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.
After a six year hiatus, fans of Stephanie Barron’s Jane Austen mystery series have been given another volume in this delightful collection of fictional tales featuring the esteemed Regency author. The fourteenth title in the collection is Jane and the Year Without a Summer. As mentioned in the above description of the novel, the “year without a summer” includes 1816, which harbored dour weather conditions due to the eruption of Mount Tambora the year before. This is not an indication of a somber storyline in any way, although clear acknowledgements of Austen’s deteriorating physical condition are included, as history records that she died in 1817, about a year after the events of this particular fictional tale.
Jane and the Year Without a Summer is set between May 20th and June 10th of 1816 and based on the actual holiday that Jane took with her sister Cassandra to Cheltenham Spa. Fiction comes into play when a murder is committed, and the intrepid Jane is once again bent on solving the mystery of the identity of the killer. Author Stephanie Barron has chosen to front-load the novel with most of the content occurring before the crime is committed. Readers will encounter quite a few suspects, and many clues are planted well before any nefarious actions are taken. As such, the last fourth of the novel moves at quite a brisk pace, as pieces of the puzzle are put together by Miss Austen, and even further excitement ensues. There is also a nice touch of romance between two characters that carries the tension of unrequited love that Austen expressed so deftly in her novels as well.
My only difficulty with Jane and the Year Without a Summer came in the cast of characters. Several of them go by multiple names, such as their married/Christian names as well as their “titled” names, such as "Lord" or "Lady". As a result I sometimes had trouble remembering which person was which. This is a minor issue, as the most important individuals in the story were clear-cut in my mind and easy to recall.
From a content standpoint Barron keeps things very family-friendly, with little to no colorful language throughout and a scarce amount of material that would even venture towards being “adult”. Her research into the time period is impeccable, as she includes facts from Regency England that are enjoyable as well as educational. Occasionally footnotes are included to explain historical issues that some may not be familiar with. Vocabulary of the era is often utilized, and every now and again winks to actual Austen quotes pop up in the writing, such as, “The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a novel, must be intolerably stupid.”
Once again Stephanie Barron has brought to her readership a brisk, delightful murder mystery featuring a fictionalized version of the very real Jane Austen. As Jane and the Year Without a Summer concludes about a year before Jane’s actual death, I am holding out hope that Barron has a few more titles to add to the Being a Jane Austen Mystery series. Much can happen in a year of the life of our intrepid sleuth. Perhaps she still has an adventure or two remaining up her sleeve…
AUTHOR BIO
Francine Mathews was born in Binghamton, New York, the last of six girls. She attended Princeton and Stanford Universities, where she studied history, before going on to work as an intelligence analyst at the CIA. She wrote her first book in 1992 and left the Agency a year later. Since then, she has written twenty-five books, including five novels in the Merry Folger series (Death in the Off-Season, Death in Rough Water, Death in a Mood Indigo, Death in a Cold Hard Light, and Death on Nantucket) as well as the nationally bestselling Being a Jane Austen mystery series, which she writes under the penname, Stephanie Barron. She lives and works in Denver, Colorado.
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Thanks for sharing your thoughts, Laura. I always enjoy how Barron blends actual events from Austen's life into the story. Her research on the times is great too. Like you, I am looking forward to the final book in the series. Best, LA
ReplyDeleteLaurel Ann: Later on I saw a comment on Instagram indicating that this won't be the last title in the series, but I didn't realize there would ONLY be one more. I guess that makes sense-- in the timeline of the books, there's only one more year left in the life of our heroine. Oh well... I'm very grateful we have been given more, in any case!
DeleteYes, Laura, one more book in the series. It will be a sad end for all.
ReplyDelete