The Hapless Milliner by Jessica Bull

 

What fictional or real-life person do you think would make a great detective?  I don’t know why, but I would love to see a book with Eleanor Roosevelt solving crimes.

Young Jane Austen is enjoying a ball when a milliner’s dead body is found locked inside a cupboard during the middle of the ball.  Jane instantly becomes a part of the case as she identifies the victim.  When her brother George becomes the prime suspect, Jane works tirelessly to solve the case and free her brother.

My thoughts on this novel:

·       This was the June pick for the JASNA Northwoods book club.  I finished it before book club, but unfortunately had to miss the meeting due to a lingering illness.

·       This was a fun story and is the first book in the new series, “Miss Austen Investigates.”  I enjoyed the second book in the series, which I read before the first.

·       It felt like Jane Austen as a character was flightier or more apt to go against convention (secretly meeting with Tom LeFroy) than I always imagined.  It might be because I was an avid reader of the “Being A Jane Austen Mystery” series by Stephanie Barron for twenty years and I loved the characterization of a more serious Jane in that series.

·       I did love that it felt like the book was firmly set in Jane Austen’s world with her family and neighbors as fully formed characters.  I did miss some of Barron’s characterizations.

·       This was a cozy mystery that also included romance.

·       Jane had a bad habit of gossiping and speculation.

·       I did enjoy the final resolution of the mystery even thought I had guessed the ending earlier.

Overall, The Hapless Milliner by Jessica Bull is a fun new cozy mystery series for lovers of historical mystery and Jane Austen.

Book Source:  Purchased at Barnes & Noble