Jane and the Stillroom Maid: Being the Fifth Jane Austen Mystery
Written by Stephanie Barron
Narrated by Kate Reading
4/5
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Currently unavailable
Currently unavailable
About this audiobook
Jane Austen as sleuth continues to delight in her latest adventure (after Jane and the Genius of the Place), which sheds new light on the author's travels in 1806.
While enjoying a ramble in the Derbyshire hills near Bakewell (a town Eliza Bennett visits in Pride and Prejudice), Jane discovers the mutilated body of a young man. Jane's suspicions are roused when her escort, Mr. George Hemming, prefers to remove the unidentified corpse to Buxton, rather than Bakewell, and they increase when the body proves to be that of a woman dressed in men's clothing. Moreover, the corpse is identified as Tess Arnold, a servant at one of the area's great houses, whom Mr. Hemming should have recognized. As the compounder of stillroom remedies, Tess had a reputation as a healer, until accused of witchcraft. Rumors of ritual murder by Freemasons-who include most of the neighboring gentry-excite the local populace and jeopardize the investigation of the justice of the peace, himself a Mason. When Mr. Hemming disappears before the inquest, Jane and the justice turn for help to Lord Harold Trowbridge, a guest at the nearby ducal house of Chatsworth. Barron catches Austen's tone amazingly well. Details of early 19th-century country life of all classes ring true, while the story line is clear, yet full of surprises. The "editor's notes" that punctuate the text and old cures for various ills that open each chapter add to the charm.
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Reviews for Jane and the Stillroom Maid
104 ratings5 reviews
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5in the mail! signed hc by Stephanie {thankyou!}
this mystery now heading out on holiday with me ") - Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Ms. Barron has done a very nice job of capturing the "voice"of Austen's period. Unfortunately, that tends to make the book, as a mystery, a bit too convoluted and slow-moving for an entirely happy reader. I would recommend the book to those who are passionately devoited to all things Austen; perhaps not to a mystery fan who wasn't so enthralled with Austen.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5An interesting premise that Jane Austen was capable of solving mysteries as well as writing good books. Stephanie Barron does a good job in bringing out this unknown aspect of Jane Austen's life.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This installment finds Jane admitting to herself the depth of her feeling for Lord Trowbridge. Nice! The murder was particularly disturbing because it was revealed to be the tip of the iceberg in terms of corruption of soul. There was the interesting aspect of the various remedies that were sprinkled about the book - a new facet of the world of Jane Austen.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Regency mystery, with fewer historical distractionsJuly 2001Barron's fictional Jane continues her surprisingly dangerous career by stumbling upon a particularly grisly corpse -- a young man, she thinks, shot in the head and eviscerated. As it comes out that the deceased was a stillroom maid, in charge of remedies and preserves, and a vicious rumor implicating the Freemasons spreads throughout the village, Jane once again becomes enmeshed with a murder investigation. There are plenty of false leads to follow, plenty of scandals to uncover, and all in the company of Lord Harold Trowbridge, who is in Derbyshire to pay a visit of morning for the Duchess of Devonshire.Of the Jane Austen Mystery series so far, this is the one most distilled - fewer side issues for Jane to consider, fewer forays into the politics and the culture of the day. There is, of course, the aristocratic name-dropping; we are treated to the leading people of the Whig movement in Parliament. Also, there is a small mention of Freemasonry, but it passes quickly. The chapters are interspersed with recipes for folk remedies, in sure opposition to the "more modern" apothecary and doctor, who prefer their bleeding cures to tinctures and poultices (Warning: do not try these remedies at home. Stick to our "modern" remedies of St. John's Wort and saw palmetto). However, there are far fewer footnotes in this book than the previous novels and far fewer reveries on Jane's part. Barron seems to have decided to make this a murder mystery, with few distracting elements. Once again, an enjoyable read, like the rest of the series, but no tedious bits as some of the previous novels suffered from.