cover image Pride, Prejudice & Poison: A Jane Austen Society Mystery

Pride, Prejudice & Poison: A Jane Austen Society Mystery

Elizabeth Blake. Crooked Lane, $26.99 (352p) ISBN 978-1-68331-574-2

All is not well in the Jane Austen Society in Kirkbymoorside, North Yorkshire, as shown by this winning series launch from Blake, a pseudonym of Carole Buggé (The Haunting of Torre Abbey). Tempers flare during a society meeting at the local church, and the society’s newly elected president, Sylvia Pemberthy, soon turns up dead outside the church meeting hall. Suspects include Sylvia’s husband and her lover. Then there’s Kirkbymoorside’s well-preserved aging siren, Hetty Miller, who regarded Sylvia as promiscuous. Meanwhile, Hetty’s frumpy best friend, Prudence Pettibone, and Pru’s doting husband, Winton, hope Pru will have a shot at the vacant presidency. Bookshop owner Erin Coleridge turns amateur sleuth, enlisting her offbeat friend, Farnsworth Appleby, in her investigation, along with 10-year-old Polly Marlowe. The village is rife with scandals and secrets, as well as both shocking and delightful romances. The reader doesn’t have to recognize all the Austen references to appreciate this fine whodunit. Agent: Paige Wheeler, Creative Media. (Aug.)