(courtesy Penguin Books Australia)
With 2025 being the 250th birthday of one Jane Austen, it seems entirely fitting that this delightful The Austen Christmas Murders by Jessica Bull find pride of place in the festive reviews section of SparklyPrettyBriiiightmas.
Now, as far as we know, and primary evidence is not as thick on the ground for this famous author as people would like, Jane Austen never investigated a single crime, let alone murder, didn’t seek justice for those who fell foul of the worst of society nor went on an Agatha Christie-esque sleuthing bender through the echelons of the British aristocracy.
But that matters not because in the assured hands of Bull, Jane Austen is entirely believable as a fearless investigator who refuses to be cowed by local magistrates in 1798 who determine who a set of skeletal remains belong to based on the most cursory of examinations, by the pressure from her parents and brother James, also a rector like his father, to simply drop the matter and by the uncaring dismissal of those close to the murder victim, or supposed murder victim, who seem to care very little, save one, for what happened to this person.
The remains are discovered in the cellar of the Deane Parsonage where Jane’s brother James and his second wife, and ardent social climber, Mary, who has just given birth to the nephew who will become Jane’s chief biographer, and it appears that the body belongs to that of a deserting soldier who evaded his duty and sought refuge in the cellar of a building from which he then couldn’t escape.
Or is there a more sinister reason she wishes everyone to believe she is still alive? Only one thing is certain: if Mary Ellen’s mother will not investigate what became of her, then Jane must.
But as anyone who has ever read a crime novel will know, appearances are almost always deceiving, and Jane Austen, who needs a diversion this Christmas with most of her family away at war or away visiting and caring for others, refuses to believe that the obvious answer is the truth.
So, with dogged determination and a willingness to challenge norms and expected standards of behaviour, much as she does in her books, Austen sets about to prove who really died in that cellar and how and why.
Her sleuthing is not without its challenges, much of it stemming from the fact that her father refuses to allow her to speak directly to the magistrate or involve herself in his investigation – rather mischievously, Austen concludes, that the letter of law would dictate that if she can’t be part of another’s investigation that she must launch and prosecute her own – but she keeps at it and soon, after pushing boundaries and putting out a considerable number of noses, discovers the truth of the matter.
But that, quite naturally, must be left to the reading of The Austen Christmas Murders which though short, is most certainly sweet, and quite definitely satisfies the question on the jacket which poses “For who needs merriment, when there’s a mystery to solve?”
Bull does an exemplary job of evoking Austen as a person, of recreating British society of the time, especially when it comes to Christmas celebrations such as goose vs. turkey and the burning of the yule log, and of serving up a brilliantly plotted and compellingly engaging plot (complete with letters to and from various Austen family members which bring alive their ways of celebrating Christmas), all of which makes The Austen Christmas Murders precisely the sort of read you need to elevate and add merry substance to your marking of the season.
(courtesy official author site)