Lord Moira's Echo

by Stuart Bennett

Jane Austen had at least a taste of London high life. In 1813 a barouche drove her around town in what she called “solitary elegance.” Two years later, after a tour of his palatial Carlton House, she was invited to dedicate her last lifetime novel, Emma, to the Prince Regent.

What if she had moved in such circles earlier? What if she had fallen in love?
What if her banker brother, Henry Austen, had been caught in a web of corruption that did more than destroy his own enterprises?

Lord Moira’s Echo is both a love story and a tale of dark intrigue. It draws on unpublished archives to introduce an historical character who might have met Jane Austen during the very years when almost nothing is known about her. The story is told from two perspectives, Lord Moira’s own, and that of a young Canadian musician, Vanessa Horwood, who was the protagonist of Stuart Bennett’s previous novel, The Perfect Visit.

233 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 18, 2014

About the author

Stuart Bennett is an author and antiquarian bookseller in Charleston, South Carolina. He became a Christie’s auctioneer in London in 1976, started his ongoing rare book business in 1980, and has published widely on both sides of the Atlantic. His first book, How to Buy Photographs was commissioned by Christie's in 1985. Trade Bookbinding in the British Isles followed in 2004 and soon after he turned to fiction, tinkering with his first novel, a time-travel fantasy The Perfect Visit for years before finally publishing it in 2011. Three other novels followed, the latest, The Charleston Gambit, set during the British occupation of South Carolina during the American Revolution. It was reviewed in The Charleston Mercury: "If you are looking for a read that weaves history, culture and life together in the wondrous way of historical fiction, this should be your first choice."

Reviews

[Laurel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Time travel and Jane Austen romance meld into an interesting novel seeped in amazing research of the era and of Austen's family. Stuart Bennett knows his Austen lore and expresses it beautifully, creating a fictionalized romance for Austen and the time traveler who is interwoven into her life. I recommend Lord Moira's Echo to readers who are ardent Austen fans and crave a fictionalized "what if" of her life.