Jane And The Prisoner Of Wool House

Zusatztext “Jane ventures ever further from the world conventionally assigned her real-life original.”— Kirkus Reviews Informationen zum Autor Stephanie Barron is the author of eight previous Jane Austen mysteries. She lives in Colorado, where she is at work on the next Jane Austen mystery. Klappentext In her sixth engrossing outing, Jane Austen employs her delicious wit and family ties to the Royal Navy in a case of murder on the high seas. Somewhere in the picturesque British port of Southampton, among a crew of colorful, eccentric, and fiercely individual souls, a killer has come ashore. And only Jane can fathom the depths of his ruthless mind.... Jane and the Prisoner of Wool House "I will assert that sailors are endowed with greater worth than any set of men in England.” So muses Jane Austen as she stands in the buffeting wind of Southampton's quay beside her brother Frank on a raw February morning. Frank, a post captain in the Royal Navy, is without a ship to command, and his best prospect is the Stella Maris, a fast frigate captained by his old friend Tom Seagrave. "Lucky” Tom — so dubbed for his habit of besting enemy ships — is presently in disgrace, charged with violating the Articles of War. Tom's first lieutenant, Eustace Chessyre, has accused Seagrave of murder in the death of a French captain after the surrender of his ship. Though Lucky Tom denies the charge, his dagger was found in the dead man's chest. Now Seagrave faces court-martial and execution for a crime he swears he did not commit. Frank, deeply grieved, is certain his friend will hang. But Jane reasons that either Seagrave or Chessyre is lying — and that she and Frank have a duty to discover the truth. The search for the captain's honor carries them into the troubled heart of Seagrave's family, through some of the seaport's worst sinkholes, and at long last to Wool House, the barred brick structure that serves as gaol for French prisoners of war. Risking contagion or worse, Jane agrees to nurse the murdered French captain's imprisoned crew — and elicits a debonair surgeon's account of the Stella Maris's battle that appears to clear Tom Seagrave of all guilt. When Eustace Chessyre is found murdered, the entire affair takes on the appearance of an insidious plot against Seagrave, who is charged with the crime. Could any of his naval colleagues wish him dead? In an era of turbulent intrigue and contested amour, could it be a case of cherchez la femme ... or a veiled political foe at work? And what of the sealed orders under which Seagrave embarked that fateful night in the Stella Maris? Death knocks again at Jane's own door before the final knots in the killer's net are completely untangled. Always surprising, Jane and the Prisoner of Wool House is an intelligent and intriguing mystery that introduces Jane and her readers to "the naval set” — and charts a true course through the amateur sleuth's most troubled waters yet. Chapter One A Passage Down the Solent Monday, 23 February 1807 Southampton Had I suffered the misfortune to be born a man, I should have torn myself early from the affections of my family and all the comforts of home, and thrown my fate upon the mercy of the seas. That fresh salt slap, as bracing as a blow; the bucking surge of wave upon wave, a riderless herd never to be bribed or charmed into complaisance; the endless stretch curbed by no horizon, that must unfold an infinite array of wonders before the eyes — exotic climes, benighted peoples, lost cities set like rubies among the desert chasms — oh, to sail the seas as my brothers have done before me! Free of obligation or care beyond the safety of oneself and one’s men — free of the confines of home and earth-bound hopes and all the weight of convention like an anchor about one’s neck! Casting my eye across the ...

Product details

• Authors: Stephanie Barron
• Publisher: Random House USA
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 29.10.2002
• EAN: 9780553578409
• ISBN: 978-0-553-57840-9
• No. of pages: 384
• Dimensions: 110 mm x 180 mm x 30 mm
• Series: Being A Jane Austen Mystery; Being A Jane Austen Mystery
• Subject: Fiction > Suspense