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Jane Austen Mysteries #14
May 1816: Jane Austen is feeling unwell, with an uneasy stomach, constant fatigue, rashes, fevers and aches. She attributes her poor condition to the stress of family burdens, which even the drafting of her latest manuscript - about a baronet's daughter nursing a broken heart for a daring naval captain - cannot alleviate.
Her apothecary recommends a trial of the curative waters at Cheltenham Spa, in Gloucestershire. Jane decides to use some of the profits earned from her last novel, Emma, and treat herself to a period of rest and reflection at the spa, in the company of her sister, Cassandra.
Cheltenham Spa hardly turns out to be the relaxing sojourn Jane and Cassandra envisaged, however. It is immediately obvious that other boarders at the guest house where the Misses Austen are staying have come to Cheltenham with stresses of their own—some of them deadly. But perhaps with Jane's interference a terrible crime might be prevented. Set during the Year without a Summer, when the eruption of Mount Tambora in the South Pacific caused a volcanic winter that shrouded the entire planet for sixteen months, this fourteenth installment in Stephanie Barron's critically acclaimed series brings a forgotten moment of Regency history to life.
"[O]utstanding...The Austen family's financial constraints and Jane's own failing health add verisimilitude to this taut, sometimes perplexing tale of lost opportunity and unfulfilled aspirations. Barron fans will hope Jane, who died in 1817, will be back for one more mystery." - Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Full marks for background, plotting, and voice—though fans should know that this 13th case is darker than Jane's first 12." - Kirkus Reviews
"Absolutely charming, and one of the best among [Stephanie Barron's] prolific list of Jane Austen mysteries." - The Denver Post
"I [choose] to recommend Stephanie Barron's most excellent Jane and the Year Without a Summer. Good reader, it will both charm and dazzle you. Closet yourself in your chamber undisturbed, for the story—fraught with poisoning, abduction, and murder—has unfathomed depths worthy of the esteemed Miss Jane Austen herself. Well done, Miss Barron! Your writing is unrivaled in its wit and veracity. Miss Austen instructs there is happiness in serving others, and I mean to follow her example forthwith by informing you that Miss Barron writes with a mighty quill." - Sandra Dallas, New York Times bestselling author
"Stephanie Barron has done it again. It's no mean feat to recreate the world and tone of Jane Austen—while also writing a thoroughly engaging and entertaining mystery! But Stephanie Barron pulls it off with a wry wit and an ease of manner reminiscent of Austen herself. If you haven't read these books yet, go back, start at the beginning, brew a very large pot of tea, and prepare to be thoroughly diverted." - Lauren Willig, New York Times bestselling author of Band of Sisters
"No one conjures Austen's voice like Stephanie Barron, and Jane and the Year Without a Summer is utterly pitch-perfect. The only way Barron could write Austen more convincingly is with a Ouija board. From the exquisite period detail to the uniquely Austenian turns of phrase, this series is a must-read for all Janeites." - Deanna Raybourn, New York Times bestselling author of the Veronica Speedwell mysteries
This information about Jane and the Year Without a Summer was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Stephanie Barron is the author of the standalone historical suspense novels A Flaw in the Blood and The White Garden, as well as the Jane Austen mystery series. As Francine Mathews, she is the author of several novels of espionage, including The Alibi Club. She lives in Denver, Colorado.
If you liked Jane and the Year Without a Summer, try these:
by Mary Lawson
Published 2022
Mary Lawson is back after almost a decade with a fresh and timely novel that is different in subject but just as emotional and atmospheric as her beloved earlier work.
by Gill Hornby
Published 2021
For fans of Jo Baker's Longbourn, a witty, poignant novel about Cassandra Austen and her famous sister, Jane.
by Francesca Hornak
Published 2018
A warm, wry, sharply observed debut novel about what happens when a family is forced to spend a week together in quarantine over the holidays...
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