Robert Dex
02:50 AEST Fri Sep 23 2011
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The Queen of crime novelists, PD James, has written a new novel updating Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice.
The book, called Death Comes to Pemberley, pitches Austen's characters Mr Darcy and his wife Elizabeth into the middle of a murder mystery.
It is set six years after the end of the original story when Elizabeth's younger sister, Lydia, discovers her husband has been murdered.
Baroness James, who was made a peer in 1991, said: "It has been a joy to revisit Pride and Prejudice and to discover, as one always does, new delights and fresh insights. I have to apologise to Jane Austen for involving her beloved Elizabeth in a murder investigation but this fusion of my two enthusiasms - for the novels of Jane Austen and for writing detective stories - has given me great pleasure which I hope will be shared by my readers."
Pride and Prejudice has inspired scores of film and television versions featuring stars such as Keira Knightley and Laurence Olivier.
The 1995 BBC version made a star of Colin Firth when he played Mr Darcy, famously emerging from a lake in a dripping wet shirt and breeches.
The book will be published in November.
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