Val McDermid to Write Contemporary Version of Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen

Late last year HarperFiction announced that it was reworking Jane Austen's classic novels into contemporary stories. First to be identified was Joanna Trollope writing Sense and Sensibility, and later Curtis Sittenfeld writing Pride & Prejudice.

Today The Bookseller is reporting that crime novelist Val McDermid will write Northanger Abbey, what may have been Austen's first completed novel but one that wasn't published until after her death in 1818.

"There is so much scope for reinvention in this often misunderstood novel," said editorial director Louisa Joyner. "The idea of Val McDermid breathing life into it by bringing her literary expertise as the pre-eminent crime writer to re-ignite the novel's fear factor is incredibly exciting."

Northanger Abbey is scheduled to be published in Spring 2014.

(Hat tip to Mystery Fanfare for alerting us to this news.)