Michael May's Blog

Jane and the Stillroom Maid by Stephanie Barron

Although I love the entire Austen Mysteries series so far, some of the individual books can drag. Barron's version of Austen is always a great, funny, observant, courageous detective, so she and her supporting cast and all of the historical details that Barron includes are enough to keep me interested. But some of the books have had stretches in which I was eager to get back to the investigation. Stillroom Maid doesn't have that problem and so it's one of my favorites. 
The plot really moves. When the body of the eponymous woman is found among the hills of Northern England, Austen's investigation into her death basically takes place over a weekend and she's active the whole time. The story also keeps interesting by switching between three great settings: the craggy wilderness, a quaint village full of suspects, and an elaborate estate with a lavish mansion of even more potential killers. My mind's eye was quite happy.
And then there's the fact that the maid herself was possibly a witch. Just my cup of tea.

Love & Friendship (2016)

I watched Love & Friendship when it was first released just because I love Kate Beckinsale and I love Jane Austen movies. I hadn't yet read Lady Susan, the unpublished novel it's based on, so my first opinion was that Love & Friendship was a minor entry in the Austen movie collection. I thought it was funny and charming, but not on the same level as my go-to Austen films: Ang Lee's Sense and Sensibility, the 1995 Pride and Prejudice mini-series, and the Emma with Gwyneth Paltrow (Autumn de Wilde's version didn't exist yet, but it's very much one of my favorites today).

I liked Love & Friendship even more after reading Lady Susan. Since the novella tells the story through letters between the various characters - and pulls a lot of the humor from the differences between those letters - the film has to be funny in a different way. And impressively: it is.

I ding it a little for robbing Lady Susan of some comeuppance that she has coming to her. In the book, she settles for marrying herself to a rich idiot whom she'd planned on attaching to her daughter. It's clearly a Plan B or C outcome for her. But the film makes it seem like she's getting exactly what she wants. And as much as I enjoy her scheming, I want to see her thwarted more than she is.

Lady Susan and The Watsons by Jane Austen

During the first few books in Stephanie Barron's Jane Austen mystery series, Austen is thinking about and working on a couple of stories that were never published. Lady Susan is a completed novella that she just never submitted for publication, but she never even finished writing The Watsons. 

There's some debate about why she abandoned the latter book, but the theory I like best (and Barron seems to adopt it, too) is that after the death of Austen's father, she lost her passion for writing. She started The Watsons just before her father's death and continuing it would likely have been a rough reminder of that time.

She would eventually get that passion back, but there's a chunk of time in which she's not writing (though the mysteries keep coming in the world of Barron's series). When Austen eventually did write again, it was to work on a new novel that became Sense and Sensibility.

In the timeline of Barron's series, Austen's father died shortly after the events of Jane and the Wandering Eye. In Genius of the Place, she's still feeling the loss. So it seemed appropriate to me to read Lady Susan and what exists of The Watsons after Genius of the Place and before continuing with Barron's stories. (Collections also include her unfinished Sanditon, but that's the book she was working on when she died, so it'll be a while before I get to that one.)

Lady Susan is delightful. It's the story of a scheming widow who's not quite done getting everything she can from her deceased husband's wealthy family. It's told in a series of letters between the various characters, which is an approach that doesn't always keep me engaged when some writers use it. But I enjoyed it very much as a change from Austen's usual style and she brings a lot of humor out of it as she shows the characters' wildly different points of view alongside each other. 

It was adapted as a movie called Love & Friendship in 2016, starring Kate Beckinsale as the crafty Lady Susan, so I'll talk about that next post.

The Watsons had a lot of promise and it's too bad Austen never went back to it. What we have needs polishing and doesn't compare well with her finished works, but the dramatic seeds are all strong. It's the story of a young woman named Emma who's trying to reintegrate with her family after spending significant time away from them. (When Barron has Austen thinking about Emma in the early mystery books, I mistakenly assumed that she was working on the novel Emma featuring the character Emma Woodhouse, but the Emma in The Watsons is entirely different.) 

All we really have of the story is the introductions of Emma and her family and some potential romantic interests. Austen's niece took a shot at finishing it in 1850 and other writers have given it their own spins through the years, but so little of Austen's own work on it exists - and we know so little about her plans for the story - that I'm not interested in seeing other writers build their own things out what's essentially nothing more than a story prompt by Austen.

Jane and the Genius of the Place by Stephanie Barron

The "genius" in the title has a fun, unexpected meaning in that it's a landscaping term. In this one, Jane is staying with her wealthy brother and his family at their country estate. Landscaping and architecture come up a lot. One of my favorite things about this series is that I learn a lot about the details of life in early Nineteenth Century England, but all while trying to figure out a murder mystery.
In this case, the victim is an infamous woman who may be a spy for Napoleon. Everyone suspects so, but was she killed to keep her from learning something or to prevent her from telling something that she already knew? And if she wasn't a spy, what then?
There's an important clue in the early chapters that's pretty obvious, but Jane and her fellow investigators (her brother is also the area magistrate) missed. That's annoying, but Genius of the Place is otherwise a great, twisty mystery is a picturesque setting. 
And outside of that one clue, Barron's Jane Austen is as observant, insightful, and witty as I want her to be. Her adventures in this series are historical fact as far as I'm concerned.

Jane and the Genius of the Place

The "genius" in the title has a fun, unexpected meaning in that it's a landscaping term. In this one, Jane is staying with her wealthy brother and his family at their country estate. Landscaping and architecture come up a lot. One of my favorite things about this series is that I learn a lot about the details of life in early Nineteenth Century England, but all while trying to figure out a murder mystery.
In this case, the victim is an infamous woman who may be a spy for Napoleon. Everyone suspects so, but was she killed to keep her from learning something or to prevent her from telling something that she already knew? And if she wasn't a spy, what then?
There's an important clue in the early chapters that's pretty obvious, but Jane and her fellow investigators (her brother is also the area magistrate) missed. That's annoying, but Genius of the Place is otherwise a great, twisty mystery is a picturesque setting. 
And outside of that one clue, Barron's Jane Austen is as observant, insightful, and witty as I want her to be. Her adventures in this series are historical fact as far as I'm concerned.

Jane and the Wandering Eye by Stephanie Barron

This was a fun book to revisit after finally getting to see Bath myself a few years ago. 
It's not my favorite in the series, mostly I think because of the Will They Won't They between Jane and a character named Lord Harold Trowbridge. Barron is great at bringing Austen's historical family and acquaintances to life, but Trowbridge is rare for the series in that he's a recurring character created entirely by Barron herself. And he's great.
He was introduced in the first Austen mystery as a potential suspect in the murder, a gentleman rogue who both infuriates and intrigues Austen. At least at first. When all is revealed, she's more intrigued than infuriated.
He mostly sits out the second book, but makes a full, welcome return in this one. We know enough about him now that we also know he's going to be an ally in Austen's investigation, but Barron reintroduces tension by showing that Austen and Trowbridge are clearly attracted to each other. Sadly, they come from very different social stations and Trowbridge's work keeps him moving around, so there are Obstacles. 
It's a fun, compelling relationship, but in the Will They Won't They of it all, history has clearly revealed that They Won't. What keeps me interested is the question of Why Not. Barron is too good a writer not to have thought this through, so I trust that she has a plan for the couple. And I'm along for the ride of learning what that plan is.
Not that Wandering Eye gives any clues about that, which is what affects my enjoyment of the story some. It's only Trowbridge's second appearance, so the goal of the book (as far their relationship is concerned) is to push them back together and make us dig them as a potential couple. Which it does. I'm just impatient for more.
As for the mystery itself, it's good, but the backdrop of Bath's theatre community can't compare with the ghosts and pirates of the first two novels.

Jane and the Wandering Eye

This was a fun book to revisit after finally getting to see Bath myself a few years ago. 
It's not my favorite in the series, mostly I think because of the Will They Won't They between Jane and a character named Lord Harold Trowbridge. Barron is great at bringing Austen's historical family and acquaintances to life, but Trowbridge is rare for the series in that he's a recurring character created entirely by Barron herself. And he's great.
He was introduced in the first Austen mystery as a potential suspect in the murder, a gentleman rogue who both infuriates and intrigues Austen. At least at first. When all is revealed, she's more intrigued than infuriated.
He mostly sits out the second book, but makes a full, welcome return in this one. We know enough about him now that we also know he's going to be an ally in Austen's investigation, but Barron reintroduces tension by showing that Austen and Trowbridge are clearly attracted to each other. Sadly, they come from very different social stations and Trowbridge's work keeps him moving around, so there are Obstacles. 
It's a fun, compelling relationship, but in the Will They Won't They of it all, history has clearly revealed that They Won't. What keeps me interested is the question of Why Not. Barron is too good a writer not to have thought this through, so I trust that she has a plan for the couple. And I'm along for the ride of learning what that plan is.
Not that Wandering Eye gives any clues about that, which is what affects my enjoyment of the story some. It's only Trowbridge's second appearance, so the goal of the book (as far their relationship is concerned) is to push them back together and make us dig them as a potential couple. Which it does. I'm just impatient for more.
As for the mystery itself, it's good, but the backdrop of Bath's theatre community can't compare with the ghosts and pirates of the first two novels.

Jane and the Man of the Cloth by Stephanie Barron

Jane Austen's second mystery has her vacationing with her family in the seaside village of Lyme. The town is famous for its harbor wall called the Cobb, which Austen included in her novel Persuasion (though it will be a long time before this fictional version of Austen writes that book). The Cobb is also an important feature in The Man of the Cloth since that's where the first dead body is found. Austen of course takes an interest in the murder (for good reasons that I won't spoil here) and begins to look into it.
I like the setting of the previous mystery a little more with its old manor house, but Lyme is quaint and located near dramatic cliffs, so I enjoy spending time there too. The mystery is good with lots of characters to explore and unravel and I love the element of a mysterious red-cloaked girl wandering the sea cliffs with a lantern.

Jane and the Man of the Cloth

Jane Austen's second mystery has her vacationing with her family in the seaside village of Lyme. The town is famous for its harbor wall called the Cobb, which Austen included in her novel Persuasion (though it will be a long time before this fictional version of Austen writes that book). The Cobb is also an important feature in The Man of the Cloth since that's where the first dead body is found. Austen of course takes an interest in the murder (for good reasons that I won't spoil here) and begins to look into it.
I like the setting of the previous mystery a little more with its old manor house, but Lyme is quaint and located near dramatic cliffs, so I enjoy spending time there too. The mystery is good with lots of characters to explore and unravel and I love the element of a mysterious red-cloaked girl wandering the sea cliffs with a lantern.

Jane and the Unpleasantness at Scargrave Manor by Stephanie Barron

I've re-read this several times, but recently did it again in order to catch up to the rest of the series (which I'll also jot some notes about here in yet another attempt to figure out what to do with this blog).

I love the series. I've always known who Jane Austen was and what she wrote, but it was Stephanie Barron (a pen-name for Francine Mathews) who introduced me to Austen as a human being who happened to also write several classic novels. Her Austen is observant, smart, and funny. The mysteries tend to be spooky, but even when they aren't, they're compelling. Barron includes great details to bring the historical period to life and has created a fantastic cast of supporting characters (some based on real people, but not all) who follow Jane from book to book. 

This one picks up right after Jane has rejected a marriage proposal. It would have been a good match for practical purposes, but she didn't love him. Her decision created some drama in the family and community, so in this novel she escapes to stay with a recently married friend and her husband. And when the husband dies under suspicious circumstances and people start looking side-eyed at Jane's friend, Jane takes it on herself to find out what really happened. 

And there may be a family ghost involved.

The story tends to drag a little for me in the middle these days, but I think that's because I'm so familiar with it that I'm eager to get to the final revelations at the end. It certainly didn't feel slow the first time I read it.