JANE AND THE YEAR WITHOUT A SUMMER
May 1816: Jane Austen is feeling unwell, with an uneasy stomach, constant fatigue, rashes, fevers and aches. She attributes her poor condition to the stress of family burdens, which even the drafting of her latest manuscript—about a baronet’s daughter nursing a broken heart for a daring naval captain—cannot alleviate. Her apothecary recommends a trial of the curative waters at Cheltenham Spa, in Gloucestershire. Jane decides to use some of the profits earned from her last novel, Emma, and treat herself to a period of rest and reflection at the spa, in the company of her sister, Cassandra.
May 1816: Jane Austen is feeling unwell, with an uneasy stomach, constant fatigue, rashes, fevers and aches. She attributes her poor condition to the stress of family burdens, which even the drafting of her latest manuscript—about a baronet’s daughter nursing a broken heart for a daring naval captain—cannot alleviate. Her apothecary recommends a trial of the curative waters at Cheltenham Spa, in Gloucestershire. Jane decides to use some of the profits earned from her last novel, Emma, and treat herself to a period of rest and reflection at the spa, in the company of her sister, Cassandra.
Cheltenham Spa hardly turns out to be the relaxing sojourn Jane and Cassandra envisaged, however. It is immediately obvious that other boarders at the guest house where the Misses Austen are staying have come to Cheltenham with stresses of their own—some of them deadly. But perhaps with Jane’s interference a terrible crime might be prevented. Set during the Year without a Summer, when the eruption of Mount Tambora in the South Pacific caused a volcanic winter that shrouded the entire planet for sixteen months, this fourteenth installment in Stephanie Barron’s critically acclaimed series brings a forgotten moment of Regency history to life.
- Soho Press
- Hardcover
- February 2022
- 336 Pages
- 9781641292474
Buy the Book
$27.95
About Stephanie Barron
Stephanie Barron was born in Binghamton, New York, the last of six girls. She attended Princeton and Stanford Universities, where she studied history, before going on to work as an intelligence analyst at the CIA. She wrote her first book in 1992 and left the Agency a year later. Since then, she has written fifteen books. She lives and works in Denver, Colorado.
Praise
“If you have a Jane Austen-would-have-been-my-best-friend complex, look no further . . . [Barron] has painstakingly sifted through the famed author’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 . . . Some of the most enjoyable, well-written fanfic ever created.”—O Magazine
“I chose to recommend Stephanie Barron’s most excellent Jane and the Year Without a Summer. Good reader, it will both charm and dazzle you. Closet yourself in your chamber undisturbed, for the story—fraught with poisoning, abduction, and murder—has unfathomed depths worthy of the esteemed Miss Jane Austen herself. Well done, Miss Barron! Your writing is unrivaled in its wit and veracity. Miss Austen instructs there is happiness in serving others, and I mean to follow her example forthwith by informing you that Miss Barron writes with a mighty quill”—Sandra Dallas, New York Times Bestselling Author
“Stephanie Barron has done it again. It’s no mean feat to recreate the world and tone of Jane Austen—while also writing a thoroughly engaging and entertaining mystery! But Stephanie Barron pulls it off with a wry wit and an ease of manner reminiscent of Austen herself. If you haven’t read these books yet, go back, start at the beginning, brew a very large pot of tea, and prepare to be thoroughly diverted.”—Lauren Willig, New York Times Bestselling Author of Band of Sisters
“No one conjures Austen’s voice like Stephanie Barron, and Jane and the Year Without a Summer is utterly pitch-perfect. The only way Barron could write Austen more convincingly is with a Ouija board. From the exquisite period detail to the uniquely Austenian turns of phrase, this series is a must-read for all Janeites.”—Deanna Raybourn, New York Times Bestselling Author of The Veronica Speedwell Mysteries