Jane and the Final Mystery

  Stephanie Barron has brought out what must sadly be the last in her series of mystery stories featuring Jane Austen.

   Her readers will not be disappointed. It is a good story that is once again based on meticulous research into Austen's life, and that of her family, friends and their connections.

   It centres on Winchester College, the public school attended by half a dozen of Austen's nephews, and the son of one of her close friends friends, Elizabeth Heathcote. Like most such establishments, it was very prestigious, steeped in tradition and in many respects utterly barbaric. Boys were frequently beaten with rods not only by the masters but by the prefects, senior boys who lorded it over new arrivals and treated younger boys like servants. Pranks were the norm and even severe bullying was regarded indulgently as rough-and-tumble that would teach the boys to stand on their own feet and make men of them.

    The safety standards were about as strict as those at Hogwarts Academy. When not studying Latin and Greek, boys were allowed to stroll out to the nearby canal and go swimming in the lock. So it is not surprising when, in this story, one boy's body is found drowned there, and since the boy in question, Prendergast, was a notorious bully and deeply unpopular, the question arises whether this is a case of murder rather than misadventure...

   It is quite believable that a public schoolboy, even one of noble birth, could have died under such circumstances. An example is George Waldegrave, 5th Earl Waldegrave, born on 13th  July 1784. His father died in 1789, so little George became an earl at the age of five. But in 1794 he drowned swimming in the Thames at Eton College. He was not yet ten years old.

    Jane Austen in this story is ill, suffering from the debilitating condition that killed her in July 1817, and struggling to cope with the demands of daily life but she still manages to attend Prendergast's inquest, staying as a guest of Elizabeth Heathcote in Winchester Cathedral Close. When Mrs Heathcote's son is arrested on a charge of murder, Jane, assisted by her nephew Edward Austen, an old boy of the school, sets out to discover what has really been going on.

     The descriptions of Winchester Cathedral  - where Jane would soon afterwards be buried - and the school environs create a very enjoyable background to this complex mystery.  The pompous headmaster, the rather sinister housemaster, the town surgeon Lyford and his daughter make notable subsidiary characters. 

    In the background we have some melancholy reflections on the Austen family's disappointed hopes of a legacy from their relative Edward Leigh-Perrot, a legacy which might - who knows? - even if small have enabled Jane to live a little longer and write at least one more novel. She might have been enabled to consult a top doctor in London. But on the other hand, a top doctor might have just killed her faster, as they killed Mozart, Byron and millions of others.

    Jane Austen was a very observant, perceptive sort of person, so Stephanie Barron's idea of turning her into a sleuth was a brilliant one. She has created a series of intriguing mysteries, which are unfolded with great skill, so that the puzzle grows more complicated, there are twists, and we are held by suspense until the end. Bravo!

    A lot of reviews and blurbs repeat the idea that the series is written in a style that is uncannily like Jane Austen. I don't think so (particularly as they are peppered with modern Americanisms, such as "What did you do Tuesday?" Or "numbers one through three"). Many people have tried to write a pastiche of Jane Austen or to capture her "voice", and none have succeeded, even remotely. However, that is not all-important. The attraction of these books is in the plots and characters. Barron has brought Jane Austen to life as a person who is convincing as a character, thoughtful, kind and refined. Aunt Jane is a sort of Regency Miss Marple. The stories are gripping, and interlock neatly with the facts of Austen's biography and those of her wider circle.

It is a little surprising to find her praying to the Virgin Mary - Austen was a strict Protestant with Methodist sympathies - but when you know you are dying, perhaps it's worth trying anything.

     So there is much to admire, and there will be many readers who regret this must be the last in the series.