Customer Reviews

Jane and the Genius of the Place (A Jane Austen Mystery)

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I'm surprised by the number of readers of this series (not so much for this book as the earlier ones) who fault Barron for not being Austen. None of us are Copernicus either, but we may still revolve around the sun. To those critics I am inspired to paraphrase the little Comtesse to Cassandra: "La, you are such a stick!" Barron's series is imaginative in its premise, and engaging in its execution. I love every book and look forward to the next, regretting only that a full-fledged romance between Jane and Lord Harold is quite literally impossible.

The style is fabulous, the footnotes lend that authentic air, but unfortunately the means and the culprit are all too transparent in Jane Austen's fourth outing as a detective. Familiar characters from the first three books put in appearances, and as a whole are well-drawn (although with nine kids in the house I'd like to at least know who they all are...). The murder here is more gruesome than some of the earlier ones, but let's face it, as soon as the body is discovered you know how the trick was played, and a certain other scene, related by a jealous would-be suitor, lays the whole thing open. I spent the last two hundred pages or so enjoying the writing but thinking "Get a clue!" I'd recommend any of the others over this one, but for those (like me) who tend to collect an entire series no matter what, it's not a waste of money by any means. At the very least, you get to exult in how smart you are, which is always fun, right? As an aside, the landscaping descriptions are great; even for those who haven't traveled to Canterbury (which is probably most people) it's a cinch to close your eyes and visualize the countryside.

This is the fourth novel in Stephanie Barron's Jane Austen mystery series. Having read the previous three, I already knew what to expect. Barron has a knack for imitating the style of Austen's day and shows a vast array of study into the lifestyles of Austen's time. The fourth novel in the series proves Jane to be as stalwart a detective as ever.

While Jane visits her brother's home of Godmersham, she is inevitably caught up in the tragic events that unfold in Kent. With the news of a possible French invasion looming on the horizon, a high-spirited French woman is found murdered at the horse races. Naturally, suspicion falls on the men who were entangled in her web, and her character and affairs with these men are called into question. But the detective side of Jane suspects that the foul play was due to political motives rather than jealous passions.

Barron introduces a wide cast of characters and suspects, and fully fleshes them out as Jane endeavors to solve another mystery. The novel moves quickly due to Jane's 'journaling' of events, even if at times the story is predictable. "Jane and the Genius of the Place" is a worthy addition and homage to Austen.

Having just finished reading this book, I find myself wanting more. I felt lost after closing the book and missed Barron's characters, which grow on the reader with time. Although this book was harder to "get into to", it all came together in the end, albeit somewhat confusingly.

I would definately say this book in the Jane Austen Mystery series was more difficult to follow. Others who have read this one have agreed with me in that the characters are introduced briefly and quickly. The setting could be described a bit more too.

Overall, this work of Barron's is fun and interesting to read. I prefer her first novel more, as it seems a little more gentler and subtle. With this, the fourth in the series, one cannot help becoming attached to the main characters.

Stephanie Barron does justice to the time period and the speech of the day. Nothing is worse than to read a period book and find modern day phrases throughout. Let us hope Barron continues her meticulous work and continues to bring forth more of Jane Austen for those of us who can never get enough!

There are more than a few literary tragedies -- the burning of the Library at Alexandria and Coleridge's ill-timed caller come to mind -- and among them one must list Cassandra Austen's burning of the majority of her sister Jane's letters. Despite the loss of this treasure trove, Stephanie Barron manages to capture the style and spirit of Miss Jane's lovely prose, and she does so within the framework of cozy murder mysteries. The series is highly entertaining, and this fourth installment is no exception. Though the mystery is fairly transparent (It's easy to figure out what happened, though it takes a while to figure out whodunit), the language is elegant and witty and we learn a lot about Britain's Great Terror, landscaping, horses and even Jane Austen and her family. My next visit to England will definitely include a visit to Godmersham! Though I would appreciate an author's note detailing the fictional status of the characters, I am puzzled by the complaints about learning. When knowledge is gained so painlessly, why would one choose mindless entertainment?

This story takes place near Jane's brother Edward's estate, Godmersham, in Kent, at the time if the Canterbury Races. At first I was disappointed that some of the series' most endearing characters were missing -- Eliza and Sir Harold Trowbridge are only mentioned or appear briefly. I was not as disappointed to have Jane's mother and sister absent, as Cassandra is basically a wet blanket in this series and Mother is very annoying. But I was pleasantly surprised to become better acquainted not only with Jane's brothers Neddie and Henry, but also Neddie's wife Lizzy and daughter Fanny. These characters are a lot of fun, and scenes of the family gathering to try and reason out matters are particularly engaging. I agree with the reviewer who said that Julian Sothey's devotion to Anne Sharpe did not seem justified, but otherwise thought that the characters here were quite engaging and beautifully drawn.

In addition to being historically accurate, Ms. Barron takes pains to incorporate real events from Jane Austen's experience into the story, and if you also have a copy of Jane Austen's Letters, you will be delighted to read those from the same time period and find the correspondence (so to speak) between events real and fictional.

One trusts Miss Jane would approve.

I am a fan of these clever and richly detailed stories by Ms. Barron. She crafts a vividly realized period setting, casts it with lively characters and then tosses in a good murder or two for these creatures to solve. To my mind, relaxing mystery reading doesn't get much better than that!

Keeping in mind the above, I must say that I found "Jane and the Genius of the Place" somewhat less than a full meal in the mystery column than the previous three. I cannot, of course, speak for the other reviewers here but I found that I had solved the "surprise" twists of the story almost upon finding their first mentions in the book. It made me wish Jane (for all her muched lauded cleverness) would hurry along and catch up!

I enjoyed all of the new characters thoroughly especially Julian Sothey who was sadly, I thought, underused in the storyline. I would have liked to met him earlier in the plot! If nothing else to understand his devotion to Anne Sharpe who seemed quite underdeveloped as a plot device. Just why would this brilliant and sophisticated man pine for this particular girl? What was it about Anne Sharpe that would make him seek her out when he might have any selection of brighter, more entertaining women to chose from? In the story Anne seems a bit lacklustre to truly engage the imagination of so artistic and discerning a gentleman. I believe it is this dynamic that causes the story's ending to be less than satisfying. There just isn't enough here to hang an ending on.

But nonetheless, Ms.Barron is a gifted and skillful writer who has produced a series of awfully good mystery stories. I know I will continue to read them as long as she is kind enough to produce them! Perhaps she will even bring Julian Sothey back in another "Jane" tale and give him a finer ending!

In the summer of 1805, Jane Austen finds herself enjoying the comforts of a visit to Godmersham Park, her wealthy brother Edward's estate in Kent. Following the passing of her beloved father some eight months prior, Jane, along with her mother and sister Cassandra, found themselves set adrift in the world, dependent on the generosity of more well-heeled family members to provide them with shelter and sustenance. Jane determines to enjoy all the benefits that come with her brother's place in society, and is thrilled with a family outing to the Canterbury Races, where her brother Harry hopes to see a horse of his own meet with success. But a thrill of a different kind awaits Jane's keenly observant eye, when the universally disliked Francoise Grey, a flamboyant Frenchwoman, creates a scene and then is later discovered in a shocking state of dishabille, brutally strangled. With Edward serving as the local Justice of the Peace, Jane is privvy to all attempts to bring Mrs. Grey's murderer to justice - but events fail to lend themselves to a straightforward resolution. Was Mrs. Grey the victim of a simple lover's quarrel, or was she playing for deeper stakes - with an eye to Bonaparte invading England's shores? With the nation at stake, Jane's investigations threaten to uncover secrets that the powerful would pay dearly to keep hidden...

For her fourth Jane Austen mystery, Barron continues her tradition of deftly incorporating a clever mystery story into actual known events that occurred in Jane's life. While Jane didn't broach political matters in her writing, it's clear from her letters that she was a well-informed woman, and with two brothers serving in the Navy it is no stretch to imagine that she was highly concerned with the course of England's war with Bonaparte. As Barron states in her Editor's Note introducing Genius of the Place, Kent was "ground zero" for Napoleon's invasion plans - and with the indomitable Jane there in the middle of it all, the possibilities for encountering some good old-fashioned espionage are endless. Barron couples her exploration of the political threat to England at the time with a focus on the pasttimes of a Regency gentleman that would have been of interest to a man occupying Edward's social position. From horse racing to the desire to "improve the landscape" with a re-routed stream or a well-placed ruin, Barron deftly incorporates rich period detail that brings Jane's world to vibrant life.

Along with her brother Edward, we are introduced to a new coterie of Jane's family and acquaintance. While I desperately missed old favorites like the enigmatic Lord Harold Trowbridge and Henry's vivacious wife Eliza, I loved the introduction of Edward's wife Elizabeth - Lizzy - who serves as Jane's primary companion, and I can't imagine a classier, more intelligent foil and sounding board for Jane and her investigations. Barron also introduces us to Anne Sharp, the Austens' governess, with whom Jane would form a life-long friendship and later present her with a presentation copy of her novel Emma. I loved how Barron imagines Anne's storyline to parallel that of Jane Fairfax's relationship with Frank Churchill in Emma. She has a gift for subtly echoing characters or themes found within Jane's published works that make this series an Austen fan's dream come true. The storyline would, I think, benefit from tighter plotting and an earlier, and more in-depth, focus on the espionage element so integral to the storyline. But nevertheless, Genius of the Place is another thoroughly enjoyable entry in the series, replete with Barron's delightful interpretation of Jane's style, wit, and insight.

The books in this series are a quite well-done pastiche of Jane Austen's style, but they are not easy reading. Unlike other reviewers, I'm afraid that I did not immediately guess how the murder was done in this one, but then I've been picking it up and putting it down for several months. Not being terribly interested in the politics of the Napoleonic wars, I can't say that I always found the details of the plot to be riveting; I enjoyed this book more for its historical detail and insight into the things that were going on in Austen's life, both personally and nationally. It is easy to forget when reading her novels that England was engaged in war with France for a large part of her adult life, and at the time this book takes place was actually in daily expectation of an invasion by Napoleon. There is also some interesting information about the mania for landscaping and "improvement of the estate," which plays an important role in _Mansfield Park_.

One small but entertaining feature of the series is that Barron sprinkles actual quotes from the Austen canon throughout the books (at least this one), which I personally find quite satisfying to catch.

In this, the fourth of the Jane Austen Mystery series by Stephanie Barron, we are once again drawn into a tale more sordid than the ones we are used to from Jane Austen. Jane attends Canterbury Race Day with some of the Austen clan, witnessing the excitement over straining horses, and being shocked by Mrs. Grey, a rich Frenchwoman with a good taste in racehorses, a genius at shocking the populace, and the bad fate to end up brutally strangled by Race Day's end. Once again, our fictional Jane is close to the investigative action -- this time, it's her brother Neddie, local magistrate, who is in charge of discovering the murderer. There is an obvious suspect, the man who owned the carriage in which Mrs. Grey's body was found (scandalously undressed!), but Mrs. Grey had made enemies of much of the people of the Kentish neighborhood.

As is usual, Stephanie Barron weaves in cultural information of the day -- one starts with some knowledge of the low pursuits of cock-fighting, high-stakes card parties, and speculation on horseracing, but by novel's end one has learned of the new perspectives in landscaping "improvement", a bit on current women's fashions, British troop movements in holding off Napolean's armies, and the financial ramifications of the Napoleanic wars in general. Not all of the historical information is pleasant to learn; Barron reminds us a little bit too often of the August heat making it a necessity for quick inquests and burials. I'm sure the coroners of England were happy when the inquest jury no longer had to examine the corpse for themselves.

As an avid reader of Agatha Christie, I figured out a few of the mystery's puzzles early on, but though I could tell =how= the murder was done, I couldn't tell =who= did it. There are some odd, distracting bits of plot, I believe; however, I do appreciate the little bit of =Emma= that was stolen for the use of this book. It makes for interesting pitfalls; a devoted Janeite will be able to recognize phrases, dialogue, and plot taken from Austen's works, but Barron uses them for her own end and the unwary reader can be caught in surprise twists to the Austen originals. I found the ending of the novel somewhat unsatisfying, but the novel as a whole is entertaining.

This fourth mystery featuring Jane Austen is Barron's best. The reader's interest was held throughout in a story that was anything but predictable. The characters were interesting and likable, and the plot was intriguing. The descriptions were so vivid, and the conversations so realistic, I felt as if I were in the same room with the characters. This was a book that was hard to put down.