I received this book for free from Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that London’s first female solicitor in possession of the details of a deadly crime, must be in want of a suspect.

The tenacious Lizzie Bennet has earned her place at Longbourn, her father’s law firm. Her work keeps her busy, but luckily it gives her plenty of reasons to consult (and steal occasional kisses) with Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy, a stern but secretly softhearted solicitor at Pemberley.

Lizzie is hired to investigate a deadly warehouse fire and to find the mysterious woman who was spotted at the scene moments before the flames took hold. But when the case leads to the sitting room of a woman Darcy once proposed marriage to, the delicate balance between personal and professional in their relationship is threatened.

Questions of the future are cast aside when the prime suspect is murdered and Lizzie’s own life is threatened. As the body count rises and their suspicions about what was really going on in the warehouse grow, the pressure is on for Lizzie and Darcy to uncover the truth.

Short and Sweet Review

Lizzie has finally earned her place at Longbourn and as the first female solicitor she’s able to take cases that keep her busy and on occasion able to see Darcy. Lizzie goes to consult with a client but on arrival she finds that his warehouse was set on fire and his brother was murdered. When the only clue leads to a mysterious woman who was seen before the fire was set, Lizzie follows that clue and ends up meeting the last woman Darcy proposed to. Lizzie and Darcy have to navigate the careful line between personal and professional relationship and also follow the clues to solve this mystery that gets more complex by the minute.

In Want of a Suspect is the first book in the A Lizzie & Darcy Mystery series, and if you’ve read the Jane Austen Murder Mystery trilogy then you’ll be familiar with these characters. I do think it’s beneficial to read the Jane Austen Murder Mystery trilogy first just for background information on these characters and the cases they solved before. I didn’t read the third book in that trilogy so I felt like I was missing out on some things but I made it through this book just fine. I did like this book and I feel like Lizzie has grown a lot and I’m glad she’s finally a solicitor. Lizzie and Darcy are working together on this mystery which is fun because we get both characters POVs and we get to see the clues they find and how they approach solving the mystery. Lizzie and Darcy obviously have feelings for each other and while Lizzie likes Darcy she’s worried that if she settles down with him that she may not have the freedom to do what she wants because she’s living in a different time. Darcy on the other hand feels like Lizzie is keeping him at an arms length away. Eventually we see these two tackle these issues and I loved that moment because they truly had a heart to heart and Darcy is all for Women’s Rights before it was even a thing. Anyway the mystery starts off pretty simple, find the mystery woman and find out what she was doing near the warehouse at the time of fire. Unfortunately for Lizzie and Darcy this mystery woman is Josette, someone Darcy dated before. After meeting Josette the mystery becomes more complicated because there’s another murder and some smuggling going on. I think about halfway through the book I was able to figure out who one of the suspects was but, I didn’t realize I could be right and so wrong at the same time about how big this pool of culprits was. There was a person I wasn’t familiar with and I think they may have been mentioned in a previous book but I feel like they’ll have a bigger arc in future books. I will say I love that the Dashwood sisters were around to help Lizzie and Darcy, and we also get some helpful advice from Jane Bennet.

Overall, this was a good mystery. I love the setting of the early 19th century and how everything in the book feels true to that time period. I do think I would have loved this book more if I had read Manslaughter Park, which I plan on doing soon. It was fun following Lizzie and Darcy solve this mystery and I’m excited to see what’ll happen next for these two!