Rating: 
Summary: Good Regency Feel
Review: Stephanie Barron has put it together. Jane Austen makes an intriguing character and, in this mystery, she gets to stretch herself to the limit. A maid is found dressed as a man, murdered and, apparently, ritually mutilated. The local nobility are the suspects and Austen must prevent injustice.Barron gives an authentic regency feel. Austen speaks and acts like one of her characters. She accepts the confines of the regency attitudes toward women, yet adapts those confines to her needs to the point where they don't constrain her. I especially enjoyed the ongoing romantic tension between Austen and Lord Harold--a tension that is made ever more telling by the very Austen-like ambitions of Jane's mother.
Rating: 
Summary: An unsatisfying ending mars an otherwise interesting mystery
Review: This entry in the Jane Austen series--purportedly a series of Austen's personal journals only recently discovered--has many of the delights that characterize the entire series. Jane is a complex character, frustrated on the one hand by the limitations society places on her as a woman, and completely unaware on the other hand of her own biases towards members of the "lower" classes. Her sharp wit and keen observing eye make her an ideal sleuth. Jane's trip through the Derbyshire countryside with her cousin is marred by the discovery of a mutilated body, that of Tess Arnold, the stillroom maid at a local estate. A "stillroom maid" is a sort of healer, an herbalist, employed by a family for their own treatment, but also free to sell medicines to local townspeople. The more Jane discovers about the maid and the estate where she worked, the more tangled the web of mystery surrounding her death becomes. Ultimately, the web proves too convoluted. The solution to the murder and the revelations of the last 15 pages of the novel stretch the abilities of even a close reader, and how Jane solves the mystery is not satisfactorily explained. Another death near the end of the book borders on inexplicable (or at least, too hastily explained). A final note to Ms. Barron: as long as you are fictionalizing Jane Austen's life, you might consider allowing Jane a little requited love in her life, for the sake of your readers.
Rating:
Summary: Jane And The Stillroom Maid
Review: This is the darkest and best of Stephanie Barron's Jane Austen mysteries. I think Ms Barron has finally pinned down Jane Austen's voice. I was not too impressed with the first two books in the series ("Jane And The Unpleasantness At Scargrave Manor" & "Jane And The Man Of The Cloth"), thinking that the Jane Austen in those two books bore very little resemblence to the Jane Austen we all know and love; but with this last novel, Stephanie Barron has the Austen voice nailed! And what a dark mystery!! Even though you'll be able to guess who the real culprit is rather early on, there is still a few twists to the plot to make the book very enjoyable. The glimpses of history, politics and the goings-on of the Devonshire House in early 1800 England only add to the novel. (And there are several descriptions of the Derbyshire countryside and certain characters that Jane Austen fans will not fail to recognise). I particularly enjoyed Jane's reflections on the many differences between the Tories and the Whigs. This book is a winner and I'm eagerly looking forward to the next installment in the Jane Austen mysteries.
Rating: 
Summary: An accomplished tribute to Austen if somewhat predictable
Review: This is the first novel in the series that I have read and I must admit that I was not disappointed. Barron accomplishes the difficult task of depicting the period in a tone very similar to that used by Austen as novelist. Austen enthusiasts will be pleased with this accomplished tribute to the novelist. In the "Stillroom Maid" (as in the other four novels in the series) Jane has become a sleuth, using the eloquent language and mental acuity that harkens back to many of Jane Austen's most beloved literary heroines. While I am a great admirer of Austen, I have never been partial to the mystery genre. I found the mystery intriguing and the list of characters beguiling (especially Jane's love interest, Lord Harold). Even so, I found the identity of the killer a bit obvious even though the actual motive was a bit surprising. All in all, I would recommend this novel to both Austen fans and mystery buffs. I would imagine both parties will be pleased with this literary escapade and I certainly intend to read the other four novels that precede this one.
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