Elizabeth Blake has written a frothy Austen-esque mystery in Death and Sensibility--full of nosy characters, handsome gentlemen and, of course, a fancy dress ball. Blake has created a world full of Austen-loving busybodies that will keep readers entertained.
Erin Coleridge, owner of a small Yorkshire bookshop (which featured in Pride, Prejudice and Poison, the first book in Blake's Jane Austen Society Mystery series), is helping her chapter of the Jane Austen Society host a conference at a fancy hotel in York. She and her friend Farnsworth Appleby arrive at the conference excited for exquisite food and lots of Austen-quoting, only to be shocked when the conference's keynote speaker, Barry Wolf, falls dead of an apparent heart attack. Erin starts snooping around, sure that the death can't be an accident, to the aggravation of handsome DI Peter Hemming. But then more people start dying, and Erin realizes something is seriously awry. Farnsworth and DI Hemming may not agree with her about who the killer is--Barry's enraged ex-wife? The much younger current wife? The bratty son? The disgruntled coworker?--but everyone realizes there's a murderer on the loose.
Cute and cozy, Death and Sensibility is perfect for Austen lovers or fans of Stephanie Barron or Julia Buckley. With a full complement of zany side characters, and with liberal Austen quotes sprinkled throughout, Death and Sensibility pays homage to the style of the famous author. --Jessica Howard, bookseller at Bookmans, Flagstaff