I didn't realise this book was part of a series until I started reading it. However, it can easily be read alone. I was attracted to this book by the novel idea of Jane Austen being a super sleuth, however, it really didn't reach my expectations. With mysteries, you expect the drama to begin at the earliest convenience, whereas the first murder didn't appear to nearly half way through the book. The pace was far too slow for my liking. Once the murders began, they followed in quick succession. When it came to discovering the murderer, I understood who committed the crime, but I honestly couldn't get my head around why they did it.

I imagine this book will be an acquired taste. If you are an Austen fan, you will probably love it.. For me personally, I neither loathed or loved it. I liked seeing how Georgian Britain celebrated Christmas. I thoroughly enjoyed the festivities that ran in the background of the story. I enjoyed reading about the tradition of the 12 days of Advent, where the festive celebrations didn't start until Christmas Day and continued through to January. I felt a bit of a heathen, not being knowledgable on how Christmas used to be celebrated.

The language and tone of the book was very in keeping with the period and Jane Austen's own writing. Although the use of archaic language became a little tiresome as I had to keep looking up the definitions of the words.

It is an interesting book, although rather slow at times, but would probably be a big hit with Austen fans.

I started this series when it first debuted back in 1996 (beginning with Jane and the Unpleasantness at Scargrave Manor). The series re-imagines Jane Austen as amateur detective. I read the first three and then decided I would rather read (and re-read) the actual Jane Austen novels.

This one being set at Christmas got saved for a rainy holiday season and we’ve had just that — so I dipped in.
The tale opens on Christmas Eve, 1814, as Jane Austen; her sister, Cassandra; and her mother are traveling to spend the Christmas season with her brother James and his family. James is now the rector of Steventon, where Jane grew up, so this is also a journey of return to her childhood home and neighborhood. As they gather to enjoy the twelve days of Christmas together, there is much to celebrate: Mansfield Park is selling nicely; Napoleon has been banished; British forces have seized Washington, DC; and on Christmas Eve, John Quincy Adams signs the Treaty of Ghent, which will end a war nobody in England really wanted.

It won't spoil anything to tell you that Jane is involved in two somewhat convoluted murders and then searches down a spy who is attempting to aid Napoleon in his war against England. Also, fair warning, like Jane Austen's books themselves, there are multiple characters, often with the same first names, and complicated familial relations.

The Austen's and friends know how to celebrate the holiday season -- there are lavish descriptions of food, festivities and dress. But also some bleak accounting of the cold, damp houses, as well as the varying impacts of societal class and wealth.

I had forgotten the delight in Ms. Barron's writing which deftly captures the style and wit of Austen, as well Regency manners and a true ear for Austen’s dialect. The author painstakingly sifted through Austen's letters and writings, as well as extensive biographical information, to create a finely detailed portrait of Austen's life—with a dash of fictional murder.