Title: Jane and the Final Mystery
Author: Stephanie Barron
Publisher: 24th October 2023 by Soho Press, Soho Crime
Pages: 312 pages
Genre: Historical Fiction | Cozy Mystery | Jane Austen | Regency
My Rating: 4 cups
Synopsis:
The final volume of the critically acclaimed mystery series featuring Jane Austen as amateur sleuth
March 1817: As winter turns to spring, Jane Austen’s health is in slow decline, and threatens to cease progress on her latest manuscript. But when her nephew Edward brings chilling news of a death at his former school, Winchester College, not even her debilitating ailment can keep Jane from seeking out the truth. Arthur Prendergast, a senior pupil at the prestigious all-boys’ boarding school, has been found dead in a culvert near the schoolgrounds—and in the pocket of his drenched waistcoat is an incriminating note penned by the young William Heathcote, the son of Jane’s dear friend Elizabeth. Winchester College is a world unto itself, with its own language and rites of passage, cruel hazing and dangerous pranks. Can Jane clear William’s name before her illness gets the better of her?
Over the course of fourteen previous novels in the critically acclaimed Being a Jane Austen Mystery series, Stephanie Barron has won the hearts of thousands of fans—crime fiction aficionados and Janeites alike—with her tricky plotting and breathtaking evocation of Austen’s voice. Now, she brings Jane’s final season—and final murder investigation—to brilliant, poignant life in this unforgettable conclusion.
My Thoughts
Jane and the Final Mystery is the final book in the series that Stephanie has been writing for nearly 30 years! Such an accomplishment and there is much that Janeites and crime fiction lovers are sure to embrace about this series.
“Jane, what are we to do?” “Let me to think a while,” I told her. “I shall not desert you. We shall all of us find a way out of this coil.”
This book can certainly be read as a standalone but lovers of this genre should definitely consider going to the start of this incredible series for pure entertainment. The mystery is intriguing as a spotlight is given to the darker side of the English school system of the day and the many issues that raged. Acknowledgement must also be given to the incredible research undertaken: it was richly detailed, providing readers with both an educational and authentic experience. The various footnotes included throughout and the Afterword provided by Stephanie are interesting and enrich the whole experience.
‘Charm, an easiness of manner, and good looks may hide any number of sins, as I knew to my cost. How many heroines had I thrown in the way of such men - the Willoughbys, the Wickhams, the William Elliots?’
Yet it is the character of Jane herself which drew me to this book in the first place and I was not disappointed. It is here that in my opinion, Stephanie has truly excelled. To capture not only the tone of Jane Austen but also her characteristics were she to find herself in the role of sleuth are so very believable. Being the final book, Stephanie does not shy away from the illness that plagued Jane in her final months. She is suffering in pain, facing the prospect that she will most likely not recover. This is handled with sensitivity.
‘I am uncertain why you ask the question, Miss Austen. Would you interfere in the coroner’s business?”
For Janeites everywhere who see Jane Austen using her great skill of observations put to the use of solving mysteries, this series is well worth further investigation.
‘I did not pray for myself specifically. I did not pray for healing. I did not pray for more energy, more health, more time with those I loved, and who loved me. I knew that such things were already in God’s hands … The Virgin could neither extend nor shorten my time on earth; but speaking with her might render it more peaceful.’
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AUTHOR BIO
Stephanie Barron is a graduate of Princeton and Stanford, where she received her Masters in History as an Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Fellow in the Humanities. Her novel, THAT CHURCHILL WOMAN (Ballantine, January 22, 2019) traces the turbulent career of Jennie Jerome, Winston Churchill's captivating American mother. Barron is perhaps best known for the critically acclaimed Jane Austen Mystery Series, in which the intrepid and witty author of PRIDE AND PREJUDICE details her secret detective career in Regency England. A former intelligence analyst for the CIA, Stephanie—who also writes under the name Francine Mathews—drew on her experience in the field of espionage for such novels as JACK 1939, which The New Yorker described as "the most deliciously high-concept thriller imaginable." She lives and works in Denver, CO.
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This review is based on a complimentary copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. The quoted material may have changed in the final release.
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