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Jane Austen Mysteries #2
Jane and the Man of the Cloth
This rare and vintage book is a perfect addition to any bibliophile's collection
288 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1997
284 people are currently reading
2080 people want to read
About the author
Stephanie Barron
37 books884 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
Stephanie Barron was born Francine Stephanie Barron in Binghamton, NY in 1963, the last of six girls. Her father was a retired general in the Air Force, her mother a beautiful woman who loved to dance. The family spent their summers on Cape Cod, where two of the Barron girls now live with their families; Francine's passion for Nantucket and the New England shoreline dates from her earliest memories. She grew up in Washington, D.C., and attended Georgetown Visitation Preparatory School, a two hundred year-old Catholic school for girls that shares a wall with Georgetown University. Her father died of a heart attack during her freshman year.
In 1981, she started college at Princeton – one of the most formative experiences of her life. There she fenced for the club varsity team and learned to write news stories for The Daily Princetonian – a hobby that led to two part-time jobs as a journalist for The Miami Herald and The San Jose Mercury News. Francine majored in European History, studying Napoleonic France, and won an Arthur W. Mellon Foundation Fellowship in the Humanities in her senior year. But the course she remembers most vividly from her time at Princeton is "The Literature of Fact," taught by John McPhee, the Pulitzer Prize winning author and staff writer for The New Yorker. John influenced Francine's writing more than even she knows and certainly more than she is able to say. If there were an altar erected to the man in Colorado, she'd place offerings there daily. He's her personal god of craft.
Francine spent three years at Stanford pursuing a doctorate in history; she failed to write her dissertation (on the Brazilian Bar Association under authoritarianism; can you blame her?) and left with a Masters. She applied to the CIA, spent a year temping in Northern Virginia while the FBI asked inconvenient questions of everyone she had ever known, passed a polygraph test on her twenty-sixth birthday, and was immediately thrown into the Career Trainee program: Boot Camp for the Agency's Best and Brightest. Four years as an intelligence analyst at the CIA were profoundly fulfilling, the highlights being Francine's work on the Counterterrorism Center's investigation into the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988, and sleeping on a horsehair mattress in a Spectre-era casino in the middle of Bratislava. Another peak moment was her chance to debrief ex-President George Bush in Houston in 1993. But what she remembers most about the place are the extraordinary intelligence and dedication of most of the staff – many of them women – many of whom cannot be named.
She wrote her first book in 1992 and left the Agency a year later. Fifteen books have followed, along with sundry children, dogs, and houses. When she's not writing, she likes to ski, garden, needlepoint, and buy art. Her phone number is definitely unlisted.
Stephanie Barron was born Francine Stephanie Barron in Binghamton, NY in 1963, the last of six girls. Her father was a retired general in the Air Force, her mother a beautiful woman who loved to dance. The family spent their summers on Cape Cod, where two of the Barron girls now live with their families; Francine's passion for Nantucket and the New England shoreline dates from her earliest memories. She grew up in Washington, D.C., and attended Georgetown Visitation Preparatory School, a two hundred year-old Catholic school for girls that shares a wall with Georgetown University. Her father died of a heart attack during her freshman year.
In 1981, she started college at Princeton – one of the most formative experiences of her life. There she fenced for the club varsity team and learned to write news stories for The Daily Princetonian – a hobby that led to two part-time jobs as a journalist for The Miami Herald and The San Jose Mercury News. Francine majored in European History, studying Napoleonic France, and won an Arthur W. Mellon Foundation Fellowship in the Humanities in her senior year. But the course she remembers most vividly from her time at Princeton is "The Literature of Fact," taught by John McPhee, the Pulitzer Prize winning author and staff writer for The New Yorker. John influenced Francine's writing more than even she knows and certainly more than she is able to say. If there were an altar erected to the man in Colorado, she'd place offerings there daily. He's her personal god of craft.
Francine spent three years at Stanford pursuing a doctorate in history; she failed to write her dissertation (on the Brazilian Bar Association under authoritarianism; can you blame her?) and left with a Masters. She applied to the CIA, spent a year temping in Northern Virginia while the FBI asked inconvenient questions of everyone she had ever known, passed a polygraph test on her twenty-sixth birthday, and was immediately thrown into the Career Trainee program: Boot Camp for the Agency's Best and Brightest. Four years as an intelligence analyst at the CIA were profoundly fulfilling, the highlights being Francine's work on the Counterterrorism Center's investigation into the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988, and sleeping on a horsehair mattress in a Spectre-era casino in the middle of Bratislava. Another peak moment was her chance to debrief ex-President George Bush in Houston in 1993. But what she remembers most about the place are the extraordinary intelligence and dedication of most of the staff – many of them women – many of whom cannot be named.
She wrote her first book in 1992 and left the Agency a year later. Fifteen books have followed, along with sundry children, dogs, and houses. When she's not writing, she likes to ski, garden, needlepoint, and buy art. Her phone number is definitely unlisted.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 319 reviews
February 13, 2011
Beside the great mystery and historical detail, Barron has a wicked sense of humor
Manners meet mayhem again in the second Being a Jane Austen Mystery, Jane and the Man of the Cloth. It is 1804 and Jane and her family are traveling by post chaise to Lyme Regis on the Dorset coast to escape the oppressive summer heat in Bath when their carriage is overturned and Jane’s sister Cassandra injured. Seeking help at a local estate, Jane and her family take refuge at High Down Grange and are thrown into the care of its mysterious owner Geoffrey Sidmouth and his beautiful young cousin Seraphine LeFevre. The manor house and its owner have enough of an oddness about them that our observant Jane thinks something amiss.
With Cassandra on the mend they arrive at their rented cottage at Lyme and are shortly joined by Jane’s brother Henry and wife Eliza. After a walk on the Cobb Jane witnesses a heated exchange between Mr. Sidmouth and a local worker. The next day the man is found dead, bound hand and foot, swinging from a makeshift gibbet at the end of the Cobb. Intrigued, Jane seeks out the best source of information that a young lady of her gentility can garner: the mercantile shop and the weekly Assembly Dance. There the local gossip from Mrs. Barnewall, the Crawfords, Lucy Armstrong and the dashing naval officer Captain Percival Fielding inform Jane that Mr. Sidmouth is much more than the enigmatic romantic figure that she has suspected. Deep into the Napoleonic Wars, the Dorset coast is a hotbed of smuggling, spies and espionage whose ringleader, the notorious “Reverend,” or the “Man of the Cloth,” is known to favor fine silks in his nighttime free trade. Jane is conflicted over her feelings for Mr. Sidmouth and the fact that Captain Fielding claims he is the culprit. When Fielding is found murdered and Sidmouth arrested, Jane is asked by the local authorities to aid in the investigation setting her on the path of intrigue and danger.
This is my second novel in the Being a Jane Austen Mystery series. It was another delight. Barron in known for interlacing known facts from Jane Austen’s life into her plots. This period of history for Jane is a bit of a mystery. There are very few letters remaining and only family lore alluding to her unfortunate love affair with a clergyman that she met on a seaside holiday who later died. This “nameless and dateless” romance leaves lots of room for speculation and opens up the possibilities of a great mystery plot which Barron uses to her advantage. Our Jane is much more adventurous and daring in this narrative, sneaking out at night and investigating caves. We do get our share of Assembly Balls, frocks and finery, but the action was occasionally outside what gentile ladies are usually allowed to do, and at times I thought is a bit unbelievable – almost Jane Austen/Nancy Drew.
The historical detail always brought me back into focus and I especially enjoyed the footnotes, though I understand they annoy some readers. I found myself laughing out loud, when I fear I should not, when Jane is introduced to High Down Grange with its dark, unkempt and unwomanly appearance and its present broody owner Mr. Sidmouth with his snarling dogs Fang and Beelzebub. Evoking memories of Bronte heroes, either my brain has been addled by too much historical romance reading, or Stephanie Barron has a wicked sense of humor!
Laurel Ann, Austenprose
Manners meet mayhem again in the second Being a Jane Austen Mystery, Jane and the Man of the Cloth. It is 1804 and Jane and her family are traveling by post chaise to Lyme Regis on the Dorset coast to escape the oppressive summer heat in Bath when their carriage is overturned and Jane’s sister Cassandra injured. Seeking help at a local estate, Jane and her family take refuge at High Down Grange and are thrown into the care of its mysterious owner Geoffrey Sidmouth and his beautiful young cousin Seraphine LeFevre. The manor house and its owner have enough of an oddness about them that our observant Jane thinks something amiss.
With Cassandra on the mend they arrive at their rented cottage at Lyme and are shortly joined by Jane’s brother Henry and wife Eliza. After a walk on the Cobb Jane witnesses a heated exchange between Mr. Sidmouth and a local worker. The next day the man is found dead, bound hand and foot, swinging from a makeshift gibbet at the end of the Cobb. Intrigued, Jane seeks out the best source of information that a young lady of her gentility can garner: the mercantile shop and the weekly Assembly Dance. There the local gossip from Mrs. Barnewall, the Crawfords, Lucy Armstrong and the dashing naval officer Captain Percival Fielding inform Jane that Mr. Sidmouth is much more than the enigmatic romantic figure that she has suspected. Deep into the Napoleonic Wars, the Dorset coast is a hotbed of smuggling, spies and espionage whose ringleader, the notorious “Reverend,” or the “Man of the Cloth,” is known to favor fine silks in his nighttime free trade. Jane is conflicted over her feelings for Mr. Sidmouth and the fact that Captain Fielding claims he is the culprit. When Fielding is found murdered and Sidmouth arrested, Jane is asked by the local authorities to aid in the investigation setting her on the path of intrigue and danger.
This is my second novel in the Being a Jane Austen Mystery series. It was another delight. Barron in known for interlacing known facts from Jane Austen’s life into her plots. This period of history for Jane is a bit of a mystery. There are very few letters remaining and only family lore alluding to her unfortunate love affair with a clergyman that she met on a seaside holiday who later died. This “nameless and dateless” romance leaves lots of room for speculation and opens up the possibilities of a great mystery plot which Barron uses to her advantage. Our Jane is much more adventurous and daring in this narrative, sneaking out at night and investigating caves. We do get our share of Assembly Balls, frocks and finery, but the action was occasionally outside what gentile ladies are usually allowed to do, and at times I thought is a bit unbelievable – almost Jane Austen/Nancy Drew.
The historical detail always brought me back into focus and I especially enjoyed the footnotes, though I understand they annoy some readers. I found myself laughing out loud, when I fear I should not, when Jane is introduced to High Down Grange with its dark, unkempt and unwomanly appearance and its present broody owner Mr. Sidmouth with his snarling dogs Fang and Beelzebub. Evoking memories of Bronte heroes, either my brain has been addled by too much historical romance reading, or Stephanie Barron has a wicked sense of humor!
Laurel Ann, Austenprose
April 23, 2020
Despite my love for historical details, the mystery itself was terribly slow.
May 24, 2025
Rated 4 stars. Read on Libby Kindle. Enjoyed as much as #1. The author really has a talent at plotting, dialogue and character development.
Below are 3 of my favorite quotes. I think Stephanie Barron is Jane Austen reincarnated!
Quote #1 (Chapter 1) "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that the expectation of pleasure is generally preferred to its eventual attainment"
Quote #2 (Chapter 3) "And thus we have the caricature of our age—a gentleman of weak understanding, who apes the form of gentility in an effort to supply his want of substance."
Quote #3 (Chapter 16) “But to profess honesty, and to practise it without fail, are entirely different talents. Rare is the gentleman who allies them both.”
Below are 3 of my favorite quotes. I think Stephanie Barron is Jane Austen reincarnated!
Quote #1 (Chapter 1) "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that the expectation of pleasure is generally preferred to its eventual attainment"
Quote #2 (Chapter 3) "And thus we have the caricature of our age—a gentleman of weak understanding, who apes the form of gentility in an effort to supply his want of substance."
Quote #3 (Chapter 16) “But to profess honesty, and to practise it without fail, are entirely different talents. Rare is the gentleman who allies them both.”
January 8, 2016
Adoro questa serie mystery classici!
La vita di Jane Austen ,presentata con dovizia di particolari,si incastra perfettamente con le vicende narrate tanto da far credere che la nostra cara Jane potesse davvero essere un'astuta investigatrice al servizio della Corona. Le descrizioni di abiti ed ornamenti nonché quelle di ambienti frequentati dai protagonisti e delle loro abitudini rispettano quello che era il 1800 inglese; inoltre le vicende narrate si incastrano perfettamente con quello che è il contesto storico in cui sono ambientate e ci sono continui e pertinenti riferimenti storici che rendono il racconto assai piacevole e credibile. La storia è intrigante,incalzante e per niente scontata. Non mancano colpi di scena e nulla è lasciato al caso: ogni dettaglio,indizio e informazione acquisita nel corso della lettura verrà alla fine spiegata e ci ricondurrà alla soluzione del caso.
Non mancano nemmeno pettegolezzi,corteggiamenti più o meno velati e quel poco di romanticismo che basta per far arrossire una gentildonna di quell'epoca.
La vita di Jane Austen ,presentata con dovizia di particolari,si incastra perfettamente con le vicende narrate tanto da far credere che la nostra cara Jane potesse davvero essere un'astuta investigatrice al servizio della Corona. Le descrizioni di abiti ed ornamenti nonché quelle di ambienti frequentati dai protagonisti e delle loro abitudini rispettano quello che era il 1800 inglese; inoltre le vicende narrate si incastrano perfettamente con quello che è il contesto storico in cui sono ambientate e ci sono continui e pertinenti riferimenti storici che rendono il racconto assai piacevole e credibile. La storia è intrigante,incalzante e per niente scontata. Non mancano colpi di scena e nulla è lasciato al caso: ogni dettaglio,indizio e informazione acquisita nel corso della lettura verrà alla fine spiegata e ci ricondurrà alla soluzione del caso.
Non mancano nemmeno pettegolezzi,corteggiamenti più o meno velati e quel poco di romanticismo che basta per far arrossire una gentildonna di quell'epoca.
January 23, 2016
Jane and the Man of the Cloth by Stephanie Barron is a 1997 Crimeline publication.
This second book in the Jane Austen mystery series charged from the gate, when an accident leaves Jane’s sister Cassandra badly injured.
But, the momentum was quickly doused with too much wordy dialogue that filled pages, but left me wondering when Jane was ever going to start working on the mystery. Eventually, the pieces began to fall into place, but it took so long I seriously considered returning it to the library unfinished.
Smuggling was a huge issue during this time period, so it was not at all far-fetched that Jane noticed what appeared to be just that sort of business running through Lyme Regis, which is where she is staying for the moment.
So, intrigue abounds and soon Jane finds herself attempting to lure out a smuggling operation two murders. Will she be able to figure it out without putting herself and her reputation on the line?
The setup is certainly interesting, but it seems like the mystery was danced around amid all the social verbiage. However, the pace picks up drastically in the last quarter of the book and became very engaging with a very surprising ending.
I still intend to continue on with the series because I have a print copy of the next installment. Hopefully, the pacing will improve by then.
3 stars
This second book in the Jane Austen mystery series charged from the gate, when an accident leaves Jane’s sister Cassandra badly injured.
But, the momentum was quickly doused with too much wordy dialogue that filled pages, but left me wondering when Jane was ever going to start working on the mystery. Eventually, the pieces began to fall into place, but it took so long I seriously considered returning it to the library unfinished.
Smuggling was a huge issue during this time period, so it was not at all far-fetched that Jane noticed what appeared to be just that sort of business running through Lyme Regis, which is where she is staying for the moment.
So, intrigue abounds and soon Jane finds herself attempting to lure out a smuggling operation two murders. Will she be able to figure it out without putting herself and her reputation on the line?
The setup is certainly interesting, but it seems like the mystery was danced around amid all the social verbiage. However, the pace picks up drastically in the last quarter of the book and became very engaging with a very surprising ending.
I still intend to continue on with the series because I have a print copy of the next installment. Hopefully, the pacing will improve by then.
3 stars
November 27, 2015
This one earned a 4.5 from me for several reasons.
Jane, a great location, a good mystery etc. And one
final factor that really touched me. The relationship
between Jane and her father Rev. George Austen. He helps
and supports her detective efforts. Also, this book is set
in Sept 1804, just 4 months before his passing in Jan. 1805.
This book also has a balanced view of Mrs Austen. She seems more like
the Mrs Bennet of P&P '05, rather than P&P '95.
Jane, a great location, a good mystery etc. And one
final factor that really touched me. The relationship
between Jane and her father Rev. George Austen. He helps
and supports her detective efforts. Also, this book is set
in Sept 1804, just 4 months before his passing in Jan. 1805.
This book also has a balanced view of Mrs Austen. She seems more like
the Mrs Bennet of P&P '05, rather than P&P '95.
June 26, 2011
Dear author,
In the future, please show, not tell.
xoxoj
In the future, please show, not tell.
xoxoj
March 18, 2017
This is one intrepid Jane Austen! It is September 1804, Jane, her sister, Cassandra, Mr. and Mrs. Austen are on their way to Lyme Regis for a seaside holiday when their carriage is overturned in a storm just outside of the seaside village. Cassandra is injured and Jane heads off with the postboy to the manor house they see lighted in the distance. This is where she meets the rather rude and glowering Mr. Geoffrey Sidmouth and gives him a most scathing setdown as she seeks his help! Only Jane could stand her ground against such a man! This is definitely not a good beginning to a relaxing seaside holiday!
As Lyme Regis is on the coast of Dorset, it is well known for smugglers. Jane soon finds her attention taken away from the manuscript she is trying to write (The Watson's) and is drawn into the intrigues of the local society and the bad blood between Mr. Geoffrey Sidmouth and the smooth talking Captain Fielding. It has been two years since Jane she proved her dear friend, Isobel, the Countess of Scargrave, innocent in the death of her husband. Now she is trying to determine who is the leader of the smugglers, known as The Reverend, and why she has such conflicting emotions over Geoffrey Sidmouth! To further plunge her into this investigation is the murder of one man by hanging and then the murder of another.
This was another well written and researched story. I so enjoy the footnotes that explain historical tidbits, Jane Austen's own life and other interesting miscellany. Jane's closeness with her father, reminds me of Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Bennet. Her mother's nerves and anxiousness gave me glimpses of Mrs. Bennet. Then to find characteristics of others from her novels in this story as well as some of her writings, just made it that much more enjoyable. The detail and observations made along with the wit imparted by Jane, just made the story that more realistic. For example:
"And thus we have the caricature of our age - a gentleman of weak understanding, who apes the form of gentility in an effort to supply his want of substance."
I highly recommend this series and that you read them in order. I was pleasantly surprised to read of a character from the first book in this one!
As Lyme Regis is on the coast of Dorset, it is well known for smugglers. Jane soon finds her attention taken away from the manuscript she is trying to write (The Watson's) and is drawn into the intrigues of the local society and the bad blood between Mr. Geoffrey Sidmouth and the smooth talking Captain Fielding. It has been two years since Jane she proved her dear friend, Isobel, the Countess of Scargrave, innocent in the death of her husband. Now she is trying to determine who is the leader of the smugglers, known as The Reverend, and why she has such conflicting emotions over Geoffrey Sidmouth! To further plunge her into this investigation is the murder of one man by hanging and then the murder of another.
This was another well written and researched story. I so enjoy the footnotes that explain historical tidbits, Jane Austen's own life and other interesting miscellany. Jane's closeness with her father, reminds me of Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Bennet. Her mother's nerves and anxiousness gave me glimpses of Mrs. Bennet. Then to find characteristics of others from her novels in this story as well as some of her writings, just made it that much more enjoyable. The detail and observations made along with the wit imparted by Jane, just made the story that more realistic. For example:
"And thus we have the caricature of our age - a gentleman of weak understanding, who apes the form of gentility in an effort to supply his want of substance."
I highly recommend this series and that you read them in order. I was pleasantly surprised to read of a character from the first book in this one!
August 31, 2020
A fun little romp in Lyme with our favorite lady of letters. Barron continues the conceit of the story being edited manuscripts from Austen's own hand, and though I came prepared for this, it was still a bit hard to draw the line between fact and fiction in the footnotes.
My wish to see more the Austen family was partially fulfilled. Unfortunately, her sister Cassandra and sister-in-law Eliza were absent for much of the novel. While Cassandra was present at the beginning of the novel, she was immediately incapacitated by a carriage accident, so we never get to know her personality. I was disappointed in the portrayal of Jane's mother. Mrs. Austen bore eight children in fourteen years, all of whom lived to adulthood. Two of her sons went into the Navy, with one ascending to the role of Admiral of the Fleet. Her daughters, though they remained unwed, were steadfast and intelligent. George Austen, who may have had special needs or health problems, still lived a long life, though he was raised by a local family from a young age. On top of this, the Austens were never particularly well-off, and Mrs. Austen managed her family on a clergyman's salary. There was a bit too much of Mrs. Bennett in Mrs. Austen for my taste. The real Mrs. Austen must have been a capable, intelligent woman to succeed in the ways she did.
Dear Jane bears a resemblance to the Michelin Man on the cover of this installment; let's hope she gets a better artistic treatment in the third volume of the series.
My wish to see more the Austen family was partially fulfilled. Unfortunately, her sister Cassandra and sister-in-law Eliza were absent for much of the novel. While Cassandra was present at the beginning of the novel, she was immediately incapacitated by a carriage accident, so we never get to know her personality. I was disappointed in the portrayal of Jane's mother. Mrs. Austen bore eight children in fourteen years, all of whom lived to adulthood. Two of her sons went into the Navy, with one ascending to the role of Admiral of the Fleet. Her daughters, though they remained unwed, were steadfast and intelligent. George Austen, who may have had special needs or health problems, still lived a long life, though he was raised by a local family from a young age. On top of this, the Austens were never particularly well-off, and Mrs. Austen managed her family on a clergyman's salary. There was a bit too much of Mrs. Bennett in Mrs. Austen for my taste. The real Mrs. Austen must have been a capable, intelligent woman to succeed in the ways she did.
Dear Jane bears a resemblance to the Michelin Man on the cover of this installment; let's hope she gets a better artistic treatment in the third volume of the series.
January 30, 2024
I generally give books of Stephanie Barron's Jane Austen series 4 or 5 stars but it is 3 for this because, although I liked the Lyme setting, this seemed to move a bit slow and I was not as interested or invested in the story. Somehow, smugglers, underground caves and Jane Austen just don't seem to go together for me. But of course this was, as always, exquisitely written and very enjoyable
July 21, 2024
4.5* I am really enjoying this series. The author has managed to make Jane a fine sleuth while still keeping her as a woman of her time and situation. I'm impressed!
February 11, 2011
Some two years have passed since Jane Austen had cause to exercise her fledgling detective skills on behalf of a friend - namely, Isobel, Countess of Scargrave, who, being charged with murder, found herself exonerated thanks to her friend's tireless efforts to uncover the truth of the sad circumstances surrounding her husband's death. Now Jane is bound for the coastal town of Lyme, in the company of her parents and beloved sister Cassandra, when en route their coach is overturned in a violent storm and Cassandra is left injured. The ever-resourceful Jane seeks help and refuge from the closest home available - High Down Grange, where she meets its owner, the brooding Geoffrey Sidmouth and his beautiful French cousin, Seraphine LaFevre. The manner of their introduction leaves Jane convinced that all is not as it seems at the Grange. After the Austens are safely installed at their rented cottage, the mystery of Geoffrey Sidmouth takes a sinister turn when the object of the man's scorn is found hung at the water's edge. Her curiosity roused, Jane begins to make discreet inquiries and discovers it is openly assumed that Sidmouth is "the Reverend" or "the Man of the Cloth," one of the Gentlemen of the Night - smugglers - who haunt the English coast specializing in the illicit "import" of fine silks and other highly-taxed goods. When one Captain Fielding, a retired Naval officer who claims to be investigating the Reverend, is discovered murdered and all evidence points to Sidmouth's guilt, Jane must use all of her intelligence and investigative abilities to discover the truth of Sidmouth's activities on the coast - for she is as loathe to believe his guilt as she is to admit that the master of the Grange may have captured her heart.
Stephanie Barron's second offering featuring the beloved Jane Austen as amateur sleuth is every bit as delightful as the first, proving Barron to be a master at channeling Austen's style and incisive wit and fleshing out what little is known of her life with historical fact and rich period detail. It is established fact that Jane visited Lyme during 1804, and indeed what she encounted there must have made a powerful impression since the town is featured in her final novel, Persuasion. Little correspondence survives from this period in Austen's life, and family rumor alone alludes to a "nameless and dateless" romance Jane experienced with a clergyman during a seaside holiday that provide tantalizing, but unformed, glimpses into this period of Jane's life. Barron uses these bare facts as the basis for Man of the Cloth, fleshing out this period in Austen's life, resulting in a rousing tale of mystery, adventure, espionage, and ill-fated romance. Jane's adventures are wildly varied - she gains as much intelligence from assembly room dances and sitting room calls as she does from highly unorthodox investigations of smugglers' caves and hidden tunnels. One could argue that so much outdoors adventure is outside the realm of possibility in the life of an author known for incisive social commentary, but I for one find the high adventure aspect of this fictional sojourn in Jane's life a fitting tribute of sorts to the adventurous, sensational gothic novels popular in Austen's day, that she would later satirize in her own Northanger Abbey.
One of the many things I love about this novel is the way in which Barron grounds Jane's supposed adventures in historical fact. With much of the author's life a veritable blank slate, thanks in large part to Cassandra's measures to protect Jane's privacy by destroying much of their correspondence after her death, Barron has free rein with which she can explore various aspects of 19th-century society and conjecture as to how these adventures may have informed Austen's writing. I was enthralled by Jane's encounter with "free trade" and the Gentlemen of the Night who practiced their dangerous and illicit activities along the English coast. There is something irresistably romantic in association with dangerous and enigmatic rogues who flout law and convention, as Jane discovers with Geoffrey Sidmouth. I was reminded of the 1954 film Moonfleet, and though the film is set some fifty years prior to this novel's action, Stewart Granger's portrayal of a dashing smuggler gave a powerful visual to my image of Sidmouth. Coupled with a dash of espionage that Jane would've been hard-pressed to escape in a coastal community, thanks to England's conflict with Bonaparte and France and her brothers' naval service, Man of the Cloth is a wildly entertaining mystery told with the style, wit, and insight that only a woman of Jane Austen's superior intellect and sense could provide. Bravo, Jane & Stephanie, here's to many more adventures!
Stephanie Barron's second offering featuring the beloved Jane Austen as amateur sleuth is every bit as delightful as the first, proving Barron to be a master at channeling Austen's style and incisive wit and fleshing out what little is known of her life with historical fact and rich period detail. It is established fact that Jane visited Lyme during 1804, and indeed what she encounted there must have made a powerful impression since the town is featured in her final novel, Persuasion. Little correspondence survives from this period in Austen's life, and family rumor alone alludes to a "nameless and dateless" romance Jane experienced with a clergyman during a seaside holiday that provide tantalizing, but unformed, glimpses into this period of Jane's life. Barron uses these bare facts as the basis for Man of the Cloth, fleshing out this period in Austen's life, resulting in a rousing tale of mystery, adventure, espionage, and ill-fated romance. Jane's adventures are wildly varied - she gains as much intelligence from assembly room dances and sitting room calls as she does from highly unorthodox investigations of smugglers' caves and hidden tunnels. One could argue that so much outdoors adventure is outside the realm of possibility in the life of an author known for incisive social commentary, but I for one find the high adventure aspect of this fictional sojourn in Jane's life a fitting tribute of sorts to the adventurous, sensational gothic novels popular in Austen's day, that she would later satirize in her own Northanger Abbey.
One of the many things I love about this novel is the way in which Barron grounds Jane's supposed adventures in historical fact. With much of the author's life a veritable blank slate, thanks in large part to Cassandra's measures to protect Jane's privacy by destroying much of their correspondence after her death, Barron has free rein with which she can explore various aspects of 19th-century society and conjecture as to how these adventures may have informed Austen's writing. I was enthralled by Jane's encounter with "free trade" and the Gentlemen of the Night who practiced their dangerous and illicit activities along the English coast. There is something irresistably romantic in association with dangerous and enigmatic rogues who flout law and convention, as Jane discovers with Geoffrey Sidmouth. I was reminded of the 1954 film Moonfleet, and though the film is set some fifty years prior to this novel's action, Stewart Granger's portrayal of a dashing smuggler gave a powerful visual to my image of Sidmouth. Coupled with a dash of espionage that Jane would've been hard-pressed to escape in a coastal community, thanks to England's conflict with Bonaparte and France and her brothers' naval service, Man of the Cloth is a wildly entertaining mystery told with the style, wit, and insight that only a woman of Jane Austen's superior intellect and sense could provide. Bravo, Jane & Stephanie, here's to many more adventures!
January 24, 2021
The author bit of way more than she could chew with this one. Her voice is not the voice of Jane Austen and her eye is not the eye of the genius Austen either. As a mystery set in the time of Austen it has some merit but as a portrait of Jane, it's very, very wrong, the anachronisms become more distracting, the romance less bearable.
At one point Barron has Jane think maudlin thoughts about having been left on the shelf- the stereotypical (patriarchal) view of the spinster as incomplete war with a desire to portray Jane as independent, pseudo-feminist (in a you're-not-like-other-girls sort of a way) and as oddly compelling a positive femme fatale for a 30 something woman still living with her parents. I just don't see Austen in this at all. There's a scene where Jane jokes with Cassandra that her heroine Lizzy (Bennett) is "almost as clever as myself", an attempt to apologise for the lack of intelligence of some of Jane's heroines (missing the point entirely of what were NOT written as romance novels). In the rest of the novel, Jane is portrayed as a pale imitation of Lizzy - there are too many parallels that I don't want to discuss in too many details for fear of spoilers but if you look you will see them. Jane's mother is paid as anxious and dull-witted presumably for laughs, in general all female characters are portrayed as either stupid or morally flawed (or both) whereas the men come off better.
This is highlighted in a section where (rarely for this book) Jane is speaking to a woman with no men present and saying she doesn't much like the company of women as if this is commendable (this very much doesn't fit with the way Austen was the first to so unapologetically write the female point of view about real life). There are numerous notes defining historical facts (useful if at times obvious) and making faux connections to Austen's books and apocrypha.
I did want to like that Jane (and presumably Barron) were against "free trade" <3
I don't think I will bother seeking out any more of these though if I stumble over them in a street library I may read them (unless more satisfying fare is on offer)
At one point Barron has Jane think maudlin thoughts about having been left on the shelf- the stereotypical (patriarchal) view of the spinster as incomplete war with a desire to portray Jane as independent, pseudo-feminist (in a you're-not-like-other-girls sort of a way) and as oddly compelling a positive femme fatale for a 30 something woman still living with her parents. I just don't see Austen in this at all. There's a scene where Jane jokes with Cassandra that her heroine Lizzy (Bennett) is "almost as clever as myself", an attempt to apologise for the lack of intelligence of some of Jane's heroines (missing the point entirely of what were NOT written as romance novels). In the rest of the novel, Jane is portrayed as a pale imitation of Lizzy - there are too many parallels that I don't want to discuss in too many details for fear of spoilers but if you look you will see them. Jane's mother is paid as anxious and dull-witted presumably for laughs, in general all female characters are portrayed as either stupid or morally flawed (or both) whereas the men come off better.
This is highlighted in a section where (rarely for this book) Jane is speaking to a woman with no men present and saying she doesn't much like the company of women as if this is commendable (this very much doesn't fit with the way Austen was the first to so unapologetically write the female point of view about real life). There are numerous notes defining historical facts (useful if at times obvious) and making faux connections to Austen's books and apocrypha.
I did want to like that Jane (and presumably Barron) were against "free trade" <3
I don't think I will bother seeking out any more of these though if I stumble over them in a street library I may read them (unless more satisfying fare is on offer)
November 29, 2018
This is my second time reading this and I'm increasing my rating to 5 stars!!!
I didn't remember how the book went, and now I can't believe I forgot such an exciting adventure . It is definitely my favorite of the Jane Austen Mysteries and since it is my favorite book series, that's saying a lot! It's probably also because of the Darcy vs Wickham + Georgiana vibes!
This time around when Geoffrey Sidmouth appeared, this is who I thought of:
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_hi3rNXGHg8... <--Matthew Rhys as Darcy in Death Comes to Pemberley. He's kind of a Darcy in this book too, right, so why not?
I ask you, Stephanie Barron, why are these not movies? Masterpiece, are you listening??? ;)
Third time reading:
I didn't remember how the book went, and now I can't believe I forgot such an exciting adventure . It is definitely my favorite of the Jane Austen Mysteries and since it is my favorite book series, that's saying a lot! It's probably also because of the Darcy vs Wickham + Georgiana vibes!
This time around when Geoffrey Sidmouth appeared, this is who I thought of:
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_hi3rNXGHg8... <--Matthew Rhys as Darcy in Death Comes to Pemberley. He's kind of a Darcy in this book too, right, so why not?
I ask you, Stephanie Barron, why are these not movies? Masterpiece, are you listening??? ;)
Third time reading:
April 14, 2021
Kudos to the author for the amazing researches she made in order to write such an accurate historical book. The text is presented as a revised diary of Jane Austen, and it's filled with notations that explain the historical context. I think people who love history, or the early 1800, or Jane Austen will love this book. I also believe women will enjoy the book more than men.
I found the writing style so good and accurate that it became insanely boring. I didn't like any character, the story, the setting... anything!
For me it was just very, very boring, like the history textbook I had to study at school.
It's not bad, it's just not for me.
I found the writing style so good and accurate that it became insanely boring. I didn't like any character, the story, the setting... anything!
For me it was just very, very boring, like the history textbook I had to study at school.
It's not bad, it's just not for me.
April 19, 2022
Jane and the Man of Cloth is the second book in this series by Stephanie Barron where Jane Austen featured as a sleuth who solves crimes she becomes embroiled in unwittingly. This time, it is smuggling and murder where Austen steps up and helps identify the real culprit.
I enjoyed this one more than the first in the series and i think this is mostly because by now, i had set my expectations right. These books are not fast paced thrillers. They move at the pace of a Jane Austen novel as Barron creates - and through her writing preserves - the myth that these books are actually diaries of Austen that have been 'discovered' and she is the editor of these diaries. I absolutely love the editorial footnotes about life, fashion, law and Austen's life and letters she wrote that are interspersed throughout the book whenever Barron wants to clarify some point. These notes also attempt to make us forget that these are not actually lived experiences, especially when she refers to some person, place or happening in the novel and relates it to a letter Austen had written in her lifetime. The research in writing these books is truly commendable!
I enjoyed this one more than the first in the series and i think this is mostly because by now, i had set my expectations right. These books are not fast paced thrillers. They move at the pace of a Jane Austen novel as Barron creates - and through her writing preserves - the myth that these books are actually diaries of Austen that have been 'discovered' and she is the editor of these diaries. I absolutely love the editorial footnotes about life, fashion, law and Austen's life and letters she wrote that are interspersed throughout the book whenever Barron wants to clarify some point. These notes also attempt to make us forget that these are not actually lived experiences, especially when she refers to some person, place or happening in the novel and relates it to a letter Austen had written in her lifetime. The research in writing these books is truly commendable!
October 1, 2022
Jane, her sister and her parents head to Lyme Regis for a late summer holiday in 1804. A carriage accident leads to an acquaintance with the mysterious Geoffrey Sidmouth. The handsome Captain Fielding is sure Sidmouth is the notorious "Reverend", responsible for smuggling contraband luxuries from France to avoid high duties imposed by the King. There are two murders and Jane becomes embroiled in both.
I agree with other readers that this second effort is an improvement on the first book. In particular the dialogue was very good and witty, although the story itself moved very slowly. I still don’t "believe" it could plausibly have happened, however. If this were straight historical fiction with a spunky spinster for a heroine who was NOT Jane Austen, I would like it better. Also, time will tell, but if every book has a man falling for Jane…well, that will get boring very fast.
I agree with other readers that this second effort is an improvement on the first book. In particular the dialogue was very good and witty, although the story itself moved very slowly. I still don’t "believe" it could plausibly have happened, however. If this were straight historical fiction with a spunky spinster for a heroine who was NOT Jane Austen, I would like it better. Also, time will tell, but if every book has a man falling for Jane…well, that will get boring very fast.
January 13, 2023
I am thoroughly enjoying the Jane Mysteries. They are page turners for me, wanting to know how things come out. The storyline makes sense and there is a good twist at the end. And I am also enjoying the element of history and culture of this time period. This book had a lot to do with things post French Revolution and what was going on with Napeoleon.
I look forward to reading more in the future.
I look forward to reading more in the future.
May 20, 2022
I had read the first of this series a long time ago because it's Jane Austen and a mystery, what is there not to like? But as I recall, the debut novel didn't grab me, and as my TBR list grows daily, I set this series aside. But the author also writes the Merry Folger mysteries set in Nantucket (as Francine Mathews), which I've really enjoyed, and I thought I'd give this series a second chance.
My impression of this book is more positive than my memory of the first novel in this series. The author incorporates phrases from Jane Austen's works into the books, which is fun for Jane Austen devotees. In addition, this book has an interesting plot and while I don't think the culprit was difficult to pick out, I like the indirect tribute to "Pride and Prejudice."
It's a nicely themed series and this book, at any rate, is a quick and engaging read.
My impression of this book is more positive than my memory of the first novel in this series. The author incorporates phrases from Jane Austen's works into the books, which is fun for Jane Austen devotees. In addition, this book has an interesting plot and while I don't think the culprit was difficult to pick out, I like the indirect tribute to "Pride and Prejudice."
It's a nicely themed series and this book, at any rate, is a quick and engaging read.
Read
July 9, 2020The series continues, and the strengths are the same: A cozy mystery set in Edwardian England, with all the historical details of everyday life and the political and social currents of the time, and Jane Austen solving mysteries in Lyme.
June 23, 2017
I read this in paperback when it first came out but need to reread it in order to post a clear review.
March 2, 2018
I think this one was better than number 1!
January 12, 2021
I enjoyed this one slightly less than the the first, but it was fun to be at Lyme Regis for this book.
April 6, 2025
hooked
I am so locked into the Jane Austen mystery verse and I hope these books never stop getting written. I choose to believe the spirit of the great Jane Austen approves
I am so locked into the Jane Austen mystery verse and I hope these books never stop getting written. I choose to believe the spirit of the great Jane Austen approves
July 21, 2024
A really fun novel, for Austen super fans who can place the liberally scattered quotations. It ended with Jane hitting the bad guy in the head with a pistol butt, which is perhaps the most delightful ending I’ve read in years.
September 19, 2022
Second time through this book. I appreciate the tone of Stephanie Barron’s writing in Jane Austen’s “voice” and how she weaves into the story some of the biographical details of Jane’s life. The character of Geoffrey Sidmouth is a type of Rochester from Jane Eyre- charismatic, rugged, not classically handsome, enigmatic, sometimes ill-mannered. Jane finds herself growing increasingly attracted to Sidmouth while at the same time having an increasing conviction that he is the mastermind behind the smuggling trade in Lyme Regis and very probably a murderer. This book had the additional appeal of Jane’s parents being there, and Jane consulting her father for his wisdom and counsel when she is under a cloud of confusion. When Sidmouth is the obvious suspect in a second murder, Jane employs her wit and intellect to good use and realizes that it is much more likely that he is being framed. But by whom? In an attempt to get at the truth, she ends up in harm’s way more than once and must set aside all previous assumptions about the other key players in this story. It was a very good yarn and contained some interesting plot twists and surprises.
July 9, 2024
This is a reread, and I see I originally gave this 4 stars. For me, that means I liked it and it didn't lose my attention anywhere, but it wasn't quite my favorite.
I'm changing that to a 5. Maybe I'm different now. Not sure why. This is what I like to read.
To be honest, I think when I started reading this series, I almost never read mystery. Some Sherlock Holmes was about the extent of my mystery reading. I started reading these books because I liked the main character. (Still do.) Now, though, I'm a different reader. With a lot more experience with mystery, I'm better at keeping characters straight, their comings and goings, so that I'm less often confused. More genre-savvy, as they say. That makes it easier to just read. I still have to pause once in a while and say wait, is that the guy who loves the fossils or the guy who lost his leg in the war...... But then I get there.
With that advantage, I read this with even more pleasure than the first time. This version of Jane is probably my favorite literary character--I'd have to sit and ponder that for awhile, because there are others I love, obviously, but she's right up at the top for sure--and it's so fun to see her being awesome. She is not an action hero, but she gets to be *involved* in the actual action here, doing things that a proper youngish woman would not do in that era, and so contribute to the outcome. Yes, she gets to be smart and figure stuff out. Yes, she gets to say clever things. But she also risks her own safety to solve the mystery, and it matters.
I love it.
You see, they're in Lyme, and there are some deaths, and there's some smuggling, and maybe some French dudes, and.... it's a whole thing.
Excellent mystery, good misdirections, good action, excellent conclusion. Seriously--5 stars. Recommended.
I'm changing that to a 5. Maybe I'm different now. Not sure why. This is what I like to read.
To be honest, I think when I started reading this series, I almost never read mystery. Some Sherlock Holmes was about the extent of my mystery reading. I started reading these books because I liked the main character. (Still do.) Now, though, I'm a different reader. With a lot more experience with mystery, I'm better at keeping characters straight, their comings and goings, so that I'm less often confused. More genre-savvy, as they say. That makes it easier to just read. I still have to pause once in a while and say wait, is that the guy who loves the fossils or the guy who lost his leg in the war...... But then I get there.
With that advantage, I read this with even more pleasure than the first time. This version of Jane is probably my favorite literary character--I'd have to sit and ponder that for awhile, because there are others I love, obviously, but she's right up at the top for sure--and it's so fun to see her being awesome. She is not an action hero, but she gets to be *involved* in the actual action here, doing things that a proper youngish woman would not do in that era, and so contribute to the outcome. Yes, she gets to be smart and figure stuff out. Yes, she gets to say clever things. But she also risks her own safety to solve the mystery, and it matters.
I love it.
You see, they're in Lyme, and there are some deaths, and there's some smuggling, and maybe some French dudes, and.... it's a whole thing.
Excellent mystery, good misdirections, good action, excellent conclusion. Seriously--5 stars. Recommended.
February 1, 2020
"Jane and her family are looking forward to a peaceful holiday in the seaside village of Lyme Regis. Yet on the outskirts of town an overturned carriage forces the shaken travelers to take refuge at a nearby manor house. And it is there that Jane meets the darkly forbidding yet strangely attractive Mr. Geoffrey Sidmouth. What murky secrets does the brooding Mr. Sidmouth seek to hide? Jane suspects the worst -- but her attention is swiftly diverted when a man is discovered hanged from a makeshift gibbet by the sea. The worthies of Lyme are certain his death is the work of 'the Reverend,' the ringleader of the midnight smuggling trade whose identity is the town's paramount mystery. Now, it fall to Jane to entrap and expose the notorious Reverend -- even if the evidence points to the last person on earth she wants to suspect ... a man who already may have won her heart."
~~back cover
105 pages into the book, I realized I was bored silly. This fanfic series seems to tend toward the "much ado about nothing" philosophy of filling out a book. Not much has happened, aside from the hanging, except a series of encounters consisting of gossip and counter-gossip. With the exception of a trip to the fossil cliffs, which was of necessity short and not very revealing. I can almost guess the rest of the book: Jane finds herself compelled to dive into the mystery of the smuggling ring, and all the clues point more and more toward Mr. Sidmouth. And therefore you can bet he's not the Reverend. My money's on Captain Fielding, who has presented himself as an excise man.
I certainly am not in the mood for another 230 pages of this.
~~back cover
105 pages into the book, I realized I was bored silly. This fanfic series seems to tend toward the "much ado about nothing" philosophy of filling out a book. Not much has happened, aside from the hanging, except a series of encounters consisting of gossip and counter-gossip. With the exception of a trip to the fossil cliffs, which was of necessity short and not very revealing. I can almost guess the rest of the book: Jane finds herself compelled to dive into the mystery of the smuggling ring, and all the clues point more and more toward Mr. Sidmouth. And therefore you can bet he's not the Reverend. My money's on Captain Fielding, who has presented himself as an excise man.
I certainly am not in the mood for another 230 pages of this.
October 28, 2011
The Being A Jane Austen Mystery Series by Stephanie Barron is a brilliant series of novels that features our beloved Jane Austen being thrust into the midst of mystery, murder and mayhem. In each novel Jane Austen uses her astute observational skills, keen understanding of human nature, and fierce determination to solve various mysteries. Each novel follows the time line of Jane Austen's career and accurately portrays true events and people from her life. This second book takes place in the year 1804 (two years after Jane Austen's last adventure in Scargrave). In this novel Mr. and Mrs. Austen travel to Lyme Regis with their two daughters on an extended holiday. Instead of strolling along The Cobb, frequenting the shops on Broad Street, and writing a few chapters in her new manuscript, our beloved author/Regency sleuth becomes embroiled in another mystery and spends her holiday traipsing about caves, visiting prisoners in the Lyme gaol, and gathering clues about a mysterious band of smugglers!
Having read several novels from Stephanie Barron's excellent Being a Jane Austen Mystery Series there are three elements that I have found to be synonymous in all her novels. One is her exemplary emulation of Jane Austen's voice. Stephanie Barron's voice for Jane Austen is the perfect blend of intelligence, impertinence, and sarcasm. I know we have no way of knowing how accurate Stephanie Barron is in her portrayal, but my guess is she is pretty darn close!
To continue reading, go to: http://janeaustenreviews.blogspot.com...
Having read several novels from Stephanie Barron's excellent Being a Jane Austen Mystery Series there are three elements that I have found to be synonymous in all her novels. One is her exemplary emulation of Jane Austen's voice. Stephanie Barron's voice for Jane Austen is the perfect blend of intelligence, impertinence, and sarcasm. I know we have no way of knowing how accurate Stephanie Barron is in her portrayal, but my guess is she is pretty darn close!
To continue reading, go to: http://janeaustenreviews.blogspot.com...
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