The Mysterious Death of Miss Jane Austen by Lindsay Jayne Ashford

Reviewed by Gerti

So many books have been published that deal with characters in the novels of Jane Austen, a great British author who died in 1817, but very few of the Austen related novels deal with her life in a fictional way.  "The Mysterious Death of Miss Jane Austen" is one that does, and it is a very good book, one that might appeal to Austen's myriad fans.

Lindsay Ashford's premise is that not only was Jane Austen poisoned, which is what accounts for her untimely death at 42, but there was a serial poisoner in her family.  That person, whom the narrator, Anne Sharp uncovers by her own observational skills and Jane's clues, is Mary Austen.  She is able to marry into the Austen family through Jane's older brother, James, after his first wife dies.  And unlike her sister Martha Lloyd, who uses her knowledge of herbs to cure people, Mary uses her gift to ill them to further her own greed and lust.

Governess Anne Sharp meets Jane Austen in 1805 when she is watching the children of another of Jane's brothers, Edward, who was adopted by a wealthier but childless side of the family.  Hence, he has an estate called Godmersham, while his sisters and his mother are left nearly penniless after the death of the Reverend Austen.  Anne wonders that Edward lets his relatives be so poor when he has so much, but the key lies in Edward's wife, Elizabeth, who is too busy being snobby to be generous to Austen's family, whom she considers beneath her.  Elizabeth has other flaws as well, as Anne discovers that Elizabeth is sleeping with Jane's charming brother Henry, and in fact seems to have had several children by him, all while remaining married to Edward.

Henry is in fact so charming, that while he married a wealthy older cousin to the Austen's, he is also cuckolding brother, James, by sleeping with Mary.  it's all very complicated unless you know the family relationships (and yes, this book could use a family tree in it somewhere).  Mary supposedly poisons James' first wife to get him to marry her, although she is unattractive and a bit of a shrew, and poisons Elizabeth, in order to have Henry for herself.  Eliza (Henry's wife) also dies, and strangely, so does James, Mary's husband.  Now the road would be clear for Henry to marry Mary, but he does not, and that makes her very angry.  Anne realizes that Mary poisoned Jane whom she was nursing during that last month of her life.  Mary and Jane had never gotten along before, so it seems odd to Anne that Mary would be so attentive during Jane's illness.  Then she realizes the connection between all the other strange family deaths.

While this novel seems well written, it also seems a little implausible to me that the poisoner is Mary.  Ashford does float other suspects, like Henry himself, since he always seems to be hanging around women, and I even thought gentle Cassandra, Jane's sister, might be behind things for a bit.  But it's an interesting book that Ashford has written, even if I don't buy her conclusion.