The Hapless Milliner by Jessica Bull

 Jane Austen is reimagined in this story to be a young amateur sleuth trying to solve a murder that has taken place in an adjacent manor to where she lives with her clergy father, mother and siblings.  Jane is a intelligent and head strong young adult caught up in her first real romance, when a woman is found dead in a closet at a ball she is attending. Her mentally disabled brother is implicated in the crime, so Jane uses all her passion and wits to try to discover the real murder and save her brother from the hangman's noose. As she precipitously delves into the private lives of her suspects, she discovers that little in the high society of her small community is as it seems.  

It is an interesting idea to imagine Jane Austen as the hero of a mystery novel, but in this case, I think Ms Bull missed the mark. I was never convinced that the character Jane in the book was at all like the author Jane Austen. There were a few times that Bull incorporated phrases or ideas from the Austen's novels into the mystery, but to no real affect. I think I would have enjoyed the mystery more if the main character where just a random Victorian instead of the famous author.  That being said, it isn't a bad mystery.  The plot is fairly complex, and the resolution is well supported. I liked the way that the author set up several viable suspects, and then found ways to show their innocence one by one until she hit upon the true culprit. I know very little about Austen's real life, but a note at the end of the book explained which elements of the story were based on actual people and incidents. Now I want to find a good Jane Austen biography and read it (2024, 368 p)