Professor Phaedra Brighton spends her days studying and teaching the writings of Jane Austen. So when her aunt Wendy was worried about her Bed and Breakfast needing more guests for the summer, Phaedra came up with the idea of a Jane Austen Murder Mystery Week. She helped get things set up and even found some notable guests for the week, including romance writer Harriet Overton and her husband and Charlottesville reporter Rollo Barron.
Phaedra has worked hard to plan out a Regency themed week of activities. She’s gotten together with the local theater director and costumer to create a murderous play for the guests to perform. There are teas and concerts, painting and archery, and even a masquerade ball at the end of the week.
But what Phaedra didn’t plan on is the actual murder of Harriet Overton.
Phaedra is stunned to find the body of the writer in the kitchen garden, by the rosemary, shot by a crossbow. Homicide detective Matt Morelli shows up to take over the police work, but Phaedra can’t help but wonder who could have done such a thing. She certainly wasn’t winning over a lot of friends with her judgments and criticisms, but was that enough for someone to shoot her?
Meanwhile, there is another professor staying at the inn to finish some writing, Shakespearean scholar Mark Seldon, who Phaedra finds attractive, as well as rumors of her ex-boyfriend seen around town. Her aunt Wendy is also seeing an ex, a realtor who has recently come back to town, and her sister Hannah is back from her job as pastry chef at the British Embassy in Washington D.C., brokenhearted at the sudden departure of her boyfriend.
Even though Detective Morelli tells Phaedra to leave the investigating to him, she can’t stop herself from gathering information and secrets, looking over crime scenes, and trying to piece together who the killer could be with her two best friends, at their monthly Jane Austen Tea Society meetings.
But when the killer comes for Phaedra, will she figure out a way to get herself out of danger, or will someone decide to add “The End” to her story?
A Murderous Persuasion is the second book in Katie Oliver’s Jane Austen Tea Society Mystery series. Set in the small town of Laurel Springs, Virginia, this cozy offers a lot of Austen fun along with the charm of a traditional murder mystery. Fans of Jane Austen’s Persuasion and of the Regency era will find a lot to enjoy in this book.
I struggled with A Murderous Persuasion. I liked the Jane Austen references, but I thought the writing was uneven. Some scenes were well written, and the descriptions of the fashion were detail-oriented. But other scenes were rushed, or were just unrealistic, like when Detective Morelli got the handwriting analysis results of several people overnight. There are lots of red herrings with the mystery, but there were also a lot of characters to keep track of, and I did struggle with remembering who people were. This book isn’t perfect, but there is a lot to like about it. Fans of cozy mysteries and Jane Austen should see if they could be persuaded to take a chance on it.
Egalleys for A Murderous Persuasion were provided by Berkley Publishing Group through NetGalley, with many thanks.
