My Dear Charlotte

A Regency mystery featuring the actual letters of Jane Austen—perfect for fans of Sharon Lathan, Georgette Heyer, and Barbara Pym.

This innovative British Regency mystery is set in the early 1800s and infused throughout with the language of Jane Austen. Quotes from Austen's letters are incorporated into letters written by the protagonist, Elinor Cowper, to her elder sister Charlotte. From the introduction by Jan Fergus:

"Of course, you don't have to love Austen to love this book. If you enjoy detective novels, you will find here a completely satisfying murder mystery, coupled with a romance (or more than one, in fact). My Dear Charlotte gives you, in addition to mystery and romance, a portrait of the world of the English gentry at around 1815, immediately after the defeat of Napoleon—its manners and its moral certainty . . .

But it's readers of Jane Austen who will get the most pleasure from My Dear Charlotte. It is in my opinion the only successful attempt to re-create the world of Austen's novels . . .. Holt does much more, though: she has chosen to write a novel-in-letters, which allows her to incorporate witty quotations directly from Austen's letters into her novel, quotations about persons, occasions, the minutiae of daily life from housekeeping and shopping to the weather and human nature."