Where Jane Meets a Rogue

Jane and the Unpleasantness at Scargrave Manor by Stephanie Barron
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This series concluded this year, a success from beginning to end, and now I can reread it all the way through from the start. So here we go.

I love the Jane Austen that lives in these books--intelligent, independent, tough-minded, kind but capable of delivering a sharp blow, patient, loyal. She feels very close to my impression of her in real life, and even though she probably did not participate in detective work, I have no doubt that, if she had, she should have been a great proficient. She had every tool, except the complete freedom to come and go wherever she wanted. Here we see her start her crime-solving career, and I think it's amazing.

Jane's good friend has recently married, and her husband dies during a big celebration. This is in most ways a cozy mystery, though there is some danger involved; the culprit is almost certainly still there, and there are several suspects. After another murder, the suspicion falls on her friend--for killing her own husband--and her husband's nephew (who she actually loved)--for the death of the serving girl who had some unknown part in the whole affair. Jane herself gathers some of the clues, and they work against her friend, not for her.

The story concludes with a trial in the House of Lords, and it is Jane's clever work that leads them almost too late to the killers and the secret of the plot.

The language here and throughout the series is fantastic. If you've ever tried to write more than a sentence or two in Regency style, sounding like Jane Austen, you see it soon gets difficult. Keeping the diction in the proper place while writing in a way that is clear and entertaining is quite a feat, and it's flawless here. That may be inconsistent with my belief that the language only improves from book to book, but that is nevertheless my opinion.

I'm still tracking down some physical copies of books in the series since I originally read many in ebook. I like and support ebooks, but somehow it's just better on paper. I don't know. Anyway, I want them on my shelf, so don't bug me. ;)

Highly recommended for Austen fans and mystery readers both.

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