cosy-mystery, amateur-sleuth, small-business, small-town, law-enforcement, family, friendship, murder, murder-investigation, England*****

Erin and her friend Farnsworth, the town eccentric, are a riot! The friends in the Jane Austin Society group from Kirkbymoorside, in North Yorkshire, England are at a conference in York. Then the first body is found and Erin is certain that it was murder. She had snooped in a previous incident and got to know DI Peter Hadley who gets to investigate this case as well. The storyline was well written and the characters are very likable. I thought the mystery was well-plotted and written with some great red herrings. Practically every character quotes some person from a Jane Austen novel throughout the course of this book. Great fun!
I requested and received a free temporary ebook copy from Crooked Lane Books via NetGalley. Thank you!

I completely enjoyed Elizabeth Blake's A Jane Austen Society Mystery series offering of 'Death and Sensibility'. Erin is in York with the Northern Branch of the Jane Austen Society who administrating a conference when their keynote speaker is murdered. I enjoyed the pace of the book as it unfolded, with plenty of opportunity to define suspects. Coupled with the mystery is Erin's confusion about her feelings for DI Peter Hemming and fellow society member Jonathan Alder. I was surprised by the conclusion and look forward to more with the Society.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from the p0ublisher via NetGalley. The opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own.

[Thanks to NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for gifting me an eARC of this title in exchange for an honest review.]

Erin Coleridge, member of the Northern branch of the Jane Austen Society, is attending a conference in York when a very unpleasant academic is found dead. While the police originally believe the death caused by natural causes, Erin believes it was murder, and she begins investigating by trying to learn more about the dead man and her fellow conference attendees.

This is the second instalment of the Jane Austen Society Mystery series, so Erin has already had some experience meddling with police investigations, and with police detective Peter Hemming. (There is a nice bit of romance simmering between those two, but Erin is also attracted to gorgeous Jonathan Alder, who every woman at the conference has a crush on.) I really enjoyed Erin’s amateur investigation, and the usual push and pull with the police that is customary in this kind of mystery. The secondary characters were well-defined, it was easy to tell them apart even though sometimes the depictions were a little exaggerated, such as with the pair of fellow Jane Austen Society members who are almost a comic duo of one dowdy and one sharply dressed and made-up.

It was a bit hard to suspend my disbelief about the setting, however. I have never attended a Jane Austen conference, but I have attended plenty of Shakespeare ones and the amount of downtime the characters had, especially as they were meant to be the organizers, was impossible to believe. Also, I’m not sure how long this conference lasts, but it felt much too long for academics (most of them probably in precarious situations) to pay to stay at a luxury hotel.

Still, I was liking the book a lot until the end. The identity of the killer is a surprise, and the final confrontation is truly exciting. However, when Erin, her friends, and the police discuss is afterwards, the killer’s motive wasn’t really explained. There is one off-hand remark along the lines of “oh, it must be because…”, but while so many characters had excellent motives this was unsatisfying and felt under-developed. Overall, it was a pleasant book, which is why I rate it 3.5 stars (or four be default because most sites do not allow for half stars).

Suspicious Death....
A Jane Austen Society mystery and bookstore owner Erin is sniffing out a crime when an apparent heart attack victim expires at the latest conference. Erin is sure that there is more to the death than first appears. A gentle, slow paced read with some nicely drawn characters.

Super fun cozy mystery, second in its series. I will definitely go back and read the first.
Friends Farthington and Erin help organize a conference on Jane Austen and the keynote speaker is found dead! As the bodies start to stack up, Erin tries to ensure she is not next.

Erin Coleridge owns a bookstore in Kirkbymoorside, and she’s excited to get out of her town for a Jane Austen Society conference in York… That is, until someone dies.

The conference’s featured speaker, Barry Wolf suddenly dies from what is thought to be a heart attack. However, Erin is super suspicious because Barry has no history of heart disease.

She then decides to figure out who killed him in her own investigation and will stop at nothing to do so.

My review:

I LOVE cozy mysteries. ESPECIALLY on a sleepy Sunday with a cup of tea. However, this one wasn’t my favourite. It was quite slow-paced. There wasn’t a lot of action going on through most of the book, and it couldn’t keep my attention. It’s not that it was horrible, it’s just not my cup of tea. There are lots of Jane Austen references sprinkled throughout, so if you're a fan of hers, you'll probably enjoy this book.

Thank you to NetGalley, Crooked Lane Books, and Elizabeth Blake for this ARC. This review and all opinions are my own.

Delightfully engaging and enjoyable a cozy through and through. I’m partial to the cozy mystery genre and this did not disappoint. Good one to grab for a cozy night in.

Our main character Erin Coleridge is both a bookshop owner and a member of the Jane Austen Society. While attending a conference in York, the keynote speaker is found dead. Despite being ruled a heart attack, Erin believes there may have been foul play involved.

Going into this read, I was expecting a cozy mystery that nods to Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility. However, the writing is severely lacking, the plot is slow-paced, and, in my opinion, not compelling. This book does not appear to come to any conclusions regarding the possible murder. Every chapter, I was waiting for something, anything, to happen, but it never does. Overall, I wanted to enjoy this read, but I just could not.

Erin and Farnsworth are attending a Jane Austen convention. While Farnsworth finds romance, Erin finds a murder happening. Of course, she needs to solve the crime. Keynote speaker, Barry Wolf, ends up murdered and it is a challenge to solve the crime because everyone hated him. His ex wife also ends up murdered. Unexpected ending.

Disclaimer: I got this ARC from @NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I expected this to be a very fast-paced mystery. Unfortuntely, there isn't a lot of suspense or action going on for most of this book. Erin Coleridge is living out my dream as a bookshop owner and a member of the Jane Austen Society. The conference goes awry when the keynote speaker is found dead and she is told it's due to a heart attack, but Erin's not convinced.Erin never finds the murderer and there's no exciting plot twists like I thought there would be based on the premise.

Thank you Netgalley for the advance reader copy of Death and Sensibility by Elizabeth Blake in exchange for an honest review. Erin Coleridge is trying to pack a suitcase for a trip away from her bookstore, Kirkbymoorside, and cottage. Erin is going to a Jane Austen conference with her friend, Farnsworth. That night, a man dies in the cloakroom, who was to be the keynote speaker at the conference. In between meetings, Erin and friends explore York, including a ghost tour. I enjoyed this story, though it has been many years since I read any Jane Austen books. There were quite a few puns woven into the plot as well as Austen quotes. A very interesting story. Thank you for opening my eyes to a Jane Austen conference.

Bookshop owner and member of the Jane Austen Society, Erin Coleridge and her fellow members attend a conference in York to discuss all things Jane Austen. It is held at the elegant York Grand Hotel and as the conference gets underway the keynote address speaker is found dead of what appears to be a heart attack. Erin is not convinced the death was from natural causes and urges Detective Peter Hemming, her love interest, to check for poisons. The "victim" Barry Wolf is an unpleasant, vain man with the knack for making enemies so there are plenty of suspects to choose from.

I did not give this book a very good rating because I found it slow paced and frankly there wasn't much sleuthing going on. All the characters seemed to do was eat and quote Jane Austen. The main character Erin never really comes to any conclusions about who was the murderer and the book has virtually no twists and turns to keep the story interesting and hold your attention. A rather disappointing read.

The Jane Austen Society is having a week-long conference in York and all of the chapters are coming together. When the key note speaker dies of an apparently heart attack, only Erin believes he was murdered.

As Erin pokes around, she finds the man was not well liked, by anyone! But which of the attendees killed the man? So many suspects, so few days in the conference, and Erin is determined to make sure a killer doesn’t go free when everyone heads home at the end of the conference.

A fun series for Jane Austen fans, literary fans and plain old cozy fans. There are quotes from many Jane Austen works sprinkled liberally throughout the books, making for not only a great whodunit, but a challenge to recall which books the quotes are from. We could all have do with a friendship like Erin and Farnsworth have as they toss their quotes back and forth.

Erin, and her Jane Austin Society group are at a conference in York. When the guest speaker is killed, then a couple of more are killed, Erin goes into detective mode and starts asking questions. A fun cozy mystery, with a good group of characters. This is the second in the series, but the first I've read. Wasn't lost, and enjoyed it a lot. Highly recommend this one. Hard to put down.

I had high hopes for this book, but it fell flat for me. There wasn’t anything that quickly grabbed my attention, and the characters didn’t click as I thought they would have.
While the book wasn’t fantastic, there were some parts I did enjoy, but then I honestly skimmed through until the end.

3 stars *may change
I'm not exactly very well-read in the "cozy paperback mom mystery" genre, but eh, you gotta try everything once in a while?
Jane Austen has always been one of those revered idols of women's literature and romance, although I have to admit that out of all her books Emma was the only one I liked. Sense and Sensibility was rather dull, no? It's quite fine, The book referenced it quite a bit (of course it did, I wasn't expecting anything else) and I remembered just enough of the original novel to be like "Oh, I know that."
Speaking of, I actually liked the writing a bit. That sounds a bit mean, dunnit? I suppose I wasn't expecting the writing to be so simple and at times even fun to read. It was very easy to go through. Character interactions were snarky enough. Although, I do think it was a bit of nothing? Again, the only mystery books I've ever read before are all Agatha Christie, so I'm very used to mystery novels being completely centered on one person looking for clues and interviewing others. I guess I have nothing to compare this to. Sure, there's a murder, but it's also full of relationship issues and a whole lot of just talking.
Okay, let's get onto the big elephant. This book had, like, casual comments that were borderline offensive but I can't even tell? Like, one of the main women flirts with this fella named Sam and the other one goes "Oh, he's gay, trust me." Then they're talking about how the main girl loves the snow so her parents used to call her Inuit? Also, one of the side characters is a Senegalian woman and in one of their interactions a main character asks "How is your English so good?" Haha?
As an immigrant, I don't personally think this question is meant to be offensive or condescending most of the time, but I do think it's a really stupid question that I don't like when people ask me. Like, for the same reason as to why yours is, we both studied it! I don't know...I'm sure the author didn't mean any harm, but it really is a horrible question to ask an immigrant.
I dunno. This book was alright. Not fantastic, but then what did anyone expect it to be?
Thanks to netgalley for an advanced reader's copy.

I wanted to like this. I'm an Austen fan as well.
The premise sounded fun. However I found the characters to be dull. There was really no reason for Erin to become so quickly involved in the death. I skimmed through to see if it got more exciting but it did not.