The Jane Austen Murders

by Peggy Jaeger

Homicide Detective Elizabeth Bennett and senior partner Frank Churchill are called to Longbourne College when the body of student Charlotte Lucas is found bludgeoned to death. Charlotte, a scholarship student had a healthy supply of designer clothes, jewelry, and a safe deposit box loaded with cash. Where did she get them? Charlotte had a very antagonistic relationship with her English professor, Dr. Darcy, and he soon becomes the primary suspect. But did he do it?

Genres: Mystery

395 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 25, 2022

About the author

Peggy Jaeger is an award winning author of contemporary romance.
https://linktr.ee/peggyjaeger

Peggy is a contemporary romance writer who writes #RomComs about #strong women, the families who support them, and the men who can’t live without them.

#Family and #food play huge roles in Peggy’s stories because she believes there is nothing that holds a family structure together like sharing a meal…or two…or ten. Dotted with humor and characters that are as real as they are loving, Peggy brings all topics of daily life into her stories: life, death, sibling rivalry, illness and the desire for everyone to find their own happily ever after. Growing up the only child of divorced parents she longed for sisters, brothers and a family that vowed to stick together no matter what came their way. Through her books, she has created the families she wanted as that lonely child.

Her #hobbies include #painting #crafting #scrapbooking and #decoupaging old steamer trucks that she then gives as gifts to her friends

As a lifelong diarist, Peggy caught the blogging bug early on, and you can visit her at peggyjaeger.com where she's blogging about life, writing, and stuff that makes her go "What??!" daily.

She's a lifelong and avid #romance reader and writer, is a member of RWA and her local New Hampshire RWA Chapter

Reviews

[Carol · Rating 5 out of 5]

An extremely well written, complex murder mystery.
I was pulled into the story from the first page until the
shocking conclusion.
The plot was very intricately and cleverly layer.
A very good read.
A Kindle Vella Read.

[Crystal · Rating 3 out of 5]

This particular book was neat to read because it was broken up into small episodes within the book kind of like a TV show. I came across it on a Kindle affiliation called KindleVella. I liked the idea of being able to read an episode then pick it back up as time allowed without feeling like I had to remember what happened previously or being left on a cliffhanger of a chapter. I took notes too as I read and those I was able to browse so I could make connections. In this novella we follow detectives Elizabeth (Lizzy) Bennett and Frank Churchhill as they try to solve a young woman’s murder by the name Charlotte Lucas. I really enjoyed this author's spin on known figures and characters from Jane Austen’s time period. As they are investigating Charlotte’s murder it comes to light that not everyone involved are what they appeared to be starting with Charlotte. Along the way the readers are introduced to Dean Charles Bingley and Dr. Fitzwilliam Darcy. Sound familiar? I hope so, except this time they are brought through the investigation due to their connections to the victim. I love how the author kept Darcy’s personality intact while also giving him a soft side that allows the reader to really question who he is. I also enjoyed the author’s take on Charles Bingley. There was something refreshing about seeing a different side of him too while keeping the essence of the character as well. I will admit that with each episode I found myself less than impressed with the dialogue used in interviews. I feel like the author struggled with figuring out the best ways to keep the characters interesting with their own twist, but still keep their speech unique to them and not give away too much in the process. Yet, when Elizabeth and Frank would have a conversation it flowed better and had a smoothness to it that the interrogations lacked. I think I enjoy the Frank/Lizzy banter and watching Lizzy’s mind work more than I do anything else. I don’t care about the interviews much except it is nice to see familiar characters with a twist." I feel like because of this some episodes had more substance to it than others. For example, there was one that I feel like the author wanted a “what is this person hiding?” suspense line, but it failed. I contributed it to the way the characters talked to one another. I think they were trying to distinguish suspects from non-suspects by making a light versus dark mood when the characters were speaking, but if this was the case, it didn’t work that way for me. I’m not sure if having the author notes at the end of each chapter helped or hindered my understanding of what had happened during the chapter and so far in the story. I think part of this was since it was a story released by episode and I was reading it all at once because it was complete, I didn’t need the author notes to tell me the episode had ended. I just clicked to the next chapter, but if I had been reading it episode by episode then I can see those notes being helpful. I enjoyed the end even if I didn’t care about the characters other than Elizabeth, Frank, and Darcy. It was a neat spin on a classic nonetheless and I would definitely read another one of these by this author if given the chance. However, I’ve decided that I should stick to completed works because I am not patient enough to read chapter by chapter with these particular books. Even so, I would definitely recommend this story to other readers, especially ones who are fans of Jane Austen characters and love murder mysteries like I do. If you read this story, ENJOY!