MISS AUSTEN INVESTIGATES

Murder rattles the close-knit Austen family.

The winter before she turns 20 seems promising for young Jane Austen. Her flirtation with Irish law student Tom Lefroy has grown more serious, and she hopes the announcement of Jonathan Harcourt’s betrothal to Sophy Rivers, which she anticipates hearing at the Harcourts’ ball, will prompt young Tom to ask for her hand. But the festivities end abruptly when a chambermaid finds the body of a young woman stashed in a laundry closet. The late Madame Renault, a merchant from overseas who sold hats in the Basingstoke market, was clearly killed by a blow to the head. But it’s much less clear who wielded the heavy metal pan. At Lord Harcourt’s urging, Magistrate Richard Craven first blames vagabonds living on the Harcourt estate. When no vagrants are found, Craven’s eyes shift toward George Austen, Jane’s intellectually disabled older brother. Georgy’s come into possession of a gold and seed pearl chain belonging to Madame Renault, and even though Craven knows that the nonverbal young man is an unlikely killer, he charges him with grand larceny, a capital crime. The Austens can’t decide which fate would be worst for Georgy: allowing him to plead not guilty by reason of insanity, a plea that would consign him to an asylum for the rest of his life; throwing him on the mercy of the court in hope that he’d be transported to Australia, where he would certainly be unable to care for himself; or allowing him to be hanged. If Jane can identify the real killer, however, the court will have to release her brother, and Madame Renault will receive the justice she deserves.

Paints a lively picture of Austen-family dynamics that offers little insight into the writer Jane will become.