Jane and His Lordship's Legacy

By: Stephanie Barron

Narrated by: Kate Reading

It's with a heavy heart that Jane Austen takes up a new residence at Chawton Cottage in Hampshire. Secretly mourning the lost love of her life, she's stunned to learn that the late Lord Harold Trowbridge has made her heir to an extraordinary bequest: a Bengal chest filled with his diaries, letters, and most intimate correspondence. From these, Jane is expected to write a memoir of the Gentleman Rogue for posterity. But before she can put pen to paper on this labor of love, she discovers a corpse in the cellar of her new home.

The dead man was a common laborer, and a subsequent coroner's examination shows he was murdered elsewhere and transported to Chawton Cottage. Suddenly Jane and her family are thrust into the center of a brewing scandal in this provincial village that doesn't take kindly to outsiders in general—and to Austens in particular.

And just as Jane glimpses a connection between the murder and the shattering truth concealed somewhere in Lord Harold's papers, violent death strikes yet another unsuspecting vicitim. Suddenly there are suspects and motives everywhere Jane looks—local burglaries, thwarted passions, would-be knights, and members of the royal family itself who want Lord Harold hushed . . . even in death. As the tale of one man's illustrious life unfolds—a life that runs a parallel course to the history of two continents—Jane races against time to catch a cunning killer before more innocent lives are taken. But her determination to protect Lord Harold's legacy could exact the costliest price of all: her own life.

Jane and His Lordship's Legacy is historical suspense writing at its very finest, graced with insight, perception, and uncommon intelligence of its singular heroine in a mystery that will test the mettle of her mind and heart.©2005 Stephanie Barron; (P)2005 Books on Tape, Inc.

Critic reviews

"Readers who hope to recapture, if only briefly, the pleasure of reading Jane Austen for the first time will welcome Barron’s eighth Jane Austen mystery.... Barron has masterfully imitated Austen’s voice."—Publishers Weekly

Love this book

I love the stories about Jane Austen Stephanie Barron writes, even though they are fictional. If you are a Jane Austen lover you will love this book. Kate Reading is the best reader out there.

OK, Good, and Great.

It's OK with me if a good book is the step child of a great one. The Jane series is very satisfying. Although I'm not crazy about the narrator, I love the pace and language, and I will be delighted when another comes along.

The Rouge's legacy

Lord Harold has always been an integral part of this series, giving Jane a male counterpart to do things in the story that a female character really shouldn't have been able to do in the early 1800's. I sincerely applaud Ms. Barron for casting him aside and letting Jane go it alone. Although, I guess her brothers filled that role in this story.

The coda at the end is a nice tying up of things, and allowing Lord Harold to say something that Ms Barron must surely wanted to say, but would have sent this fictional Jane's life off on a tangent from the actual Jane Austen's life.

This story is lovely and engaging. I liked that Jane got to reveal the murderer. In a lot of these stories, Jane discovers the culprit only at the end when the villain makes a misstep. I must admit I started to suspect the guilty party about 3/4 of the way through. It was rather gratifying to be right.

I always enjoy learning about this time in history. I am sincerely hoping that the author is drawing from facts here. She is certainly smart enough to do it.

I don't know if I would like the real life Jane Austen, but the fictional one, I surely would love to have a spot of tea with.