I have read all five of Donna Fletcher Crow's Elizabeth and Richard Literary Suspense series, this being the most recent one; I've also read all six of her Monastery Murders and three of her five Lord Danvers Investigates.
A Jane Austen Encounter and A Most Singular Venture both deal with Jane Austen in England, and both give a lot of information about the famous author of two centuries earlier. (Note - originally, this was book #3, but the original book 4 occurred before book 1, and when she re-released them, she placed them in chronological order of action, with these two novels now being #4 and #5.)
I enjoyed the current second and third installments better (Shadow of Reality and A Midsummer Eve's Nightmare), partly because they focused more on the murder mystery plot than on the author of focus (respectively Dorothy Sayers and William Shakespeare) and partly because I had more interest in the other authors than I do Austen. (The Monastery Murders are similar in giving a lot of church history information in the novels, but again it falls into an area of interest. My hunch is that Jane Austen fans love it. Now, if she wrote "An Agatha Christie Encounter" or better yet "An Allistair MacLean Encounter"... Just a joke. I know enough to realize Austen's novels qualify as literature; I'm not so sure about the authors I just mentioned.
Even though I'm not into Austen, I found the aspect of Jane's faith being a driving force in her writing to be inspiring. I believe a person's true belief system will show up in their writing (or other forms of art).
The characters and their relationships keep the story interesting. Some would consider the plot to be slow moving, but patience pays off. There are plenty of red herrings (though in this novel they probably all drink tea).
I am a fan of Crow's mysteries, and look forward to the next one in this series.
Hi Jeff, it's fun to be back on your blog! Thank you for your thoughtful comments. I always appreciate your support and honest reviews.
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