Nancy Bilyeau’s novel is a smart update and sequel to Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey, set 22 years later. But Bilyeau doesn’t just attempt a stiff Regency pastiche; instead, she writes with a gorgeous, fluid voice that brings Jane Austen’s beloved characters back to life in a beautifully layered and thoroughly human way.

Set in 1820—decades after the events of Austen’s original story—the plot centers on an older, wiser, yet still wonderfully relatable Catherine Tilney, the Gothic-novel loving young woman, who, as Catherine Morland, was the main character in Austen’s tale. Now a mother to a spirited 17-year-old daughter named Phoebe, Catherine finds her old insecurities roaring back when a letter mistakenly lands in her hands. The greedy, manipulative Thorpe siblings from her past have resurfaced in Bath, cozying up to Phoebe.

Terrified that history is repeating itself and that her daughter is being targeted by ruthless fortune hunters, Catherine grabs a carriage and rushes to Bath to look her old rivals dead in the eye. As Catherine learns about a maid who disappeared under suspicious circumstances, Bilyeau expertly shifts the lighthearted romanticism of the original into a tense mystery — an emotionally rich drama about family secrets, property inheritance, and a mother’s fierce desire to protect her child.

Bilyeau’s style is impeccably researched yet remains deeply accessible and atmospheric. She captures Catherine’s rich inner life perfectly, such as when she notes the passage of time: “My looking glass showed a face rounder than when I first saw Northanger.”

The pacing is superb, matching the atmospheric dread of a classic Gothic romance. Bilyeau drops lines that make your blood run cold, like when Catherine observes General Tilney’s portrait during a storm, “In that second, his cold, calculating eyes turned fiery, as if he were angry with me.”

Bilyeau, an American journalist and editor who has made a career of novels of historically accurate fiction, brings emotional depth and character development to this absorbing narrative.

Also available in hardcover and paperback.