Elizabeth Pewsey (1948–2016)

Georgina Jackson is a historian living in London who recently wrote a novel that was highly acclaimed, but didn't sell. She's desperate to stay in England, but is in debt and unless the situation changes, she won't be allowed to stay in the country and will have to return to the States and become a waitress. Even though her area of expertise is late-Victorian workhouses, her aggressive agent assigns her to write a novel based on a fragment recently discovered that was written by Jane Austen. show more Never mind that England abounds in Austen scholars, and people who, unlike our protagonist, have actually read Jane Austen, somehow Georgina gets picked to continue Austen's work, and lo and behold, it pays a hefty advance too!

Georgina, despite her PhD, is a ninny. She spends the first 140 pages of the book running around with her hands in the air saying "I don't respect Jane Austen!" "Jane Austen fans R dum," and the like. While doing this, just about everyone she meets is a Jane Austen fan (as are 99% of the people who pick up this book). For sometimes odd reasons, she ends up at Jane Austen sites in England. Even her dear old friend from back home is now running a Jane Austen shop in Bath. She goes around for several weeks bumping into Jane Austen things in the name of research, but not learning anything.

Finally, she accidentally starts reading Pride and Prejudice, and then goes on to read all six of Austen's novels in two days without sleeping or eating. Suddenly, Austen is brilliant! But then the next 80 pages or so are of her having writer's block and whining, "I'm not worthy." We are all aware of that.

Out of the blue, she starts writing, but then develops a repetitive strain injury because all she does is type, and now she can't go on. Still can't figure out what that was about. Gets voice recognition software and finishes the novel. There's a little twist, but no conflict. And then she marries the cute nice guy out of the blue, which I guessed on page one so not a spoiler.

The worst thing about this: There are lots of characters in Writing Jane Austen, and not one of them acts like a real person acts. And not one of them speaks like a real person speaks.

That said, even though it's horribly written in terms of action, pacing, motivation, I could go on . . . on the sentence-by-sentence level, I sometimes enjoyed it. There were many characters that even though they weren't real, I did enjoy. She threw in scads of little Jane Austen references that made me roll my eyes, but some of them were cute or clever. For example, the love interest is named Henry Lefroy, and Jane Austen had a possible crush or relationship with Tom Lefroy. And even though the ending was predictable from the start, I was interested in how she would get there. So not the absolutely worst book ever.

But the main character was just so stupid and annoying. At one point, completely out of nowhere, she asks another character "Do you know what a ha-ha is?" No reason given for why she wanted to know this, and no ha-has later in the book. Also, I think someone with a PhD in the late Victorian period would have run across this somewhere in her studies. I know I only have a BA, but when getting an education you do learn stuff outside of the immediate scope of your area of expertise. I've personally met some pretty dumb PhD's, but Georgina Jackson takes the cake.

Recommended for: not recommended unless you're in a perverse mood. show less

Elizabeth Edmondson proves that her excellent debut novel, A Man of Some Repute, was no fluke with the sequel, A Question of Inheritance.

Set a few months later than A Man of Some Repute, it’s now December 1953, and Hugo Hawksworth and the late earl’s niece Freya Wryton managed to track down the new heir, a widowed American academic with two teenaged daughters. Seventeen-year-old Babs and 13-year-old Polly Fitzwarin, plucked from comfortable America to a post-war England still bothered show more with rationing and deprivation, bitterly resent living in drafty Selchester Castle. Almost as much as
13-year-old sister Georgia Hawskworth, who has been lodging at the castle with her brother, resents those she sees as intruders.

But domestic upset is the least of it. The late earl’s daughter, Lady Sonia Richmond, bitterly resents the new earl, Gus Fitzwarin, for depriving her of a king’s ransom from her plans to sell Selchester Castle to a posh hotel and auction off all of the contents. At the same time, Hugo, still working in intelligence at nearby Thorn Hall, comes to suspect that someone is trying to kill the new earl. Meanwhile, Hugo is drawn back into an old case having to do with looted art treasures in the chaotic days at the close of World War II.

Full of suspense and perilous scenes, A Question of Inheritance will keep you glued to your seat until you finish the very last page. Like A Man of Some Repute, which foreshadowed the mystery at the heart of A Question of Inheritance, this novel provides a clue to the mystery in the third novel in the series. Damn! Now I have to wait months — maybe a year — to find out more!

In the interest of full disclosure, I received this book from NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer in exchange for an honest review. show less

Georgina Jackson is a novelist with a serious case of writers’ block. Her first book, which depicted the tragic life of a young woman in gritty late-Victorian England, won lots of critical acclaim but zero readership. Now she’s trying to write a second novel in the same vein, until her agent makes her a shocking proposition: an unfinished manuscript by Jane Austen has just been discovered, and Georgina’s publisher wants her to finish it! Georgina –who’s never read a word of Jane show more Austen and doesn’t want to – is horrified; but since her finances give her no other choice, she reluctantly begins to investigate the world of Jane Austen. As she races against time to finish the book, she is surprised by what she discovers, both about Austen and about herself.

This book is an interesting departure from most of the Austen-related books out there. Instead of writing a sequel or modernizing the plot of one of the novels (or adding vampires or lots of sex with Mr. Darcy), Aston takes an interesting look at Jane Austen’s cultural significance in the modern world. Georgina meets a ton of different characters who all have their own views on Austen, from the grumpy man (named Mr. Palmer!) who detests her, to a teenager who’s only seen the movies, to Georgina’s friend Bel who runs a shop in Bath called Darcy’s. It was a thought-provoking experience to look on the phenomenon of the Austen brand from the “outside,” so to speak. Another fun part of the book is the little inside references to Austen’s novels, which I enjoyed even though some of them made me roll my eyes a bit. Oh, and then there’s the review of Georgina’s first book by some pretentious critic – the summary of her novel is one of the funniest things I’ve ever read. Although I wasn’t terribly interested in Georgina or her plight, as an Austen fan I enjoyed this book. show less

THIS WAS AN AUDIOBOOK. I loved, loved, LOVED this mystery set in a castle in rural England.
Lord Selchester vanishes one evening during a blustery winter snow storm while entertaining guests at Selchester castle. His body is never discovered and he is presumed dead. Several years later Hugo Hawksworth, an intelligence officer injured in Berlin, is reluctantly relegated to a desk job at Thorn Hall supposedly as "a statistician" and is offered lodging at Selchester castle along with his young, show more precocious sister Georgia (age 13). When Lord Selchester's body is discovered, Hugo sets about trying to piece together what might have happened to Selchester, and who would have wanted him dead. Lord Selchester's guests on the night of the murder were peculiarly uncharacteristic for a man of some repute; an actress, a photographer, a local businessman, and a few others who were practically unknown to one another. Why would a man among the ton include as guests somewhat ordinary people? Eager to dismiss the case rather than engulf the town in scandal, investigators are intent on pinning the crime on Selchester's dead son Tom Arlingham, and niece, Freya Wryton, since a heated dispute arose between Tom and his father on the night in question, and Freya and Tom, close companions, were seen leaving the castle together that night. Might they have circled back and killed Selchester? This is one theory, but as other characters and relations begin to surface with possible motives for murder, will that theory ultimately hold water?
A Man of Some Repute was an audiobook Daily Deal that I snagged and I am so glad I did. My first book by author Elizabeth Edmundson, it will certainly not be my last. The setting was intriguing and mysterious, and the characters were interesting and alluring, down to Freya's surly and temperamental horse, Last Hurrah.
Overall, the story was a solid English mystery done right, with an ending that surprised me. I'll be back for the next installment in the series. Highly recommended, especially to those who enjoy a good British mystery. show less