Jane and the Final Mystery

The final volume of the critically acclaimed mystery series featuring Jane Austen as amateur sleuth March 1817: As winter turns to spring, Jane Austen’s health is in slow decline, and threatens to cease progress on her latest manuscript. But when her nephew Edward brings chilling news of a death at his former school, Winchester College, not even her debilitating ailment can keep Jane from seeking out the truth. Arthur Prendergast, a senior pupil at the prestigious all-boys’ boarding school, has been found dead in a culvert near the schoolgrounds—and in the pocket of his drenched waistcoat is an incriminating note penned by the young William Heathcote, the son of Jane’s dear friend Elizabeth. Winchester College is a world unto itself, with its own language and rites of passage, cruel hazing and dangerous pranks. Can Jane clear William’s name before her illness gets the better of her? Over the course of fourteen previous novels in the critically acclaimed Being a Jane Austen Mystery series, Stephanie Barron has won the hearts of thousands of fans—crime fiction aficionados and Janeites alike—with her tricky plotting and breathtaking evocation of Austen’s voice. Now, she brings Jane’s final season—and final murder investigation—to brilliant, poignant life in this unforgettable conclusion. Brother James calls in an old friend, Winchester surgeon Giles Lyford, to examine his ailing sister. Lyford, who consults at Winchester hospital, believes he can cure Jane if only she will remove to Winchester within reach of his care. Elizabeth Heathcote’s worried missive arrives at the perfect time. Elizabeth offers Jane and her sister Cassandra lodgings near her home in the Cathedral Close, at No. 8 College Street, overlooking the Headmaster’s garden and convenient to Giles Lyford’s surgery. Jane’s brother, James, sends his carriage and his son James-Edward to escort Jane and Cassandra during the sixteen-mile journey south from Chawton. James-Edward has recently left Winchester College for Oxford, but he is a close personal friend of the younger William Heathcote. James-Edward’s guarded observations of life at the school sound a warning bell in Jane’s mind. Winchester is seething with divided loyalties, antagonistic prefects (sixth form boys who rule the school) sadistic bullying and exploitative masters. But is all of that convenient cover for a more insidious plan to deny William Heathcote his inheritance—and his life?