My Five Word TL:DR Review: My Favourite Instalment So Far

I’m very much enjoying the Miss Austen Investigates series, I had a few little issues here and there with the first couple of books but I find that I’ve really sunk into this series and I’m enjoying Jane’s exploits very much, I hope there are plenty more instalments in the pipeline.

Pride, Prejudice and Peril sees Jane and her sister Cassandra on a visit to Bath. They accompany their relatives, Mr and Mrs Leigh-Perrot, and although most people travel to Bath to take of the waters, enjoy the gatherings and hopefully secure a husband in the process, neither Jane or Cassandra have much interest in parading about but they are happy to accompany their relatives and Jane is hopeful to make contacts in the publishing business and possibly make inroads towards publishing her first book. They’ve barely had time to attend more than one assembly when their Aunt Jane (Mrs Leight-Perrot) is arrested on the most shocking of charges, accused of stealing a card of lace. She is arrested and imprisoned and it is left to Jane and her sister to try and uncover what is really going on and rescue their aunt before she is transported or worse.

I won’t discuss the plot, it’s amusing to discover it as you read along and I actually enjoyed Jane’s thought processes. I think this particular addition to the series was improved by the role of Cassandra as a grounding influence. The two spend a good deal of time together and while it isn’t possible to completely curb Jane’s natural impulsiveness, the steady calmness of Cassy certainly helps.

Instead here are my thoughts and feelings.

This was a very easy story to sink into. There’s the mystery pertaining to Aunt Jane, but what started out as surely nothing more than a simple mistake soon turns a lot more sinister eventually leading to murder. Jane and Cassandra find themselves dashing around bath interviewing people – many of whom have one thing in common – which obviously I’m not going to share here and often putting themselves in danger.

The setting is great. I loved that the story takes place in Bath with lots of little nods to Austen’s body of work – particularly the name of the highway robber. I really hope that the author intends to visit Bath again for more shenanigans. It really leant itself to the mystery taking place, with dark alleys, and shady places contrasting starkly with the extravagant balls and dances.

The writing itself. I feel like the author has really found her feet with this series. The dialogue, story, descriptions and pacing are really good. I never had a dull moment. And she manages to achieve a very good balance here with an easy reading style that still evokes the period very well.

As I said I really liked Jane and Cassandra’s relationship in this novel. almost as much as I sometimes felt that other members of her family were a little bit mean to her. Her brother and sister-in-law visit them to ‘help’ and spend most of their time trying to arrange a suitable match for Cassandra while ignoring Jane and leaving her out of excursions.

Overall, and I realise this is a relatively short review – which certainly isn’t a reflection of my enjoyment – I really enjoyed this and look forward eagerly to seeing what the author comes up with next.

I received a copy through Netgalley, courtesy of the publisher, for which my thanks. The above is my own opinion.

My rating 4.5 of 5 stars