THANKS God crime writer Val Mc- Dermid has not donned a bonnet or wore a flouncy dress for this modern re-working of the Jane Austen classic.

But she does show a sharp talent for wit and satire in this tale of a 17- year-old girl on the loose in Edinburgh and open to adventure but vulnerable to danger. Initially attracted by a whiff of the supernatural and the dark charm of Henry Tilney, whose family home is Northanger Abbey, the precocious Catherine “Cat Morland” soon finds out that treading on unholy ground is perilous in the extreme. Supercharged McDermid puts Austen in the shade.