That knowing little smile of yours, Cat, I swear, you knew even before I knew myself.

Her secret had indeed been safe with Cat, who was still at a loss to know what it was she was supposed to know already. The arrival of Henry’s older brother, Frederick, in Edinburgh becomes the catalyst for the second section of the story when Cat is invited by Eleanor Tilney to stay at the eponymous Northanger Abbey.īella gave her a friendly nudge. ‘It’s OK, you can admit it now. My secret was safe with you, but now it’s not a secret any more.’ John falls for Cat, but she is infatuated with Henry. In Edinburgh Cat meets Henry Tilney and Bella Thorpe, and later they are joined by her brother James and his friend John Thorpe, Bella’s brother. They would certainly have become wiser in the ways of the world if they’d escaped their mother’s apron strings, but had that been the case, their story would be too commonplace to hold much interest for an ardent reader. And Cat, who cared more for narrative than knowledge, would probably have done no better whatever she’d been taught. James, blessed with natural wit and intelligence, would have succeeded whatever educational system had been imposed on him. She is also a huge fan of the Twilight series and the whole vampire genre:

Seventeen-year-old Cat has been brought up in an isolated setting and has been home-schooled. McDermid gives a fine few opening pages with a lovely homage to the Austen style as she introduces us to her heroine, Cat Morland, soon to be invited to Edinburgh as the guest of her good friends and neighbours the Allens. How would she deal with this least loved of the Austen novels? I had read one McDermid crime novel ( The Wire in the Blood), coming away with a huge respect for the writer but finding her themes confronting. However, I was intrigued by the idea of what Val McDermid might do with Northanger Abbey, the minor work in the Austen canon.

I was underwhelmed by the concept of Joanna Trollope taking on Sense and Sensibility and Alexander McCall Smith reimagining Pride and Prejudice in the Austen Project series. I generally find the reimagining-Austen genre tedious and forced, although many good and established writers have tackled her, and prefer to reread Austen herself every so often. I found this novel satisfying on so many levels that it now sits with my favourite Austen pastiches – Death Comes to Pemberley by PD James, Murder at Mansfield Park by Lynn Shepherd and the film Clueless. Northanger Abbey reimagined by Val McDermid is a delight best read in a comfortable chair beside a raging fire on a cold and wet day. Tags: Anita Heiss/ Jane Austen/ the Austen Project/ Twilight series/ Val McDermid

Northanger abbey by val mcdermid