Saturday, March 22, 2008

Saturdays with Jane: Jane and the Unpleasantness at Scargrave Manor



What do you know? I can finish a novel when I put my mind to it. I'd just about given up hope. And with a week to spare in the month too. Now the question is: do I tempt Luck and try to squeeze something else in before starting Jane and the Man of the Cloth for April? Or do I play it safe and get an early start on Man of the Cloth?

Best to play it safe, knowing me. Besides, after finishing Scargrave I'm excited to get cracking on the next one. I've read it a couple of times before too and know what to expect. There are pirates.

Scargrave also has a cool, un-Austen-like element to it, but I can't tell you what it is without ruining the whole thing. It's unfortunate though, because it's my favorite part of the book and I want to go on and on about it. Still, there are other things to recommend this first novel in Stephanie Barron's Jane Austen Mysteries.

The action picks up right after Jane's accepted Harris Bigg-Wither's marriage proposal and then turned him down less than 24 hours later. Still reeling from the event and wanting to get away from the local scandal it's caused, she gladly accepts an invitation to join a newly-married acquaintance of hers named Isobel Payne at her husband's country estate, Scargrave Manor. On the very night of Jane's arrival though, Lord Scargrave becomes violently ill and passes away during the night. The following day, Isobel's maid has gone missing and a note from her is delivered implicating Isobel and her step-son in Scargrave's death.

That's as far as I'll go in the plot description, except to say another death occurs and the law becomes involved to the point that Jane feels obligated to find the murderer or murderers in order to clear Isobel's name. Barron asserts in her introduction that "a woman of (Jane's) intellectual powers and perception of human nature would enjoy grappling with the puzzle presented by a criminal mind whenever it appeared in her way. Her genius for understanding the motives of others, her eye for detail, and her ear for self-expression - most of all her imaginative ability to see what might have been as well as what was - were her essential tools in exposing crime." I can't argue with that. Don't want to either, since that proposition is the basis for Barron's whole series that I enjoy so much.

I think I mentioned before that I have a hard time reading Austen. That's because she - at least in Pride and Prejudice - takes such a leisurely approach to unfolding her story. There's not much action to pull you forward and it's hard for me to invest that much time in a story when the only motivation to keep reading is to see if Mr. So-and-So can ever fall in love with Miss Whatsername. I need some thrills to keep me interested.

The first time I read Scargrave, I read it as a straight mystery fan and I have to confess that read that way, it reads like an Austen book. Barron unfolds the story slowly and frequently interrupts it with details about English life in the early 1800s. There are all the balls and flirtations and silly girls and noble gentlemen and sincere friendships and backstabbing hypocrites and lovely walks through the countryside that you expect to find in an Austen story.

Barron also has an ear for Austen's banter though. Jane throws around quips and insults that frequently had me smiling if not chuckling out loud to myself. It's one of the reasons I've adopted Barron's version of Jane as the official one in my mind. I'm not ashamed to say that if I had to make a choice between the real Jane Austen and Barron's creation, I wouldn't hesitate to stick with Barron's. She's too charming and delightful a character.

Barron also fills Scargrave Manor with all sorts of other Austenian characters. There's Isobel, the true friend and damsel in distress. There's her step-son Fitzroy, an obvious (because Barron comes right out and says it) counterpart to Mr. Darcy. There are the late Scargrave's nephews George and Thomas Hearst: George being a serious man with ambitions to join the clergy; Thomas being a dashing military officer with a rascally side and the atmosphere of scandal hanging over him. There are Isobel's aunt and cousin, Madame and Fanny Delahoussaye respectively. Madame is just the kind of controlling mother so often depicted in Austen's novels and Fanny is a silly, flighty girl in love with the handsome, but equally flighty Tom Hearst.

Scargrave may not be a thrilling, fast-paced mystery, but it is a damn interesting Austen pastiche. What I love about it is that it gives me the flavor of an Austen book, but adds all these secrets and murders to keep things moving. Lord Harold Trowbridge, for instance, is another visitor to Scargrave Manor, but he's not especially Austenian. He has nefarious designs on Isobel's property in the West Indes and he's one of the most deliciously sinister characters I've ever had the pleasure of reading about. If they were to make a movie out of Scargrave today, he'd be played by Jason Isaacs. I remember when I first read the book that it was Trowbridge who kept me reading when it seemed like Jane wasn't uncovering clues quickly enough for me.

Five out of five dead bodies in the hay shed.

In related news, I had some time this afternoon, so I went by Once Upon a Crime and picked up the three Austen Mysteries that I don't have yet. Its been a while since I was there and I didn't realize that their annual Write of Spring event is going on. The place was packed with readers and local authors. Made me realize how much I miss shopping and going to readings and signings there. I'm not going to wait so long until my next visit.

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