I enjoyed this second book in the Jane Austen mystery series even better than the first. I found it much easier to get into the story. I'm still not crazy about the fact that it's supposed to be Jane Austen involved in solving the crimes but I just ignore that and enjoy the mystery. This took place in Lyme, involving smuggling and murder. Who was "The Reverend" - the feared leader of the smuggling ring? Was it the gentleman that Jane found herself falling for? Who murdered one of the men suspected of being part of the smuggling ring? Jane is determined to find out all, even if she risks her own life to do it. ( )

This second mystery is set in Lyme with all the associated smuggling activity. There are echoes of 'Pride and Prejudice', particularly in the beginning of the novel - but Jane is wiser than her heroine and isn't fooled by appearances for long (which is a good thing if you are solving murder mysteries!) ( )

I too was a little hesitant to start this Jane Austen series, but my love for historical mysteries drove me to try. I am glad that I have begun the series. This is the second book in the series, and it is better than the first. There is everything here, romance, intrigue, smugglers, spys and of course Jane Austen at the centre of it. It is located in Lyme during September of 1804, right smack in the mddle of the tension between France's Napoleon and England. Jane loves Lyme, and does not expect it to be a hotbed of intrigue, and with deaths occurring in unexplained ways. She sets out to unravel the mystery when a man she has met is arrested for the murder of another young man that Jane had met and danced with at the weekly assembly. She certainly gets more than she bargained for, and finds herself in some danger when she is very close to solving the mysteries in Lyme. This series is excellent, and I can't wait to read the next one. ( )

After reading Jane and the Unpleasantness at Scargrave Manor, I was enthralled by Stephanie Barron's cunning way of capturing Jane Austen's writing style and her creativity in imagining historically correct mysteries. Barron incorporates footnotes into the story to explain certain terms and customs, which enhances the authenticity of her stories.

However, this second installment, Jane and the Man of the Cloth, is weak. It is 1804, and the Austen family is traveling to Lyme on holiday, but on the way there, they encounter very bad weather and their carriage overturns, injuring Jane's sister Cassandra. Jane must trek through darkness and rain to find help from the nearest dwelling, which happens to be owned by one very surly Geoffrey Sidmouth, and we learn straight away that this is a very strange household.

Where is SpecOps when you need them? Obviously, some outlaw page-runner from Wuthering Heights is trying to create chaos and confusion among the Jane Austen and Emily Bronte fans.

But seriously, even though Barron does her homework* on the region and the time, she has Austen doing unbelievable things. I am actually pretty good at suspending my disbelief, but a woman such as Jane Austen would not be sneaking out at night or visiting dangerous places all alone--this is not in her character and simply out of place for this time period. Besides that, the plot was not bad, but not compelling, either.

I hope the third one is better. ( )

November 5, 1999
Jane and the Man of the Cloth
Stephanie Barron

I love this series for the simple reason that it takes me away from my everyday life and plants me squarely in the middle of Jane Austen’s Regency England. Even more than that, I like this Jane Austen better than the real one! I much prefer Barron’s mischievous, nosy sleuth to the witty, condescending voice of Mansfield Park, Persuasion, Northanger Abbey and the like. I feel transported to cool, wet English weather and long dresses and caps, and I love it.

The story itself isn’t all that important in the end, but a brief description is called for anyway: The Austens are vacationing in Lyme, a seaside town, when the hanging murder of the town drunk on the edge of the The Cobb (a pier-like seawall of some sort) attracts Jane’s attention. Well, I get ahead of myself. First, there’s the incident of the Austen’s carriage overturning in dark, wet weather on the road to Lyme, and their rescue (after Jane hotfoots it across a moor or something to get help) by a mysterious gentleman.

It seems that Lyme is a hotbed of strange goings-on; in particular, smuggling and other crimes perpetrated by a man referred to only as The Reverend, who Jane soon suspects is one and the same as their mysterious host. Well, there’s a little political intrigue, a scandalous woman and another murder before it’s all over with, and all in all it was a very pleasant, fantasy-provoking read. ( )