Shortlisted for the Comedy Women in Print prize 2025

What if the beloved characters in Pride and Prejudice were lawbreakers?

The twelve stories in Crime and Prejudice imagine a deliciously seamy underside to Jane Austen's world. Arson, highway robbery, petty crime and murder mingle with fox-hunting, bawdy-houses, gaming-tables and transportation to Australia in these tales recounted to Elizabeth Darcy by her friends and family.

Discover why Mr. Bennet became a pug owner and a poisoner; how Elizabeth Darcy started a riot while agitating for women's enrolment at Cambridge; where Caroline Bingley found forbidden love; and, of course, when Mr. Darcy actually came by his wet shirt.

The Crime and Prejudice short stories are playful, subversive, but faithful to the spirit of the original characters and their author's acerbic wit. These people are flawed, like us, but endearing in their struggles to overcome their limitations, particularly those placed on women in Regency England. For ultimately, it is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single woman in possession of a good fortune has no want at all of a husband.

If you like Richard Osman and Alexander McCall Smith, and love Jane Austen, Crime and Prejudice is for you!