Where Jane Solves a Christmas Murder

Jane and the Twelve Days of Christmas by Stephanie Barron
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book, like the entire series, is such a pleasure to read. It isn't just that Stephanie Barron gets the language of Jane Austen and the time right, which she really does, or that she gets the details so right, with the appropriate and measured inclusion of all of her meticulous research into Jane Austen's personal story. That's part of it, but not all. As a mystery writer, she has such a deft touch with clues and characters that readers like myself can master the details without growing confused, and can enjoy the story set during the twelve days of Christmas without constantly searching for missed connections or buried clues.

As an observer of human nature, Stephanie Barron always impresses, creating a wide range of characters and behavior while always making them feel familiar and real, their concerns genuine and their motivations human. And as a historian, she grounds the novel in the very real history of England after the loss of the colonies, during Napoleon's rise and fall and subsequent rise.

Sometimes, I appreciate Jane Austen novels (the original novels) for being set almost outside of time, in a bubble made up of the well-dressed and well-mannered, where members of that polite society mingle in balls and drawing rooms, engaging in witty and bright conversation, safe from the darkness of the outside world--our world. But I appreciate this novel, and whole series, for the opposite reason. The author vividly creates the time and place, establishing the characters in that timeline, so that it is real as our own world, so that it IS our world--no bubble--a place where war and invasion is the frequent topic of conversation and constant concern, where the poor and the unfortunate also have their roles and their lives, and where well-mannered ladies might sew tiny dresses for a niece's new doll or drink tea with the neighbors, but might also investigate a murder or regret the passage of time or feel the pain of grief and lost love. The author has done well to create such a real place, and people it with such engaging characters, and craft so satisfying a story.

I enjoyed this book, and I recommend it.

Edit [and spoiler] on rereading: Still love it. Still 5 stars. Still sad that Raphael West, a man similar in many ways to the "Gentleman Rogue" love-interest of the early books, a man who can appreciate our Jane for who she is and who she appreciates for who he is, does not end up with her in an HEA kind of way. I know it's impossible, because we know what really did and didn't happen to Jane Austen. She never married. But you still hope, kinda. And I forgot how the same man appealed to her sister Cassandra, and how she had a hope for a short period of time. It's a bummer. We only know through Cassandra through Jane, but in real life (and in the novels, in our imaginations) she was someone who mattered, someone with her own wishes and dreams, and they don't matter less than those who we know better. Like her sister, Cassandra almost certainly had to leave many of those dreams behind. Poignant reminder about the inner lives of the quiet people in our midst...

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Where Everybody Might Have Done It

Jane and the Canterbury Tale by Stephanie Barron
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Number 11 in my favorite all-time series. And another 5-star book.

I read this first maybe 15 years ago. Hard to believe it's that long ago. But like the last reread (book 10, I mean), I think I liked it even more this time through. (It was long enough ago that I didn't recall the solution to the mystery, not until I got to the crucial scene, so it was still great fun all the way. Perks of a faulty memory...)

Jane is staying with her wealthy brother near Canterbury when there is a murder, and the victim turns out to be the supposedly-deceased husband of a widow who has just remarried. Jane's brother is the magistrate and has to investigate, leading him to jail a friend of the family and consider others as possible suspects. So many people turn out to have genuine reason to want the man dead, it was hard to find someone who wasn't a suspect.

Lots of twists and turns, lots of social awkwardness (sorry I jailed your sister!), lots of clues and misdirection. All fun. As always, the writing feels both Jane Austeny and modern, a nice trick, and the characters are well-drawn and entertaining. A couple of rogues show up that I think deserve a spin-off series, if only the author could be persuaded. :)

I generally don't reread books. Very rarely. But I enjoy these so much I might become one of those people who goes back through a favorite series every year or two. Not a bad notion.

Highly recommended.

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Where Jane Stares Down Byron

Jane and the Madness of Lord Byron by Stephanie Barron
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I still agree with 15-years-ago me--this is a very good book. 5 stars.

In this one, Jane and her recently-widowed brother are visiting Brighton for a little cheering up time, and on the way they rescue a young woman who is tied up in a coach, being taking north. Turns out, she's being abducted by Lord Byron. (This is fiction, though anything was possible with Byron.) When she's restored to her family, we learn that her dad's a jerk, blaming the poor kid for the actions of a pretty bad guy. This and that happens (visits and dances, that kind of thing), then the young woman is killed, drowned, and her body is discovered in Byron's bed.

You know that's gotta mean Byron didn't do it--but he really feels like the kind of guy who would. Various friends impose on Jane to help clear his name, despite her feelings about the guy. As always, Jane will search for the truth, whatever direction that takes her. Lots of bad guys to choose from here, including the Prince Regent and several people around him. Very salacious.

Caro Lamb is an important character in this one, the young woman who loved Byron to distraction, and she's wild, but super interesting. In fact, this whole novel is a bit wilder, a bit darker, a bit seamier, than earlier ones, even though all of them have had danger and bad guys and way more discussion of sex or sex crimes than you would ever find in Jane Austen's own novels. We are 200 years on, of course, so I think it's good. Realer. Rougher. Jane is undaunted, though even she is a little put off by Caro Lamb's "frankness" about bedroom topics.

Great plotting, great writing, wonderful characters. (I've still got a huge crush on our heroine. However, I fear she would call the literary version of me respectable and immediately forget me. Alas.) These novels are all fun to read, and this is one of my favorites.

Recommended. :)

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Where Jane Saves Her Own Neck

Jane and the Barque of Frailty by Stephanie Barron
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I'm still on my second time through the Jane Austen mysteries, and I'm only loving them more.

I wasn't a mystery reader until I got hooked on this series, and I'm only now getting kinda good at it. There's a bit of genre savvy required to read them right, and I didn't have it at first. It's not just knowing that the first person pointed at probably isn't the murderer, like in a police procedural, or getting good at guessing who the culprit really is before it's revealed. (I'm not necessarily all that good at the latter, anyway.) There's also the ability to pay attention well enough that you know who people are, how they're related to each other, what their motivations are, which things they both know and which things only one of them knows, and where individuals were at different times during the course of the story. That stuff's hard once you have more than a tiny handful of characters. But you can get better at it, even if you have a notoriously faulty memory. (Also me.)

Agatha Christie takes this to extremes in some of her mysteries, especially the ones where the murder, the murderer, and all the suspects are isolated--and all the isolated people are suspects--on the Orient Express or at a summer home or on a ship down the Nile and it's Poirot's job to establish the movements of everyone involved down to the minute. (I guess people refer to these as closed circle mysteries or locked room mysteries.) That's more puzzle than story to me, and not as much my thing (though I have loved a few Agatha Christie novels), but it really does concentrate those analytical elements that a lot of mystery readers love. (I wonder if a modern detective in that sort of novel would benefit from using a spreadsheet...)

It's not quite that intense in this mystery or the series, and that's good IMO, because this is a lot closer to the feel I like, that of a Jane Austen novel of manners, with visits and balls and conversations over tea. There are family subplots and a larger, biographical arc stretched across all the books in the series, that give it more interest to me. In this novel, we have a little scandal among great lords and ladies in London, with a Russian princess making a spectacle of herself because of her apparent love for Lord Castlereagh just hours before she's found dead near his front door. The story involves other kept women and prostitutes of various degrees--here charmingly referred to, at times, as a "Barque of Frailty," (hence the title)--in a way unlike actual Austen novels. But it's refreshing more than anything else. The real Jane gave us a narrow worldview, the type allowed in novels at the time, but Stephanie Barron lets us see a broader cross-section of Regency England, a bit more of real people, and it's like having a brain itch scratched. I like it.

Jane herself (the character) becomes a suspect when she and her SIL are given some jewels to sell for a friend that turn out to come from the murdered princess. It becomes even more important that she solve this crime than others, because it's her neck this time, and for plot reasons they don't tell anyone about it.

Beautifully written. Well researched. Lots of interesting characters. It's still 5 stars to me, and if I kept better track of the characters and their movements this time, well, I guess I'm still learning. Recommended.

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Where Jane Inherits a Mystery

Jane and His Lordship's Legacy by Stephanie Barron
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

[This is a reread. I didn't write a review first time.]

I love these Jane Austen mysteries. It's the main character that brings me back. The crime-solving version of the beloved author is really likable, sympathetic, and great fun to watch. And we get all of that here, once again. I'm sad when she's sad, I'm amused when she's amused, and when she confounds her enemies by putting all the pieces together, she's awesome.

As much as I like it, this one is slightly less fun, since it includes a very subdued Jane who is reeling from the death of someone she really cared about--was in love with--and she is a bit less active as well. Perhaps as a result, we get most of the reveals and most of Jane's brilliance near the end, though it's still a successful mystery. I liked the journal entries from Lord Harold's papers, and though I would have liked seeing them to impact the plot a little more, they do still play their part.

The setup: Jane and her family are settling in to the cottage in Chawton where they famously lived for many years, and they're not being well received. Not only that, there is a body in the cellar when they first move in. It's a rude welcome, and things don't get better very quickly. Jane needs to figure out who's responsible before there's more violence...

I had a little bit of character overload reading this, even though I read it once before, about 15 years ago. It's the connections between kinda minor characters that I lose track of, and then they turn out to be pivotal details. Well, I bet the third time's the charm.

As always, recommended.

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Where Jane Matches Wits With Spies

Jane and the Ghosts of Netley by Stephanie Barron
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

One of my favorite books. And my favorite series.

The most important details about this novel are spoilers. I can't even characterize my reaction without spoilers. But here's what I can say: Jane Austen the character is such a pleasure--being intelligent, brave, sensible, loyal, modest, kind, and doggedly persistent in pursuit of answers to mysteries, even when forced to behave outside the norms of her society--that it's impossible not to admire her and wish the best for her and feel protective of her as if she were a real person. (I mean, she was a real person, but you know...) And when someone else, someone with status and power and money and position, sees the value in her that so many other people overlook, and knows to admire her, you can't help but cheer for her and hope the best for them both.

The connection between Jane and the so-called Gentlemen Rogue drives this novel, and it makes it unforgettable. Mrs. Challoner is interesting, too, and I love the grumpy old seaman, Mr. Hawkins, who helps Jane get around on the water, but the whole thing revolves around the mutual admiration and apparent love story going on between the two main characters. And it makes this possibly the best book in the series.

Napoleon is trying to sabotage England's war machine, and spies are everywhere along the coast. Good mystery, good history, good action, and great characters. Highly recommended.

But read all of them.

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Where Jane Investigates Murder On the Sea

Jane and the Prisoner of Wool House by Stephanie Barron
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

These books are even better on the re-read, IMO. And I gave this one (most of them, I think) 5 stars the first time around.

I'm not sure who the people are who give these books 4s and 3s. I fully support people liking what they like, having their own opinions, reacting to art however they react without feeling like they "should" feel different, but from my perspective these books are right down the center.

Why does it work so well for me? It starts with me loving Jane Austen (and okay, not everyone does, I suppose) and finding real echoes of her writing, her world, her language in this book and the rest. It reads naturally, but it sounds Regency, which is quite a trick. There also needs to be a well-crafted mystery--something the author excels at--and, crucially, Jane must be instrumental in solving it. No bumping into answers; no standing on the sidelines while others do all the work; no waiting for things to work out. That's no good. Here, Jane gets right in, sorting out the clues, low-key investigating while still behaving normally, and does as much as a woman could do in that era. Most women would not do all that this character does, but it's not anachronistic. It all feels perfectly plausible. Also, as an extra, she is exposed to actual physical danger, upping the stakes while still remaining true to the time period.

It's very well done.

This story is about her brother's friend, an officer in the navy, who is facing a court martial for killing a man. Neither Jane nor her brother believe he's guilty, and they have to risk a lot to find the truth. The ending is satisfying, though it's a mixture of happy and sad. I suppose a murder mystery always has to be that way, to some degree.

I recommend the whole series. I find them a real pleasure to read, always a joy to pick back up, and just wish there were about a hundred more of them.

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Where Jane Sees What the Rest Don't

Jane and the Stillroom Maid by Stephanie Barron
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is my second read of this book, and I keep finding (as I progress back through the series) that I like them even more the second time.

And I liked them a lot the first time.

The whole series, this book included, make good use of Jane Austen's biographical details, fitting stories into times and places where she actually traveled, using real people (often) who lived there and impacted history, along with other period-appropriate details, such as the various stillroom recipes that preface each chapter. As always, this is a mystery, following the normal mystery conventions, but it's also written like a novel of manners, or is at least adjacent to that, and I enjoy how deftly that is done. No; I enjoy the story, and I admire how deftly it is done.

Jane herself is a marvel. She is bright and witty, but she's also kind and caring. She can push back against foolishness or enforce her boundaries with a bit of sting, but she holds no grudges, and can be patient with the most annoying people. I kinda love one scene when she and her sister are discussing the details of the young woman's death, and their clergyman cousin keeps trying to get them to stop, but they just keep talking without saying anything to him. They just disregard him as if he wasn't even speaking, and it was the best way to handle it.

The main reason I love these so much and happily give them a 5/5 is that Jane is an awesome character and the author lets her BE awesome. She's not floundering, being goofy, making lots of mistakes. She's confident, useful, and insightful, and in most ways she is the best person in every setting and scene. She's not superhuman, but she's very cool, and watching be amazing is what makes this fun. Watching other characters be impressed with her coolness, her brilliance, just adds to the fun.

Highly recommended for mystery fans and Austen fans.

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Where War Threatens

Jane and the Genius of the Place by Stephanie Barron
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

It's been years since I first read this, but I was right the first time--5 stars.

It's my favorite of the first four books, though I enjoy all of them. I guess it feels like she's hitting her stride.

Jane is staying with her rich brother and his family in Kent, near enough the coast that the very likely invasion from France is affecting their plans, making them prepare to evacuate. At the same time, they are enjoying summer fun, attending the races in Canterbury.

Of course, that's where a murder takes place, as this is a murder mystery, and Jane's brother, being the local magistrate, has to take charge of the investigation. No way Jane's not getting involved. The murdered woman is the source of a lot of local scandal, being French and beautiful and capable of making lots of married men devoted to her, and as she's connected to a wealthy family in Paris there is the additional complication of international affairs in the plot.

It's a good story. Good mystery and all. But that's not the thing I like most.

It's impossible not to love the main character. I never read mysteries before this series, and I'm a bit ambivalent still about the genre in general, but I just want to keep reading about this version of Jane Austen, watching her being smarter than everyone else. (I would really like to fix her up with a deserving guy, because she absolutely deserves her happily ever after, and there is a nice bit of romance simmering in the books that really works, IMO. But marriage and family is ultimately not to be, as we all know, because history tells us what actually happens. Reality is an asshole.) Jane remains believable; she's not a superhero or even Sherlock. But she is clever, and sarcastic, and funny, and a capable detective, and really fun to watch. For me, she's the draw, more than the intellectual puzzle of the mystery. That adds to it, sure. And it's well written. But I'd read it if she was solving crossword puzzles, as long as she was clever and surprising and got to tell off some obnoxious character in that Regency way.

Anyway, I love these books. I'm glad to be back in the middle of the series, with lots of books still to read back through, tricking myself into thinking there is no end to them, just like a little kid on summer vacation in July pretending the first day of school will never come.....

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What Happens in Bath Stays in Bath

Jane and the Wandering Eye by Stephanie Barron
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Working my way back through these books--and enjoying them a little more, even, than the first time.

The mysteries are very clever, the plotting tight, and the action lots of fun. As always, the settings and period research are excellent, and the language is perfect. But most of all, the characters, Jane herself most of all, are wonderfully drawn. These early novels in the series have the so-called Gentleman Rogue, who is one of the few who knows how to appreciate Jane's merits, so it's fun to see them solving mysteries together.

My only struggle is filing away the details of the action and the many minor characters to keep track of clues and red herrings. I'm finding it's a skill that improves with time and effort. Extra tricky in this one, as the murder takes place at a masquerade party, with so many suspects in disguise. But the solution is logical and works very well.

Who's gonna make these books into a TV series? We're ready. Come on!

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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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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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Where I Shoulda Known

Death in the Off-Season by Francine Mathews
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is a well written novel. I won't have been the first to report this, but I wanted it on the record.

I'm not surprised, but it's more remarkable than I expected. Apparently, Francine Matthews entered the writing world like Athena, fully formed from day one.

I've read (and really loved) her entire Jane Austen mystery series--written under a pseudonym, Stephanie Barron--but this novel was written before any of those, her first book, and though I thought there might be some sign in the text that she was a new author, I found nothing. No awkwardness; no hesitancy; no overblown language; no undercooked plot. On the contrary, it's mature and confident, with clear prose throughout and a deftly handled mystery. And it's a pleasure to read.

Nice. Right out of the gate.

I have usually overlooked this corner of the mystery world (when I'm not reading fantasy or something else, I mean), choosing mostly historical mysteries, especially Regency types, but I've meant to try these novels for some time. Obviously, it's not the same vibe as the Jane Austen books. Not the same rhythms or arcs. Not even the same voice. But, you know, it is the same, somehow.

I was predisposed to like the main character because I have a sister Merry--so named and so spelled because of her twin sister, Sherry--and though Merry Folger is not much like my sister, I liked her. I appreciated her attitude and her mix of competence and vulnerability. Not a bumbler; not a super-sleuth. Her family and backstory are interesting, giving us something to care about, but they do not overwhelm the story. The other characters are well drawn, too, especially Peter Mason, whose brother dies on his property at the beginning of the novel, and Will, the boy who discovers the body.

I learned a lot about Nantucket, and the setting was an interesting part of the novel. Not hard to teach me something new; I knew virtually nothing about it before. I did learn that I won't be buying a summer home there this life. And the conclusion is satisfying. I see some others predicted the outcome, but I didn't--at least not until I was supposed to.

Anyway, lots to like. I enjoyed it and recommend it for general mystery readers, as well as fans of the author. :)

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Where I Say What I Really Think

Jane and the Year Without a Summer by Stephanie Barron
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

What a pleasure. Truly. Beginning to end.

And a pleasure even now, after finishing, reflecting on the closed book beside me, calling to mind particular scenes and lines. (The last two or three pages! Dang.)

Well done.

I was inclined to think well of the book, I'll admit, even before opening it. My fondness for the author, the series, and the protagonist prepared me to be a sympathetic reader, ready to overlook any of the small disappointments one sometimes encounters even in highly anticipated novels. However, I'm happy to report that nothing of the sort was required of me. No grading on a curve. Without resorting to polite hedging, I can report that I liked it as much as I had hoped and more, finding it clever, touching, inventive, and intellectually satisfying.

It was fun to read, which to me is the test.

The Jane Austen character in this mystery is an old friend for all of us who have read the previous books in the series, and it's nice to see her again, but even new readers will find her familiar, in a way; she embodies many of the characteristics of a Jane Austen heroine, being intelligent, witty, confident, long-suffering, and considerate, and could have featured in any of the original novels without alarming anyone. This Jane is less proper at times, perhaps, but is no less ladylike for that. Less "missish," as they say, than similar characters--but I consider that a decided virtue. Probably more willing to return rudeness for rudeness (the Garthwaites! Ugh!), which I admired, although she would then be all politeness again. Unfazed by ugliness and danger. Direct when directness is required. She's a great heroine, one of my all-time favorite characters, and she is fully present in this novel.

The plot is well crafted and nicely paced, with the romantic elements and the mystery arc integrated with the garden walks and dances and theatre visits one looks for and expects in a Regency novel of any type. All of it seamless. And the author's research contributes so much to the feeling that this story could have actually happened. First, the setting, a small English spa town in 1816, is fully realized, right down to the streets and assembly rooms and nasty water; and second, Jane's real family and history are incorporated into the story, harmonized with real events, in a very believable way. The work in the "suspension of disbelief" is pretty much done for us.

This book is, at its heart, a mystery, and the author doesn't try to outstrip the conventions, doesn't try to swing for the fences, but there is more resonance here, more significance, than one would expect in the 14th installment of a series. The added emotional heft of Jane's incipient but undiagnosed illness, along with the effect that has on her family and her romantic entanglements, makes the novel hit a little harder and mean a little more. We know how events turn out in real life, and the weight of that is felt throughout. I felt it, anyway. So--a mystery, yes, with crimes and clues and sleuthing, but resonance, too. Impact.

In terms of craft, probably the best thing about this work and the series as a whole is the language, specifically Jane's voice. That's what strikes me every time. Stephanie Barron delivers pitch-perfect prose, writing in a way that manages to evoke the cadence and tone of Jane Austen and Regency fiction while still remaining accessible to modern readers. That control is *chef's kiss*.

(I tried desperately to frame a question for the author on this subject at a recent book event, wanting to ask how she manages to walk that line so successfully over so many pages and so many books, but every version I tried out seemed like "more of a comment than a question," so I gave it up. Safer to dork out here, I guess.)

To sum up--this is an outstanding mystery novel in an outstanding series, and I recommend it to all good people, especially readers of mystery, Jane Austen, and historical novels. And if you're not caught up, you totally should do that.

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