My Series-ous Reading Summer

I know that this summer wrap up of my Series-ous Reading feature is a tad late but rather necessary in order to clear my series slate for fall reading.

So, let’s begin with my July selection, Jane and the madness of Lord Byron, which is the tenth entry in Stephanie Barron’s Jane Austen Mysteries series. Here, Jane accompanies her recently widowed brother Henry to Brighton as a mutual means of relief from grieving the loss of his wife/Jane’s good friend Eliza .

During their journey , they wind up rescuing a young woman named Catherine Twinning who was being forcibly taken to Gretna Green by none other than the infamous Lord  Byron, who was determinedly attached to her.

The rescue of Catherine back to her father’s house was not an improvement as he immediately blamed his daughter for what had occurred and became more determined to marry Catherine off to a much older clergyman. As much as Jane wishes to interfere, her role in this sad situation is severely limited.

By trying to avoid Catherine at a social gathering, however, Jane later feels that she should’ve gotten more involved as the poor girl is found dead in Lord Byron’s bed the next morning. Her cause of demise was drowning yet she was discovered sewn into a shroud made from the sail of  Byron’s private boat!

This bizarre incident,of course, makes Byron the prime suspect but Jane has doubts about his guilt (even before she meets him) and with the help of Henry, uncovers a few secrets and secret passageways to find the real killer before the wrong man is punished for this crime.

What I do like about this series is how plausible Barron makes Jane’s detective skills by not turning her into some super powered figure of adventure. Instead, the reader gets a very relatable leading lady who not only fits her keen intellect into the norms of her time but manages to work her way around when need be in almost a modern fashion.

Although we do get some nice  “what if” entertainment out of Jane meeting up with Byron( they didn’t in real life) and the equally bizarre Lady Caroline Lamb, who has a bit of a Helena Bonham Carter vibe to me.

All in all, this was a wonderful summer vacation read and I’m glad that I skipped ahead in this series to engage with both Austen and Byron on the fictional beach:

For August, it was time to visit with Maggie Hope in The Prime Minister’s Secret Agent by Susan Elia MacNeal.

Trying to physically and emotionally recover from her mission into WWII Germany, Maggie is a trainer of potential spies on a remote Scottish island. When forced by her superiors to take a little time off, Maggie attends a ballet in Edinburgh where her good friend Sarah is performing. At the end of the show, the lead ballerina collapses during the encores and dies before the night is over.

The cause of death is deemed to be poisoning and Sarah is seen as one of the suspects, vying for that spot on stage. However, Maggie notices the strange spots on both the victim and the other two suspects that are oddly similar to a dead sheep that she reported to the local vet back at the spy camp.

With Sarah’s life on the line, Maggie gets herself back into the game to find the source of the infection before it’s too late. As she’s regaining her momentum, a major shift on the international battlefield is about to add a new ally in the fight against Nazi Germany, an ally that will require Maggie to use her special talents to help secure their aid.

MacNeal is very good at balancing so many plot points and character arcs throughout her series while keeping her central lead firmly on the mark.

 As Maggie finds her way out of despair and endeavors to be of use in such troubling times, she’s quite a good example to follow there. Granted, she’s not written as a role model for a campaign poster but her humanity in the face of personal woes and worldwide chaos is engagingly admirable nonetheless:

That takes us to September and sends me back to Jane Austen country with Jane and His Lordshp’s Legacy by Stephanie Barron.

The Lordship in this case is the late Lord Harold Trowbridge, who leaves Jane a rather personal inheritance just as she arrives at her new home in Chawton with her disagreeable mother in tow.

On top of that unexpected surprise, another shocker is found in the cellar as the body of a local workman is discovered. Dealing with such rapid changes as well as new neighbors eager for gossip is a lot to deal with but Jane is definitely more than up to the challenge.

I know my going back and forth in time with this series is quite wonky but it does help that I know enough about Austen’s life and times to keep my head steady (don’t try this at home, new readers!) at the helm , so to speak.

 Soon enough, I will be fully caught with these books but that’s a tale for a future time indeed: