Jane and the Wandering Eye: Being the Third Jane Austen Mystery

As Christmas of 1804 approaches, Jane Austen finds herself "insupportably bored with Bath, and the littleness of a town." It is with relief that she accepts a peculiar commission from her Gentleman Rogue, Lord Harold Trowbridge—to shadow his niece, Lady Desdemona, who has fled to Bath to avoid the attentions of the unsavoury Earl of Swithin.

But Jane's idle diversion turns deadly when a man is discovered stabbed to death in the Theatre Royal. Adding to the mystery is an unusual object found on the victim's body—a pendant that contains a portrait of an eye! As Jane's fascination with scandal leads her deeper into the investigation, it becomes clear that she will not uncover the truth without some dangerous playacting of her own....

It's evident from the opening lines of Jane and the Wandering Eye that author Stephanie Barron knows both her Regency-period England and her Jane Austen. In this novel, the famous author takes center stage and finds herself embroiled in nefarious doings--in this case, the murder of a theater manager. As in the series' other books, Jane herself tells the story through a series of journal entries, and it is in her heroine's voice that Barron's genius comes to light: the same sharp eye for detail and ironic understanding of human character that informed Miss Austen's novels are hard at work in this fictional account of her sideline occupation as a sleuth. Though the mystery at the heart of Jane and the Wandering Eye is hardly a nail-biter, the wonderful mix of fictional and historical characters--all rendered up with Austenian wit--that inhabit this murderous comedy of manners are what will keep readers going to the very last page--and coming back for more.