McDermid has taken possession of Northanger Abbey.” New York Times Book ReviewĪ note perfect modern reworking of Austen’s classic gothic satire. Engages in a witty conversation with the original. There’s an archness and precision to McDermid’s prose that beautifully echoes Austen’s own. Maybe she has just been reading too many novels? Cat is entranced by Henry and his charming sister Eleanor, but she can’t help but wonder if everything about them is as perfect as it seems. And then she meets handsome Henry Tilney, who lives at the beautiful and forbidding Northanger Abbey. Cat quickly begins to take Edinburgh by storm and is taken into the bosom of the Thorpe family, particularly by eldest daughter Bella. So imagine her delight when her neighbors, the Allens, invite her to attend the Fringe Festival in Edinburgh as their guest. A homeschooled minister’s daughter in the quaint, sheltered Piddle Valley in Dorset, Cat Morland loses herself in novels (and, of course, her smartphone) and is sure there is a glamorous adventure awaiting her beyond the valley’s narrow horizon.

Now in paperback, Val McDermid’s Northanger Abbey is an updated take on Jane Austen’s classic novel about a young woman whose visit to the stately home of a well-to-do acquaintance stirs her most macabre imaginings. Cat’s imagination runs riot: an ancient abbey, crumbling turrets, secret chambers, ghosts…and Henry! What could be more deliciously romantic?īut Cat gets far more than she bargained for in this isolated corner of the Scottish Borders.Long before our modern-day crime author draws a final, canny ace from her tartan sleeve, you’ll have succumbed to the delights of Northanger à la McDermid.” The Boston Globe The rigidly formal General Tilney invites her to stay at Northanger with son Henry and daughter Eleanor. But with Bella comes her brother John, an obnoxious banker whose vulgar behaviour seems designed to thwart Cat’s growing fondness for Henry. And an introduction to Bella Thorpe, who shares her passion for supernatural novels, provides Cat with a like-minded friend. A Highland Dance class, though, brings Cat a new acquaintance: Henry Tilney, a pale, dark-eyed gentleman whose family home, Northanger Abbey, sounds perfectly thrilling. So when Cat’s wealthy neighbours, the Allens, invite her to Edinburgh Festival, she is sure adventure beckons.Įdinburgh initially offers no such thrills: Susie Allen is obsessed by shopping, Andrew Allen by the Fringe. Seventeen-year-old Catherine ‘Cat’ Morland has led a sheltered existence in rural Dorset, a life entirely bereft of the romance and excitement for which she yearns. A modern re-imagining of the Gothic Classic Northanger Abbey by the bestselling crime author Val McDermid.

Val mcdermid jane austen