"If you have a Jane Austen-would-have-been-my-best-friend complex,
look no further . . . [Barron] has painstakingly sifted through the
famed author's letters and writings, as well as extensive biographical
information, to create a finely detailed portrait of Austen's life--with
a dash of fictional murder . . . Some of the most enjoyable,
well-written fanfic ever created."--O Magazine
May 1816: Jane Austen is feeling unwell, with an uneasy stomach,
constant fatigue, rashes, fevers and aches. She attributes her poor
condition to the stress of family burdens, which even the drafting of
her latest manuscript--about a baronet's daughter nursing a broken heart
for a daring naval captain--cannot alleviate. Her apothecary recommends
a trial of the curative waters at Cheltenham Spa, in Gloucestershire.
Jane decides to use some of the profits earned from her last novel,
Emma, and treat herself to a period of rest and reflection at the spa,
in the company of her sister, Cassandra.
Cheltenham Spa hardly turns out to be the relaxing sojourn Jane and
Cassandra envisaged, however. It is immediately obvious that other
boarders at the guest house where the Misses Austen are staying have
come to Cheltenham with stresses of their own--some of them deadly. But
perhaps with Jane's interference a terrible crime might be prevented.
Set during the Year without a Summer, when the eruption of Mount Tambora
in the South Pacific caused a volcanic winter that shrouded the entire
planet for sixteen months, this fourteenth installment in Stephanie
Barron's critically acclaimed series brings a forgotten moment of
Regency history to life.
