Northanger Abbey by Val McDermid review a thankless commission

The acclaimed crime writer's reworking of Jane Austen's youthful gothic parody begs the question: why bother?

Nothing better illustrates the loss of nerve in contemporary British publishing than the vogue for franchising classic literary brands. In a treacherous market, the thinking seems to go, it's better to sell re-treads than take a spin on fresh rubber. Last year the book trade cashed in royally with entertaining new versions of Ian Fleming (William Boyd's 007 thriller, Solo ) and PG Wodehouse (Sebastian Faulks's homage, Jeeves and the Wedding Bells ). Both were clever, five-finger exercises in genre, commissioned by two canny literary estates. But what happens when publishers start franchising out-of-copyright classics?

One answer comes from HarperCollins's Austen Project, launched last year with Joanna Trollope's Sense & Sensibility , and now followed up with Val McDermid's Northanger Abbey. Emma (by Alexander McCall Smith) and Pride and Prejudice (by Curtis Sittenfeld) follow shortly. But these are not genre novels, and Northanger Abbey, one of Austen's earliest, presents a near-impossible challenge.

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