Miss Austen Investigates

During a ball at the grand Tudor manor of Lord John and Lady Harcourt, a body is found in the laundry closet, brutally murdered. Enter Jane, fresh from the stolen embrace of her true love Tom Lefroy, who immediately smells a rat! She knows the victim as a Mrs Renault, a milliner she has recently encountered at the Basingstoke market. All seems lost when Jane’s mild-natured non-verbal brother Georgy is arrested but the razor-sharp Austen mind goes into overdrive to discover the actual culprit.

The author, Jessica Bull, has done a nifty job of combining fact and fiction to create an energetic mystery steeped in Georgian Britain. We don’t find the slight and sickly Jane who lives out her spinsterhood with her parents; the Jane of Ms Bull’s world is full of beans and questions and keen to take on the patriarchy. Any close reader of the Austen canon would agree, the clues are there as to Jane Austen’s astute investigative nature and adventurous attitude. I thought all the characters were unique and believable. The destitute family caring for Georgy is lovingly portrayed and a welcome addition.

The plot is well-paced and deliciously enticing. There are cliffhangers, clues and red herrings enough to keep you guessing and reading. The little missives to her sister Cassandra at the end of the chapters serve as a reminder of the suspects and their motives and add to the generous seasoning of good humour that underpins the text. I adore the cover too, a clever take on the silhouette art popular at the time.

I do enjoy a light cosy mystery and this was the best I’ve read in a long while! It’s a fun mash-up so if you’re a fan of Agatha Christie or Richard Osman but you have a hankering to be invited to trip the light fantastic at Bridgerton, this will surely keep you in nights. But not too many, it’s a fast read! Thanks as evert to NetGalleyUK and Penguin Michael Joseph for the eARC.