Jane Austen’s Lost Letters is the fourteenth Josie Prescott Antiques Mystery by Jane K. Cleland. I’ve read all of them, beginning with Consigned to Death in 2006. I introduced my sisters to the series because the combination of Josie Prescott’s personal life, her growing antiques business, and the history of the antiques in each book is an intriguing combination. I’ve often stressed Josie’s growth from the beginning of the series when she was a new business owner, new to Rocky Point, New Hampshire. She was still mourning her father, and depended on his earlier words for advice. It felt as if she matured when she was no longer dependent on her relationship with him. She’s grown, made friends, married, has a successful career, including a television show. It felt as if Josie took several steps backward in this latest book.
Josie’s filming a television segment with two experts who analyzed a copy of Beatrix Potter’s Peter Rabbit. They have a break when Josie’s office manager says there’s a woman who insists on speaking with Josie. The woman introduces herself as Veronica Sutton. It’s her next words that stun Josie. “I was a good friend of your father’s.” Then, she hands her a green box, but won’t say anything more. Josie falls apart. Her father has been dead for twenty years, but she wants to know how the woman is connected to Josie’s father. The answer to that question is even more important to her than the story behind the items in the box. There are two letters that appear to have been signed by Jane Austen, along with a photo of Josie and her father.
Emotionally, Josie is a wreck. She can’t accept that Veronica won’t talk to her. She becomes obsessed with learning more. Even her husband won’t help her with facial recognition of the security photo she has. He tells her it’s unethical and illegal, but it doesn’t take much for her to coax her reporter friend, Wes Smith, to come up with answers. And, when Josie comes up with a scheme, Veronica rejects her again.
While Josie is dealing with her emotions, one of the experts from the television show is late one morning. Josie finds her body in the woods. She’s upset enough to hire additional security for her property, but she can’t prevent a second murder that’s connected to the world of antique documents. Then, Josie, herself becomes a target.
I’ll have to admit I was disappointed in Jane Austen’s Lost Letters. While documents and letters were the primary antiques in this book, it felt as if they were just a backdrop to Josie’s obsession. In fact, there wasn’t as much about Jane Austen and the letters as I expected. I’ve always enjoyed Josie’s relationship with the local police chief. Once again, she assists him in his murder investigation, using her knowledge of the victims and the antique document field. The murder investigation was on solid ground in this book. It was the antiques story that seemed lacking.
I want to stress that this is just the feeling of a reader who has followed this entire series from the beginning. I almost gave up on the earlier books when I felt as if Josie was too dependent on her dead father for too long. As I said, she’s grown and matured, become more interesting. Josie’s behavior just seemed irrational in this book. I’m wondering if Josie’s life has become too successful for Cleland to write about in the mysteries. I’m just disappointed in Josie Prescott’s obsessive, immature behavior.
Jane K. Cleland’s website is https://janecleland.com/
Jane Austen’s Lost Letters by Jane K. Cleland. Minotaur Books, 2021. ISBN 9781250779380 (hardcover), 304p.
FTC Full Disclosure – The publisher sent a copy of the book, hoping I would review it.
