Jane and the Barque of Frailty

Jane Austen Mysteries #9

by Stephanie Barron

In her latest spellbinding escapade, Jane Austen arrives in London to watch over the printing of her first novel, and finds herself embroiled in a crime that could end more than her career. For it is up to Jane to tease a murderer out of the ton, lest she--and her country--suffer a dastardly demise....
On the heels of completing Sense and Sensibility, Jane heads to Sloane Street for a monthlong visit with her brother Henry and his wife, Eliza. Hobnobbing with the Fashionable Great at the height of the Season, Jane is well aware of their secrets and peccadilloes. But even she is surprised when the intimate correspondence between a Russian princess and a prominent Tory minister is published in the papers for all to see. More shocking, the disgraced beauty is soon found with her throat slit on Lord Castlereagh's very doorstep.
Everyone who's anyone in high society is certain the spurned princess committed the violence upon herself. But Jane is unconvinced. Nor does she believe the minister guilty of so grisly and public a crime. Jane, however, is willing to let someone else investigate--until a quirk of fate thrusts her and Eliza into the heart of the case...as prime suspects!
Striking a bargain with the authorities, Jane secures seven days to save herself and Eliza from hanging. But as her quest to unmask a killer takes her from the halls of government to the drawing rooms of London's most celebrated courtesan, only one thing is sure: her failure will not only cut short her life. It could lead to England's downfall. A compulsively readable, uncommonly elegant novel of historical suspense, Jane and the Barque of Frailty once again proves Jane Austen a sleuth to be reckoned with. "From the Hardcover edition."

Genres: Mystery, Historical Fiction, Historical, Historical Mystery, Fiction, Regency, British Literature

304 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2006

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

Stephanie Barron was born Francine Stephanie Barron in Binghamton, NY in 1963, the last of six girls. Her father was a retired general in the Air Force, her mother a beautiful woman who loved to dance. The family spent their summers on Cape Cod, where two of the Barron girls now live with their families; Francine's passion for Nantucket and the New England shoreline dates from her earliest memories. She grew up in Washington, D.C., and attended Georgetown Visitation Preparatory School, a two hundred year-old Catholic school for girls that shares a wall with Georgetown University. Her father died of a heart attack during her freshman year.

In 1981, she started college at Princeton – one of the most formative experiences of her life. There she fenced for the club varsity team and learned to write news stories for The Daily Princetonian – a hobby that led to two part-time jobs as a journalist for The Miami Herald and The San Jose Mercury News. Francine majored in European History, studying Napoleonic France, and won an Arthur W. Mellon Foundation Fellowship in the Humanities in her senior year. But the course she remembers most vividly from her time at Princeton is "The Literature of Fact," taught by John McPhee, the Pulitzer Prize winning author and staff writer for The New Yorker. John influenced Francine's writing more than even she knows and certainly more than she is able to say. If there were an altar erected to the man in Colorado, she'd place offerings there daily. He's her personal god of craft.

Francine spent three years at Stanford pursuing a doctorate in history; she failed to write her dissertation (on the Brazilian Bar Association under authoritarianism; can you blame her?) and left with a Masters. She applied to the CIA, spent a year temping in Northern Virginia while the FBI asked inconvenient questions of everyone she had ever known, passed a polygraph test on her twenty-sixth birthday, and was immediately thrown into the Career Trainee program: Boot Camp for the Agency's Best and Brightest. Four years as an intelligence analyst at the CIA were profoundly fulfilling, the highlights being Francine's work on the Counterterrorism Center's investigation into the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988, and sleeping on a horsehair mattress in a Spectre-era casino in the middle of Bratislava. Another peak moment was her chance to debrief ex-President George Bush in Houston in 1993. But what she remembers most about the place are the extraordinary intelligence and dedication of most of the staff – many of them women – many of whom cannot be named.

She wrote her first book in 1992 and left the Agency a year later. Fifteen books have followed, along with sundry children, dogs, and houses. When she's not writing, she likes to ski, garden, needlepoint, and buy art. Her phone number is definitely unlisted.

Reviews

[Laurel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Here we are at the ninth novel in the Being a Jane Austen Mystery series, Stephanie Barron’s sagacious slant on “our dear Jane” as a sleuth!

The spring of 1811 finds Jane in London staying with her banker-brother Henry Austen and his sophisticated wife Eliza at their residence on Sloane Street preparing her first novel, Sense and Sensibility, for publication. While attending a performance of Macbeth at the Theatre Royal at Covent Garden, it is difficult to determine who is the bigger draw to the audience; the esteemed actress Mrs. Siddons on stage, or the beautiful Russian Princess Evegenia Tscholikova in a box. That very week, her private letters to her married lover Lord Castlereagh had been published in a London paper for all to read. Such a shocking scandal for a Tory Minister is sure to have serious repercussions, but finding the lifeless body of the Princess strewn across the his front steps the next morning with her throat cut should not be one of them. Jane and Eliza are shocked, but certain that it is not the suicide that the paper reports.

Confident that the coroner’s inquest will disclose the truth, Jane and Eliza soon learn that they are the prime suspects in the murder after attempting to help the Comtesse d’ Entraigues discreetly sell her jewels. This act of kindness for Eliza’s friend places them in an incriminating position. The authorities disclose that the jewels belong to the dead Russian Princess and not the Comtesse. Why were Eliza and Jane set up? Who is benefitting from the Princesses death? How will they save themselves from the gallows?

Jane negotiates a seven day reprieve to discover the truth and begins the investigation through London’s fashionable Ton, dubious politicians, and their intimate circle of powerful women – the Barque of Frailty.

For those of you not in the know on Regency era colloquialisms, in common cant, Barque of Frailty is a woman of easy virtue, a mistress, or a prostitute. There are interesting “fallen women” who factor into this story, including the infamous Society supplicant Harriette Wilson, and the one hit wonder Julia Radcliffe. Harriette was a real “demi-rep” (woman of ill repute) who kept important statesmen tucked in her décolleté like a favorite scented lace hanky. Julia is fictitious, but cut from the same cloth.

Not far from these highly desirable “light skirts” are the men of the Beau Monde (fashionable society) and government circling their flame: Emmanuel, Comte d’Entraigues, Francis Edward Rawdon-Hastings, Earl of Moria, Charles Malverley, George Canning, and Robert, Lord Castlereagh to name a few, and there are many to remember in this tale of political intrigue, and passions spent and spurned.

Jane and Eliza are the key players through the political subterfuge and romantic dalliances in deducing the mystery. Some of their exploits require a total suspension of disbelief for a clergyman’s daughter and a bankers wife. However, this adventuresome energy swiftly glides you through a masterful story that at times, reminded me of a Georgette Heyer novel. But, in due deference to Ms. Barron’s skill as a mystery novelist, every time I hear the name Freddy, and there is a Freddy Ponsonby in this tale, it reminds me of Freddy Standen in Cotillion!

As we have continued through this series we have sleuthed with Jane in the country, by the sea-side, and in Town. I think I enjoy her temperament more in these novels away from London. I have always thought she preferred the county to Town. When visiting London in 1796, she wrote to her sister Cassandra, “Here I am once more in this Scene of Dissipation & Vice, and I begin already to find my Morals corrupted.” In her novels bad things seem to happen to characters in London. Marianne gets jilted by Willoughby there in Sense and Sensibility, the married Maria Rushworth cheats on hubby with Henry Crawford and runs away with him in Mansfield Park, silly, selfish Lydia Bennet elopes with Wickham, doesn’t marry, and lives with him in sin there in Pride and Prejudice, and Mr. Knightley escapes Highbury to Town to forget Miss Woodhouse in Emma!

Is Jane trying to tell us something? In Jane and the Barque of Frailty, we certainly meet with Dissipation & Vice. If a bath by fire is redemption for the reader after 235 pages of the dark underworld of “muslin company,” then the final decadent scene set at the Cyprians Ball, an anti-Almacks soiree for the “high-water courtesans” and their entourage of moths, is a refreshing denouement. Jane (thirty-five year old spinster and country girl) and her sister-in-law Eliza (outrageous flirt and party girl) gain entrance for a scandalous subterfuge as masked “ladies of the night” to assemble all the key players into one room for the final show down. After the shocking conclusion, the mystery is solved, but the words used to describe those ladies who lived off their looks and charms are still rolling through my head…doxy, cunning jade, bird of paradise, celebrated Impure, Paphiana and trollop. Like Jane, I am glad I live in the country.

Laurel Ann, Austenprose

[Kailey (Luminous Libro) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jane Austen is visiting her brother and sister-in-law in London, when a foreign princess is murdered. Jane is accused of being involved, and she starts her own investigation to find the real killer. A "barque of frailty" is a polite society term for a prostitute, and Jane discovers that one such woman highly-placed in society might hold a clue to the murder.

I liked this murder mystery, and the history behind it. There is quite a lot of real history woven into the story with Jane's family and her acquaintances, but of course the murder mystery and Jane's involvement in the investigation are entirely fictional.

I enjoyed seeing more of Jane's brothers and their sibling relationships. Jane also has a lot of sweet scenes with her sister-in-law, Eliza, that shows how close they were. It was lovely to see how Jane cares so much for her family, but they also exasperate her at times.

I love the formal writing style that mimics the Regency era language. The dialogue is fairly close to what a real conversation might have been like in that time period. It really immerses you in the history.

[Cheryl · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had never encountered this series before with its conceit of Jane Austen as Regency detective writing autobiographical accounts of her cases and Stephanie Barron editing those manuscripts with historical annotations. The library only had volumes well into the series, so I had to take #9 rather than starting at the beginning. But I was mightily impressed and diverted by it all the same. Barron has a splendid ability to take the copious historical material about Austen's life and family and the physical, political and social background of that time period and insert fiction into the ellipses. She throws down the gauntlet to the reader to check her facts, with citations to ponderous biographies of contemporary politicians and references to Austen family correspondence. I'll take her knowledge of Whig politics and Napoleonic wine embargoes and bargain shopping at face value and let the facts build a lost time and place in my mind. This mystery was well done--with a lot of tangles and inevitable fallen women and lost jewels. One thing that was far-fetched--Jane could not possibly have had time to proofread the galleys of S&S as well as gallivanting around to such a round of errands and events! One rather wishes that all of it were true, however. Usually I'd give an entertaining mystery 4 stars, but given the interesting and convincingly true historical backdrop, I felt this had multilayered substance that lingered and rose to a higher level. Looking forward to reading the others.

[Samantha Adkins · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a real treat for fans of Jane Austen and mystery books alike. The Barque of Frailty is book nine in Barron’s Being A Jane Austen Mystery series. I wish I had started at the beginning, but I will certainly enjoy going back to the start.
Barron does a brilliant job of weaving together the facts of Austen’s life with her imagined world of political intrigue – her research is superb. Austen does not play a typical murder mystery detective, but rather uses her wit and imagination to get her and her family out of a troubling situation.
Like Austen’s books, Barron’s is filled with fascinating characters and clever dialogue. She does an excellent job of providing motive, mystery and mayhem for each character. I found the “solution” ending both inventive and perplexing.

[Georgiana 1792 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interessantissimo giallo storico in cui Stephanie Barron - ex agente della CIA - finge di essere la curatrice di alcuni diari segreti di Jane Austen ritrovati in una soffitta di una pro-pro-pronipite americana della scrittrice dello Hampshire. Siamo nell’aprile 1811, e Jane si trova a a Londra, ospite del fratello Henry e della cognata Eliza al numero 64 di Sloane Street, e sta revisionando Sense and Sensibility in previsione della pubblicazione (che avverrà solo a fine ottobre dello stesso anno).
No davvero, non sono mai troppo occupata da non pensare a S&S. Non posso scordarmelo, più di quanto una madre possa scordarsi di allattare un figlio; e ti sono molto grata per il tuo interessamento. Ho ricevuto due fogli da correggere, ma l'ultimo ci conduce solo alla prima apparizione di Willoughby. Mrs K. si rammarica in maniera molto lusinghiera di dover aspettare fino a maggio, ma io a malapena spero che esca a giugno. - Henry non lo trascura; ha sollecitato il Tipografo, e dice che lo vedrà di nuovo domani. - Il lavoro non si fermerà durante la sua assenza, sarà mandato a Eliza.
Intanto a Londra scoppiano continui scandali, come la pubblicazione di alcune lettere d'amore che coinvolgono Lord Castlereagh (la cui vita in realtà non fu certo priva di scandali) e la successiva morte dell'autrice di tali lettere, la principessa russa, Evgenia Tscholikova, davanti alla sua porta. Come al solito, Jane vorrà indagare, e si troverà ad aggirarsi non solo in affari di politica estera e di spionaggio, ma anche nel demi-monde delle cortigiane (The Barque of Frailty, la barca della fragilità del titolo è uno dei tanti eufemismi con cui venivano chiamate le cortigiane in periodo Regency), dei festini demirep (di dubbia reputazione) che si contrapponevano al Marriage Mart, il "mercato matrimoniale" che si svolgeva ogni mercoledì ad Almack's.
E, a prescindere dalla credibilità di una Jane Austen che indaga in ambienti simili, c'è la meravigliosa figura di Julia Radcliffe, la Barque of Frailty che, abbandonata dalla famiglia dopo essere stata violentata più volte da un cugino (che si rifiuta - giustamente - di sposare) e aver partorito un figlio, intraprende grazie alla propria bellezza la carriera di cortigiana per non morire di fame; e adesso che è ormai benestante e ricercata da numerosi uomini, continua a rifiutare matrimoni convenienti e nobili per preservare la propria indipendenza. Magnifica quando rivolge al proprio stupratore un netto rifiuto molto simile a quello che Elizabeth Bennet rivolge a Mr. Darcy dopo la prima disastrosa proposta di matrimonio.
You have insulted me in every possible way, from the very first moment of our acquaintance.

Potete trovare la recensione completa QUI:
https://ildiariodellelizzies.blogspot...

[Ivonne Rovira · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jane Austen has a rare stroke of luck when her visit to her publisher and her banker brother Henry coincide with the 1811 London season. During her stay with Henry and his fun, if impractical, wife Eliza, a Russian princess ends up dead, her throat slit, on the doorstep of a former Tory Cabinet minister. When Princess Evgenia Tscholikova’s death is ruled a suicide, neither Jane nor some in the late Lord Harold Trowbridge’s circle believe it. (Lord Harold was Jane’s secret love for most of this series, with this volume being the ninth.)

As usual, I adored the cleverly plotted mystery. And, as usual, Stephanie Barron peppers her meticulously researched novel with real-life Regency characters: enemies Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh, and George Canning really were as depicted. Francis Rawdon Hastings (first Second Earl of Moira and later First Marquess of Hastings), the saucy Cyprian (that’s high-class prostitute to we Great Unwashed) Harriette Wilson, Comte Emmanuel d’Antraigues (although here spelt d’Entraigues), and, of course, the corpulent, spendthrift and womanizing Prince of Wales all really existed. But Barron never lets her history lesson bog down the plot, and I enjoyed every page as much as Jane enjoyed her time in London.

[Lollyletsgo · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was so nice to read Ms. Barron's fictional Jane Austen. Even the verbiage used choose becomes chuse and so on. And the mystery was equally fun as well. The book itself touching on repressed societies and how they deal with sex (all different variations), and the backward assumptions therein.

[Richard Rogers · Rating 5 out of 5]

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.

[Anne (Booklady) Molinarolo · Rating 3 out of 5]

A unique idea using a much beloved Jane Austen as a sleuth! Ms. Barron successfully imitates the vernacular of 19th century England as Jane narrates the story of the suspicious death of Russian Princess Evgenia Tshoikova. However, this historical tale has some incredulous moments, but overall is a sweet cozy mystery for Austen fans.

At the height of 1811 Season, Jane Austen is in London supervising the publication of Sense and Sensibility and scandal has the ton (High Society) in uproar. A Russian Princess’ shocking love letters to Lord Castlereagh appears in the newspaper and everyone, including Jane, notes the Russian beauty’s intense stares into the Tory Minister’s theatre box. Jane and her sister in law are shocked to read in the morning paper that Princess Evgenia was found dead with her throat slit on the minister’s doorstep shortly after the performance. The wagging tongues of the ton are convinced that it was self murder, but Jane is not so convinced. She is sure that the inquest will flesh out her suspicions, but when the Bow Street Runners call at Sloane Street, Jane is thrust into the investigation to save Eliza and herself from the gallows!

The Runners reluctantly give the Austen women one week to prove they didn’t pinch the dead beauty’s jewels and murder her. Eliza is horrified that her friend Comtesse d’Entraigues tried to pass off the jewels as her own for the authoress to sell to cover her friend’s own scandal. But Jane knows the dark underbelly on the ton and elicits help from a Braque of fragility (high society prostitute) to save her clan and some members of the Court.

[Kristen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was prejudiced against this novel because of its conceit - Jane Austen, Regency-era authoress, as heroine of mystery novels? But it was inexpensive and a possible item to review for The Primgraph, so I picked it up. And I must confess myself charmed, and not a little drawn in to the delicately archaic style of the writing. The novel is intelligent and steeped in history (complete with the occasional helpful footnote!) and I shall have to look up more of them. I am not certain whether this was the fourth or fifth of the series. The plot of this one is complex, involving the murder of a Russian princess, various persons of high status, purloined jewels, and the parallel world of the demimondaines of London. I can't say much more about it without having to explain in a lot of detail! But best of all, this series means I can get a good dose of Regency-ness without having to read a lot of romance novels!

[bluerose · Rating 5 out of 5]

I recently read Wild For Austen and one of the chapters focused on her connection to a real-life spy. It also mentioned in the footnote that one of the Jane Austen mysteries focused on this and since I love and own the entire series it seemed like the perfect time to revisit this particular installment. Imagine my delight at (re)reading this dedication: "This book is dedicated to the memory of Georgette Heyer, in thanks for all the hours of pleasure her books have given me." The first time I read it I had no idea who Georgette Heyer was. Now, having burned through nearly all of her fifty-plus novels at least once, attended an online Heyer conference, and considering her one of my favorite authors, I was absolutely delighted to pick out each and every turn of phrase dropped in homage (especially the mentions of Beau Brummell, my historical crush). I thoroughly enjoyed this reread.

[Annie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm thoroughly enjoying solving crimes with Jane. This time we're in London!

Rereading for #JaneAndTheExcellentReadalong and I had forgotten what a Braque of Frailty was. "High Flyers, Fair Cyprians, Birds of Paradise, Snug Armfuls, Barques of Frailty, Demi-reps. These were not the common women of the streets, but mistresses of the highest order, who lived under the protection of a variety of swains to whom they offered a fidelity commensurate with the quantity of gold laid out to secure it."



🎧📖✴️ I love the narrator of this series Kate Reading. But in this book it sounds as if she is recovering from a cold. Jane sounds a bit off. I found myself switching to Kindle for most of my reading.

[Nastja · Rating 1 out of 5]

Russian maid named Druschka, really? Druschka, my ass!
Why, oh why it's so hard to do a little tiny bitty research when writing about russians?

UPD. Oh, my. Her surname is Molova (Druschka, btw, is given as her full name). Feat. Prince Pirov and count Kronsky.
And another 'oh, my' - there's a dead russian princess with a surname that sounds like an american idea of russian language. But actually she is noble nobody, who appears ine the novel only to be killed ten pages later.
But nevertheless her coat of arms is the State Coat of Arms of The Russian Empire.
And even the fact that it was officially accepted in 1882 is not the funniest thing here.

[Jo · Rating 3 out of 5]

I haven't read from this series in a long time, but I remembered really liking it. I have to admit, I had a hard time getting into this one. Maybe it was this particular story, but it could also be that I've been disconnected from the characters long enough that I had to get back into their cadence. In this one, Jane is in London, living with her brother, proofing the galleys of Sense and Sensibility as it goes into print. I think she needed her own mental distraction AND she was at risk of being accused of the murder, so she looked into the suspicious death (ruled suicide) of a young princess. This book has all the good stuff: love, dishonor, and secret relationships. Consequently, once I got into it, it was exactly what I needed. Not as good as I remember the others in the series, but I'm glad to be back into them. After I'm through the library books that I have, I'll pick up another.

[Jane · Rating 5 out of 5]

This entire series is FAB! The ultimate reading for mystery readers who also adore Jane Austen and history. Barron entwines Jane in mysteries set in the exact location where Jane was at that time. Each mystery 'could' have occurred. The research into Jane's personal life, rules and habits of the time, real locations at that time, etc, make these books so realistic, and so enjoyable. Jane comes to life and showcases her superb mental faculties in these books.
Read them ALL--and in order!!!

I'm re-reading them again after a couple of years and it's just as enjoyable--almost more enjoyable than in the first reading. Pull up Google Maps while reading and zoom in on the real landscape, buildings, and cities. Much of where she lived and visited is still there--again one of the pleasures of the books, fitting into reality of Jane's life and time.

[Dennis Fischman · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a tale of high and low society, with the latter being far more glittery and resplendent. It is a story of spy vs. spy and of international intrigue as well as deadly rivalry among the Ministers at court in London. It's also another installment of Stephanie Barron's reimagined life of Jane Austen at the point where Sense and Sensibility is just about to be published.

Oh yes, and it's the investigation into the death of a Russian Princess. That's really the McGuffin that gets this whole adventure underway, and it's a sign of how much I enjoyed the book that even though it's not really clear whodunnit by the very end of the book, I forgave the author.

[Maj · Rating 5 out of 5]

Russian princesses (well, one), high class prostitutes, important politicians, and even a cameo appearance from Lord Harold's chest (no, sadly not that one, the letter-full one). Oh, and old Mr. Chizzlewit's dashing grandson, who might (or might not) be a wee bit shady.

Ah, London, Jane might not have missed you, but I certainly have. And sordid and seedy you are! Even, or especially among, the hypocritical "ton". There's just something about the historical urban hustle and bustle that just fascinates.

This is another 5/5 story: it shows in no uncertain terms how hard life could be even for the highest born women, without being heavy-handed about it. It punishes a rapist, it features an unusual female character (for this time period anyway), it reveals, quite matter-of-factly, that toxic masculinity most definitely existed...always, even in this so romanticised a period, and it never quite tells us whodunnit.

And it gets a special bonus point from me for letting Jane get herself confused for a prostitute at one point. Let's not get too deep about that bit, it's just incredibly funny.

[Becky · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed how dynamic this installment was, likely as a product of the London setting, her sister-in-law the Comtesse being a major character, and the constant gossip-mongering about the "ton". I liked the pacing of the mystery, the drama of Jane herself being accused, the very shocking reveal as to the ultimate culprit, and I thought the setting and Jane in the setting was well done. That said, the author's unhealthy fixation of synonyms for a courtesans caused me to knock off a full star. WE GET IT. Reading things like Snug Armful as a proper noun was just unbearable, along with the dozen other names described for these women of ill-repute. It was so obnoxious that is sticks out to me from this otherwise satisfying addition to the series.

[Sally · Rating 3 out of 5]

I admire the research that Stephanie Barron has done for these novels although sometimes I find the constant talk of muslins and the "ton" and the cut of a man's coat pretty tedious. In this one Jane is visiting brother Henry and his wife Eliza in London. A Russian princess is found murdered on the steps of a powerful man and it is assumed that she is a suicide, spurned after he cast her out. Not the case--or so Jane thinks. She makes alliance with a young barrister, Sylvester Chizzlewitt and masquerades as a lady of easy virtue, all in an effort to find out who is responsible for the princess's death. There is a lot about British politics, both Tory and Whig, as well as much talk of the "Monster," Bonaparte and whether some of the suspects have been spying for him.

[Marfita · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jane is finally about to be published and is in London proofing the galleys. This time she is distracted by the death of a Russian princess. It's pretty obvious to me to whom the princess was devoted, but did she kill herself or was she murdered? Jane's interest in the case is piqued when she is accused of the murder herself! Golly! Fortunately, there is no official police force at this time and Jane can hold her own against a surly Bow Street Runner. What she can't handle is the crush of the crowd at a discount store which sounds suspiciously like Walmart on Black Friday.
Still good fun and lively period detail!

[Rachel N. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jane Austen is in London, staying with her brother Henry and his wife Eliza, to supervise the printing of Sense and Sensibility. A Russian princess is found dead and Jane and Eliza unwittingly end up trying to sell the princesses jewels. They are then accused of murder and given a week to exonerate themselves of the crime. It has been several years since I read this series but I don't remember the previous books containing so much politics. There were a lot of characters and I found it hard to keep everyone straight. The case was very easy to solve. I do like the authors take on Jane and think she does a good job writing in the style of the time. I do plan to continue the series.

[Amy Tolle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jane Austen was, in my opinion, one of the greatest (if not THE greatest) novelists of all time. So, when a modern day author decides to make Jane Austen a character in a series of mystery novels, one questions whether that's a good idea. In Stephanie Barron's hands, it is a good idea. I found "Jane and the Barque of Frailty" to be interesting and humorous, by turns. Barron perfectly captures the language and nuances of Regency England and bases many of her characters on real historical figures. I love the historical annotations in this novel. Barron really does her research! I will definitely be reading the rest of the series!

[Maureen · Rating 5 out of 5]

great series and this one didn’t disappoint

I like the idea that Jane Austen might have solved mysteries in her real life. I enjoy that the author includes real details of people and places that existed in the times and places she writes about. She never has Jane anywhere she wouldn’t possibly have been. She shows that Jane had a good mind and would have been able to do some of the things that she does in the series, despite them being “unlady like” for the time. Overall, I enjoy all the characters and I always look forward to seeing how Jane is coping with the loss of Lord Harold.

[Chris Eirschele · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jane and the Barque of Fraility written by Stephanie Barron is part of the author's series, Jane Austen Mystery. This book was originally published in 2006.

It is 1811, just as Jane's Sense and Sensibility was being published. She is visiting her brother Henry and his wife Eliza.

Among the surprises in town, a Russian princess is found with her throat cut. A murder to be solved is not the only terrible mystery, as the story abounds with spies.

The tale is complicated, but I found it interesting. I recommend reading to the end, including the Author's Notes, before deciding if you liked the book.

[A.R. Silverberry]

I love this series. This one was a little slower in the beginning, but once it got going, it was good. Lots of twists, turns, and things I didn't see coming. And Barron is meticulous in her research, bringing London of the time to life, everything from colloquial expressions to political intrigue. She has captured Jane's voice, or at least how I imagine it, which is no small feat.

I felt bad for the author, as the publisher did a wretched job proofreading and preparing the digital edition. The errors were distracting and frequently made reading it confusing.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favorites in the series, maybe just behind the first one. It opens with a shocking murder that grabbed me. Jane is curious about it at first (as usual for the series), but then gets pulled into the investigation in an unexpected, personal way. It's not often she has such personal stakes in these things and that was effective.

I gave it five stars, but that's rounding up from 4.75. There's some ambiguity around the end that bothers me. Jane gets her killer, but the person insists on their innocence and that lack of complete closure is just a bit unsettling.

[Alethea · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have a fan of Barron's JA mysteries since the first moment I discovered them. It does a soul good to pretend to a little more intimacy with a favorite author who left the world too early. This novel was just as captivating as the others. These mysteries always serve to educate me a little more on the Regency and Tories/Whigs, etc. A little historical learning coupled with a novel's intrigues is always beneficial.

[Sydney · Rating 4 out of 5]

The plot to this detective story featuring Jane Austen seemed to me a bit more strained than others. And, somehow, the return to London society wasn't as enjoyable, either for the reader or for the plot, as having Jane in the countryside. However, we do get to anticipate, with Jane, the publication of Sense and Sensibility. That will change her life. And reminded me of the joy of my first reading of a Jane Austen novel.

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Anyone who has a love for Jane Austen will enjoy it as well. The author seamlessly weaves a new and unique mystery in with the novels of Jane Austen, and at the end the readers are to learn I want character of this book turned into a character of a real Jane Austen book. Very enjoyable

[Tara · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is another interesting mystery in the series. One of the things I really enjoy in this series is the historical events that the mysteries are based on. I know very little of British history, so it’s fun to learn a little about the political climate of an age I read about all the time. I also love learning more about the Austens themselves.