Jane Austen Investigates

by Julia Golding Book 1 in the Jane Austen Investigates series.

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Young Jane Austen accompanies her sister Cassandra to a school ball where a valuable diamond necklace disappears from a locked room. Suspicion quickly falls on Brandon, a formerly enslaved servant whose position makes him an easy target for adults eager to protect the school's reputation.

Jane questions witnesses, tests alibis and examines the assumptions hidden beneath polite behaviour. Her investigation shows that social rank can distort evidence as effectively as any false clue, and that clearing Brandon requires more than identifying who physically took the jewels.