pick up a future installment.

Pride & Prejudice meets Sherlock Holmes and, reader, I LOVED it.

There are some books where the premise alone is enough to make me think yes, please. Give me Darcy and Elizabeth. Give me a Regency mystery. Throw in murder, stolen antiquities, clever sleuthing and Wickham being Wickham, and apparently I am VERY easy to please.

Except The Case of Bingley’s Missing Aphrodite was even more fun than I expected.

Emma Aubrey takes the characters we know and love from Pride and Prejudice and sends their lives down a very different path. Darcy is still carrying the consequences of his disastrous decisions concerning Elizabeth and Bingley when, at a ball, Bingley’s prized statue of Aphrodite disappears. Then a man is murdered. The two crimes may be connected and suddenly Darcy finds himself in the middle of a mystery.

What I particularly loved was that this never felt like Pride and Prejudice with a murder awkwardly bolted onto it. The mystery is genuinely compelling in its own right. There are clues to follow, secrets to unravel and enough twists that I was happily trying to work everything out alongside the characters.

There’s a definite Sherlock Holmes flavour to the investigation, too, which worked brilliantly with the Regency setting. It felt familiar enough to satisfy my Austen-loving heart while being inventive enough that I genuinely didn’t know where Aubrey was taking me.

And then there’s Darcy.

I loved seeing him forced to reckon with his previous behaviour rather than simply being forgiven because, well, he’s Mr Darcy. His relationship with Elizabeth develops alongside the mystery, giving us that delicious tension and banter without allowing the romance to overwhelm everything else happening.

Elizabeth remains wonderfully Elizabeth. Bingley is Bingley. Wickham continues to demonstrate that wherever there is an opportunity to cause chaos, he will apparently find it.

But perhaps the biggest compliment I can give this book is that I wasn’t reading simply to see familiar characters again. I became completely invested in this version of them and this story.

Clever. Charming. Deliciously twisty. Utterly addictive.

And discovering this is only the beginning of a new Bennet & Darcy mystery series?

YES PLEASE.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

eARC kindly provided by NetGalley, Emma Aubrey and Victory Editing NetGalley Co-op in exchange for an honest review.

The Case of Bingley’s Missing Aphrodite by Emma Aubrey
There are some books where the premise alone is enough to make me think, Yes, please. Give me Darcy and Elizabeth. Give me a Regency mystery. Throw in murder, stolen antiquities, clever sleuthing, and Wickham being Wickham—and apparently, I am very easy to please.
The Case of Bingley’s Missing Aphrodite is a wonderful and clever reimagining of Jane Austen’s classic Pride and Prejudice. Emma Aubrey takes the characters we know and love and sends their lives down a very different path, creating a mystery that feels both fresh and surprisingly natural within the Regency setting.
Darcy is still dealing with the consequences of his disastrous decisions concerning Elizabeth and Bingley when, at a ball, Bingley’s prized statue of Aphrodite disappears. Then a man is murdered. The two crimes may be connected, Wickham is involved—because of course he is—and suddenly Darcy finds himself in the middle of a mystery filled with secrets, deception, and unexpected twists.
What I particularly loved was that this never felt like Pride and Prejudice with a murder awkwardly bolted onto it. The mystery is genuinely compelling in its own right. There are multiple mysteries unfolding throughout the story, including secrets involving some of the main characters and questions about identities. I won’t spoil any of the surprises, but there were definitely moments that kept me guessing.
But perhaps the biggest compliment I can give this book is that I wasn’t reading simply to see familiar characters again. I became completely invested in this version of them and in the story Aubrey created for them. The combination of beloved Austen characters, Regency atmosphere, murder, stolen antiquities, and clever sleuthing made this such an entertaining read.
I sincerely hope this becomes a series because I would absolutely love to see where Darcy, Elizabeth, and the rest of these characters go next.
A big thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to read this book in advance. All opinions are my own.
If you love Pride and Prejudice and enjoy mysteries, this is definitely one to add to your reading list!

This was a really clever book. I wasn't sure what to expect when I started reading but I really enjoyed it.

The plot centers around various characters from Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. The characters are recognisable even though the story diverges from the original.

It is clear the author understood and enjoyed the original novel and characters. It is well-written, brilliant, and funny. I hope there is a sequel!

Emma Aubrey has written the best Pride and Prejudice variation I’ve read since Alice McVeigh’s Marianne. It’s well-plotted, she’s captured the characters adeptly, and the pacing is very good. The mystery is not too easily worked out and there are plenty of small pivots that keep the reader focused and engaged.
I enjoy even the subpar P&P variations I read, and was prepared to like this one; yet I was surprised by how much I liked it. The writing is well above the ordinary Jane Austen Fan Fiction standard and although I’d have liked to see more of the Bennet sisters than we did, I was very pleased by Aubrey’s Darcy and Colonel Fitzwilliam.
I am impressed by the clear care the author took to weed out faults common to Jane Austen Fan Fiction - Americanisms, anachronisms, ridiculous 21st century Tumblr-style psychological terms, and the terrible issues one finds with spelling and writing are absent here. In this last respect, it’s superior to several similar mysteries that somehow got trad-published over the last couple of years.
If there is a particular fault to be found, I suppose for me it would be the dearth of dialog between the Bennets and more appearances by secondary characters from the original.
I recommend this to anyone who likes a good mystery and knows their Jane Austen; it’s a comfortable and rewarding read that has me looking forward to more in this series. I received an advance copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.