As anxious as he is for his first child to be born, Frank has an immediate concern about a good friend of his, Tom Seagrave, who is accused of murder. During the capture of a French ship, Tom is said to have killed the captain of that vessel upon accepting the other man’s surrender, a serious charge that could see him hanged.
Seagrave’s main accuser is a lieutenant named Chessyre,whose motive for giving false witness may be professional jealousy as he has been passed over for promotion time and again, while “Lucky Tom” has been very successful in capturing prize money redeeming ships.
When Chessyre goes missing before the hearing ans later found dead, Seagrave’s situation goes from bad to worse. Despite being promised to be given Seagrave’s much superior ship if a guilty verdict is reached, Frank feels honor bound to clear his friend’s name and Jane is more than willing to aid him in this quest:
Jane not only bonds with Seagrave’s distraught wife Louisa (who is taking too much “health tonic” for her own good) but finds a way to visit the crew of the former French ship as a volunteer nurse.
During those missions of mercy, she comes across a French crewman that is clearly of the officer class, perhaps a ship’s doctor. His version of what happened during the siege contradicts Chessyre’s account and he is willing to testify under oath, provided that he would be allowed to stay in England.
The death of Chessyre complicates that plan and as it turns out, this new witness is more than he seems to be. Can Jane use her savvy skills to save both men before an undue justice is served?
Having Jane work with her brother Frank on this case adds a nice touch of swashbuckling to the proceedings here(including a rescue from a burning ship!) and the engaging supporting characters such as aloof widow Phoebe Carruthers, the remote yet distressed Louisa Seagrave and a very handy in a tight corner fellow known as the Bosun’s Mate enrich the story immensely.
It’s also nice to have a few moments of comic relief from Jane’s mother (who is quite the Mrs. Bennet inspiration indeed!). At one point, she hopes to match Jane up with the navy doctor attending the prisoners, something that neither party has in mind! Fortunately, such ill conceived plans do not cause too much trouble there:
Jane and the Final Mystery is due out this October, where a gravely ill Miss Austen nonetheless takes up a search for a killer at her nephew’s boarding school. A fitting tale for Halloween and Austen fans alike, it seems.
It will be a sad ending for this series but not a miserable one by any means. Barron has enlivened the legacy of Jane Austen with these reimagined stories that both delight old fans and new, with the bonus of pleasing historical mystery readers as well. I am persuaded that this final mystery will do credit to both Austen’s work and Barron’s writing quite nicely:
Their mutual target of inquiry is Lady Sophia Challoner , a widow with no love for English politics who may also be doing some sabotage for Napoleon’s government to boot.
She also happens to be living on an estate with possible haunting spirits and some all too real secret passages that would thrill the Scooby gang as well as Catherine Morland of Northanger Abbey most suitably to be sure.
We shall soon see!:
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