Jane and the Stillroom Maid: Being the Fifth Jane Austen Mystery

I have enjoyed all of the Jane Austen and...mystery books. The novels are witty, exciting, and true to Jane Austen. There is sly humor and a depth of character (main characters) that is truly engaging. This book sent me back to Pride and Prejudice with a new perspective, and was a terrific mystery in its own right.

In the great houses of England, many of which were somewhat isolated and therefore at least somewhat self-contained, the Stillroom maid was a sort of combination lay-apothecary and general medical practitioner. According to the medical rules of the time, that is. Her strength was in the knowledge and use of herbs and other assorted items that could be blended together to cure--or at least treat--nearly every ailment known to man. If the medicaments as put forth at the beginning of each chapter of this book are as factual as stated by the author, I confess to surprise that not more of the Stillroom maids were cruelly murdered. Many of them were accused--rightly or wrongly--of witchcraft.Of course, Tess Arnold was a bit more than just Stillroom maid to the household in which she was employed. Just how much more, became the problem facing Jane Austen in this, her fifth crime to solve. Jane, after all, had come across the mutilated body of the young person, dressed in gentleman's evening clothes, and with a bullet hole in the middle of his forehead. Imagine the surprise of everyone--including Jane--when the local coroner identified the corpse as not a young man, but--the Stillroom maid from Penfolds Hall.Jane, her sister Cassandra and their mother, in the company of Edwin Cooper, the nephew of Mrs. Austen, and a vicar (who was clearly the model for Mr. Collins) visit Derbyshire in company with George Hemming, a gentleman friend of Edwin. The two gentlemen and Jane had gone trout fishing in the dales, providing the opportunity for Jane to have a little commune with nature, but resulting instead in the horrid discovery of the body.Jane's 'Gentleman Rogue' Lord Harold has been invited to nearby Chatsworth (and model for Pemberly) the home of the Duke of Devonshire, some few months after the death of the first Duchess, Georgiana. The family has been devastated by the death of their leader, and are now trying to find their way again, when the surrounding area becomes inflamed by the death of Tess. Of course, it is the powerful Whigs who come under the most suspicion, as many of them are also members of the FreeMasons, an organization looked upon with much skepticism by the townsfolk. There are twists aplenty before Jane puts all the pieces together and provides a solution, but not until after another death. It was The Stillroom Book, as kept by Tess Arnold that finally provided the necessary information for the Justice to secure his prisoner. In the end, however, Jane and Lord Harold must once again say good-bye, and we are left to hope they will meet again, thus providing us with further adventures.

This is the darkest and best of Stephanie Barron's Jane Austen mysteries. I think Ms Barron has finally pinned down Jane Austen's voice. I was not too impressed with the first two books in the series ("Jane And The Unpleasantness At Scargrave Manor" & "Jane And The Man Of The Cloth"), thinking that the Jane Austen in those two books bore very little resemblence to the Jane Austen we all know and love; but with this last novel, Stephanie Barron has the Austen voice nailed! And what a dark mystery!! Even though you'll be able to guess who the real culprit is rather early on, there is still a few twists to the plot to make the book very enjoyable. The glimpses of history, politics and the goings-on of the Devonshire House in early 1800 England only add to the novel. (And there are several descriptions of the Derbyshire countryside and certain characters that Jane Austen fans will not fail to recognise). I particularly enjoyed Jane's reflections on the many differences between the Tories and the Whigs. This book is a winner and I'm eagerly looking forward to the next installment in the Jane Austen mysteries.

Stephanie Barron has put it together. Jane Austen makes an intriguing character and, in this mystery, she gets to stretch herself to the limit. A maid is found dressed as a man, murdered and, apparently, ritually mutilated. The local nobility are the suspects and Austen must prevent injustice.Barron gives an authentic regency feel. Austen speaks and acts like one of her characters. She accepts the confines of the regency attitudes toward women, yet adapts those confines to her needs to the point where they don't constrain her. I especially enjoyed the ongoing romantic tension between Austen and Lord Harold--a tension that is made ever more telling by the very Austen-like ambitions of Jane's mother.

I eagerly anticipated this latest volume from Stephanie Barron and I was not disappointed. Barron has created a very believable Jane - and in this case her mother and sister as well. The premise of the story is not strained and set in context of what is known of Jane Austen's life by the 'Editor's Note' at the beginning of the story. Derbyshire, the setting of the story, is described by Elizabeth Bennet in 'Pride and Prejudice'. I love the way Barron has included charaters that could easily be part of an Austen novel, for example, Jane's singing clergyman cousin, Mr. Cooper, who continually talks of his patron. We meet Lord Harold Towbridge again, as well as the Duke of Devonshire and his family, in mourning over the death of the famous Georgiana Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire. The local characters Jane meets while trying to solve the murder of the stillroom maid, Tess Arnold, are described well and fit the town of Bakewell very well. All in all, an excellent book for both mystery lovers and Jane Austen fans. In some ways it is better than any of the 'sequels' that have been written to Austen's novels, I guess because it fits with my ideas about what Jane Austen must have been like. One further point, I would suggest these books to teenagers who might be reluctant to read Jane Austen. The mystery will draw them in and they will quickly learn to enjoy the characters and wit of the story, which as I said, are very much like an Austen novel.