A JANE AUSTEN ENCOUNTER is Book Three in The Elizabeth and Richard Mystery Series.
BOOK DESCRIPTION
English professors Elizabeth and Richard are celebrating twenty years of marriage with their dream vacation—visiting all Jane Austen’s homes in England. But not even the overpowering personality of their Oxford guide or the careful attentions of their new friends can keep the tour free from lurking alarms. When a box of old documents is donated to the Jane Austen Centre in Bath, Richard volunteers to help sort through it. Later that night, however, he finds the Centre’s director bleeding on her office floor. Could the valuable letter that has gone missing really lead them to new revelations about Jane Austen’s unfinished manuscript The Watsons?
Encounter Jane Austen with Elizabeth and Richard on their tour. Visit all the sites so redolent of Jane Austen and her characters in the beautiful city of Bath. Stay in the Chawton House Library and visit the charming Chawton cottage where Jane’s writing flowered, and the nearby Steventon church where her father was rector and her own faith developed. Stand by her grave in Winchester Cathedral and enjoy your time at the lovely country estate of Godmersham. But don’t let your guard down. Evil lurks even in the genteel world of Jane Austen.
REVIEWS
"Playful mystery featuring an engaging pair of amateur sleuths
A letter, apparently from Jane Austen’s great-niece, is at the heart of this entertaining literary mystery— the third volume in Donna Fletcher Crow’s Elizabeth and Richard series. American academics Elizabeth and Richard Spenser are celebrating their 20th wedding anniversary with a trip to England to visit Jane Austen’s various homes. Their first port of call is Bath, where Richard— thanks to his distinction as an Austen scholar— is invited to help sort through a box of documents donated anonymously to the city’s Jane Austen Centre.
Delighted to discover a letter that seems to contain new material about Austen’s unfinished novel, The Watsons, Richard is then horrified to find the centre’s director wounded and unconscious— and the precious document gone. Cue a tour of Austenland, in search of answers— in the company of a clutch of suspects who wouldn’t be out of place in an Agatha Christie novel.
It’s great fun— but just as entertaining as the mystery itself are the settings. Fletcher Crow brings Bath, Winchester and Chawton to vivid life in her pages, with a good helping of literary history and numerous references to Austen’s writings that illuminate the narrative.
The Spensers have already featured in adventures involving Dorothy L. Sayers and William Shakespeare. Where will their literary sleuthery take them next, I wonder?"
—Jane Austen’s Regency World
"I've always been a fan of the traditional cozy murder mystery such as Agatha Christie wrote, or Dorothy L. Sayers, or Margery Allingham—the sort of story portrayed on A & E or PBS Mystery Theatre. So I was excited to discover a modern-day voice that has captured that fast-paced and snappy dialogue that you would find in a Tommy & Tuppence whodunit. That voice is Donna Fletcher Crow, award-winning novelist.”
—Christine Lindsay, Twilight of the British Raj Series
THE ELIZABETH AND RICHARD MYSTERY SERIES
Shadow of Reality
A Midsummer Eve’s Nightmare
A Jane Austen Encounter
BOOK DESCRIPTION
English professors Elizabeth and Richard are celebrating twenty years of marriage with their dream vacation—visiting all Jane Austen’s homes in England. But not even the overpowering personality of their Oxford guide or the careful attentions of their new friends can keep the tour free from lurking alarms. When a box of old documents is donated to the Jane Austen Centre in Bath, Richard volunteers to help sort through it. Later that night, however, he finds the Centre’s director bleeding on her office floor. Could the valuable letter that has gone missing really lead them to new revelations about Jane Austen’s unfinished manuscript The Watsons?
Encounter Jane Austen with Elizabeth and Richard on their tour. Visit all the sites so redolent of Jane Austen and her characters in the beautiful city of Bath. Stay in the Chawton House Library and visit the charming Chawton cottage where Jane’s writing flowered, and the nearby Steventon church where her father was rector and her own faith developed. Stand by her grave in Winchester Cathedral and enjoy your time at the lovely country estate of Godmersham. But don’t let your guard down. Evil lurks even in the genteel world of Jane Austen.
REVIEWS
"Playful mystery featuring an engaging pair of amateur sleuths
A letter, apparently from Jane Austen’s great-niece, is at the heart of this entertaining literary mystery— the third volume in Donna Fletcher Crow’s Elizabeth and Richard series. American academics Elizabeth and Richard Spenser are celebrating their 20th wedding anniversary with a trip to England to visit Jane Austen’s various homes. Their first port of call is Bath, where Richard— thanks to his distinction as an Austen scholar— is invited to help sort through a box of documents donated anonymously to the city’s Jane Austen Centre.
Delighted to discover a letter that seems to contain new material about Austen’s unfinished novel, The Watsons, Richard is then horrified to find the centre’s director wounded and unconscious— and the precious document gone. Cue a tour of Austenland, in search of answers— in the company of a clutch of suspects who wouldn’t be out of place in an Agatha Christie novel.
It’s great fun— but just as entertaining as the mystery itself are the settings. Fletcher Crow brings Bath, Winchester and Chawton to vivid life in her pages, with a good helping of literary history and numerous references to Austen’s writings that illuminate the narrative.
The Spensers have already featured in adventures involving Dorothy L. Sayers and William Shakespeare. Where will their literary sleuthery take them next, I wonder?"
—Jane Austen’s Regency World
"I've always been a fan of the traditional cozy murder mystery such as Agatha Christie wrote, or Dorothy L. Sayers, or Margery Allingham—the sort of story portrayed on A & E or PBS Mystery Theatre. So I was excited to discover a modern-day voice that has captured that fast-paced and snappy dialogue that you would find in a Tommy & Tuppence whodunit. That voice is Donna Fletcher Crow, award-winning novelist.”
—Christine Lindsay, Twilight of the British Raj Series
THE ELIZABETH AND RICHARD MYSTERY SERIES
Shadow of Reality
A Midsummer Eve’s Nightmare
A Jane Austen Encounter
