Jane and the Twelve Days of Christmas by Stephanie Barron

I read a lot of great Christmas books this year, but this is at the top of my list for the best Christmas book I read in 2019.  Jane and the Twelve Days of Christmas is part of a series of books in which Jane Austen is the heroine solving mysteries.  Stephanie Barron writes Jane Austen a as a perfectly realized woman that fits excellently into her own time with the humor and intelligence that shine through in her work and letters. 

In Jane and the Twelve Days of Christmas, Jane, Cassandra, and their mother are visiting her brother James in Steventon where Jane grew up.  They are invited to a Christmas House party in the nearby estate of The Vyne, which is the ancestral home of the Chute family.  The visit goes well until a courier dies by what appears to be a tragic accident.  Or is it?  The courier had stopped by to visit and also was carrying a signed version of the Treaty of Ghent.  Together with Mr. West, the son of the famous painter Benjamin West, Jane works towards solving the Crime.

I loved the characters in this novel.  Barron does an excellent job of weaving in the real history and what it would have been like to celebrate Christmas in the Regency period.  The mystery itself was intriguing.

Overall, Jane Austen and the Twelve Days of Christmas is a perfect Regency Christmas mystery.  It was an excellent novel for any time of year.

Book Source:  Purchased from Amazon.com.  Thank-you!