Miss Austen Investigates: The Hapless Milliner

Jane Austen’s throngs of fans will adore this series starter that introduces the writer as a lively amateur sleuth; a treasured member of a large, loving family; and as a woman of her time—feisty but too often kept from her potential. The marriage market among Jane’s circle looms large, of course, with Jane hoping for a proposal any day from a young Irishman while those around her assess one another in terms of their potential as financial insurance. When an alliance is about to be announced by a local family, their façade of gentility is threatened when a young woman is found murdered in their home. Jane recognizes her as a milliner she’s bought from lately. The local magistrate seems content to blame “gypsies” for the crime, an accusation Jane disputes as no traveling people have been seen in the area lately, but she’s soon sorry when another is accused: her mentally disabled brother, George. It’s now up to our literary hero to find the real killer and bring George home. The large cast of characters here keeps things lively; there’s often humor too, both in Jane’s wry comments throughout and in her witty letters to her sister about the case’s progression.