Jane and the Year Without a Summer

The 14th in Barron’s “Being a Jane Austen Mystery” series (following Jane and the Waterloo Map) sees Jane and her sister Cassandra traveling to Cheltenham Spa to take the waters in hopes they will cure the bad health that Jane currently suffers. Her family also seems to be suffering many personal losses. Money troubles abound and her brother Charles has lost his ship and been called to accounts by the Admiralty. Once in Cheltenham, a trip which she is paying for from her book royalties, Jane finds not all is well there either, and she is once again entangled in a case. Audie-award winning narrator Kate Reading, who has read the series, shines with a voice that embodies Austen: highly observant, sharp, tonal, and descriptive. The voices of other characters are equally well done, and the pacing is spot on, giving Austen all the time needed to make her comments.