Lord Lacy's daughter, Emily, is persuaded by her parents to marry the ageing Lord Dalrymple. After all, he has a title, Earl of Morpeth, and a mansion, Crookhill Abbey, that is even more extensive than Lord Lacy's mansion in Buxton. However, when Emily gets to Northumberland, she finds that Crookhill Abbey is little better than a crumbling mausoleum. Crookhill Abbey is not quite a Jane Austen sequel - but there are echoes of Jane Austen's, Pride and Prejudice - also Eliza Parsons', The Castle of Wolfenbach , and Ann Radcliffe's, The Mysteries of Udolpho . However, there are also many new characters, including the heroine, Emily, the anti-hero, Lord Dalrymple, Thomas, a struggling artist, and his aristocratic lover, Catherine, all tangled up in an original plot that leads them to - the horrors of Crookhill Abbey.