It Really Is Goodbye to Jane

Jane and the Final Mystery by Stephanie Barron
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I loved it, of course.

And it was the last of the series. So I also hated it.

Stephanie Barron has done an amazing job throughout this series of marrying the actual events of Jane's life with plausible, fictional mysteries, all of them entertaining, all of them making us fall in love with Jane Austen more. (It's not just me, I'm sure.) These are not mere stories. You'll forgive me for believing that this depiction of Jane really is her, the two-centuries-gone author, the mind beloved of millions. The fictional arc in these books is her real life, from relative youth to her last days, presented to us like an actual biography. She passes through many periods in her life, sees her sister, her mother, her brothers and their wives and children go through all the stages of life, with all of the good and bad that entails.

And then, naturally, the ending is really the ending. And it's so bittersweet.

Here we see a very ill Jane who is still hopeful but realistic, aware that she is likely to have little time left but unwilling to just give up. She still engages in life, still writes letters and visits friends, and in this story is still trying to save the innocent and identify the guilty. The son of her childhood friend is implicated in a murder and held in jail, though no one close to him can believe he's truly responsible. Despite her infirmity, she follows clues and logic to solve the murder and save the unfortunate young man. She can no longer walk far or often, so she husbands her strength and takes a chair if she must. When she can't do even that much, she goes to her bed and sends her nephew or other relative in her place to speak to someone, to carry a letter, to look for some clue or other. As a woman in Regency England, she was always limited in what she could do and where she could go, but here she is additionally limited by what her body will allow her. It's brutal, and it's terribly real.

The setting, therefore, is not so much Winchester during Regency England but the final days in the life of Jane Austen. We inhabit with her the claustrophobic closeness of those last days, tricking our minds with the bright hope of a reprieve though we know even more surely than Jane that it's impossible. There aren't a lot of reminiscences, but when she wistfully recalls her one-time love-interest she refers to as the Gentleman Rogue--remembering his loss a decade earlier--it is just one more log on the fire of melancholy that burns throughout the whole novel. (I remember wishing happiness on her at the time, when he was still alive, knowing then it wasn't to be. Irrational!)

And yet I loved it. All of it. It's past time I started back at book 1 and read them all again.

In short, it's a terrific mystery, fully-formed, with plenty of details and action and red herrings and potential suspects, enough to satisfy any reader; these elements have not been slighted, and it stands on its own as a mystery novel. But it's also an emotional story, sweet and affecting though not maudlin, supplying the reader with appropriate closure. I could say in a matter-of-fact way that it's a tidy end to a well-written series, but I'll be honest and admit it's more than that: it's also a touching, heartfelt, wrenching goodbye to a character who feels like a person.

The entire series is recommended. Essential, even. I give the whole 6/5. Or make it 10/5 while I'm breaking the rules.

***********************

In the author's acknowledgements are these last words:

"In this final journey with Jane, she helped me understand something equally important--that love survives, and can help ease, even the deepest personal loss."

I think perhaps that's true. And for those suffering loss, I fervently hope so.

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