Jane and the Ghosts of Netley

Zusatztext "Wonderful!"— Entertainment Weekly "First-rate...Barron writes a lively adventure that puts warm flesh on historical bones. The nice thing is she does so in a literary style that would not put Jane Austen's nose out of joint."— The New York Times Book Review 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 seventh captivating adventure, Jane Austen finds her crime-solving mettle put to the test in a confounding case of intrigue, murder, and high treason. Among the haunted ruins of an ancient abbey, Jane is drawn into a shadow world of dangerous secrets and traitorous hearts where not only her life is at stake—but the fate of England. As Jane Austen stands before the abandoned ruins of Netley Abbey, she imagines that ghosts really do haunt the centuries-old monastery. But the green-cloaked figure who startles her is all too human and he bears an unexpected missive from Lord Harold Trowbridge, one of the British government's most trusted advisers—and a man who holds a high place in Jane's life.Trowbridge tells Jane about a suspected traitor in their midst—and the disastrous consequences if she succeeds. But is Sophia Challoner, a beautiful widow with rumored ties to Emperor Bonaparte, really an agent of the enemy? Dispatched to Netley Lodge, Jane sets about gaining the confidence of the mysterious and intriguing lady even as Trowbridge's grim prediction bears fruit: a British frigate is set afire and its shipwright found with his throat cut.It's clear that someone is waging a clandestine war of terror and murder. But before Jane can follow the trail of conspiracy to its source and unmask a calculating killer, the cold hand of murder will fall mercilessly yet again—and suddenly Jane may find herself dying for her country. Elegantly intriguing, Jane and the Ghosts of Netley is a beautifully crafted novel of wit, character, and suspense that transports Jane and her many fans into a mystery of truly historical proportions—and a case that will test the amateur sleuth's true colors under fire. Leseprobe Chapter One Bare Ruin'd Choirs Tuesday, 25 October 1808 Castle Square, Southampton There are few prospects so replete with romantic possibility--so entirely suited to a soul trembling in morbid awe--as the ruins of an English abbey. Picture, if you will, the tumbled stones where once a tonsured friar muttered matins; the echoing coruscation of the cloister, now opened to the sky; the soaring architraves of Gothick stone that oppress one's soul as with the weight of tombs. Vanished incense curling at the nostril--the haunting memory of chanted prayer, sonorous and unintelligible to an ear untrained in Latin--the ghostly tolling of a bell whose clapper is muted now forever! Oh, to walk in such a place under the chill of moonlight, of a summer evening, when the air off the Solent might stir the dead to speak! In such an hour I could imagine myself a heroine straight from Mrs. Radcliffe's pen: the white train of my gown sweeping over the ancient stones, my shadow but a wraith before me, and all the world suspended in silence between the storied past and the prosaic present. Engaging as such visions must be, I have never ventured to Netley Abbey--for it is of Netley I would speak, it being the closest object to a romantic ruin we possess in Southampton--in anything but the broadest day. I am far too sensible a lady to linger in such a deserted place, with the darkling wood at my back and the sea to the fore, when the comfort of a home fire beckons. Thus we find the abyss that falls between the fancies of horrid novels, and the habits of those who read them. "Aunt Jane!" "Yes, George?" I glanced towards the bow, where my two nephews, George and Edw...

Product details

• Authors: Stephanie Barron
• Publisher: Bantam Books USA
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback
• Released: 27.04.2004
• EAN: 9780553584066
• ISBN: 978-0-553-58406-6
• No. of pages: 352
• Dimensions: 107 mm x 175 mm x 23 mm
• Series: Being A Jane Austen Mystery; Being A Jane Austen Mystery
• Subject: Fiction > Narrative literature