So, following a Regency-set mystery I posted about earlier this week, I’m excited to share with you another cosy mystery series… and whilst this one is not set in Regency England, it does have a lovely, healthy dose of Jane Austen in it! (What more could I want?)

I first came across Katie Oliver’s books quite a few years ago, when I read What Would Lizzy Bennet Do? and Prada and Prejudice. You might know – particularly from my post on books to read if you like Jane Austen – that I love a spin on Austen, and I really enjoy Katie Oliver’s work for this. So, when Berkley and Austenprose sent me copies of all three books in Oliver’s Jane Austen Tea Society Mystery Series to review – to coincide with the release of book three! – I jumped at the chance.

Over the next couple of weeks, I’m going to share my review of each book in order, and I am really thrilled about it, because I have truly enjoyed them – it’s been a mystery-loving kind of autumn this year!

Introducing Professor Phaedra Brighton

The Jane Austen Tea Society is headed by Phaedra Brighton, an English professor at Somerset University in Virginia who specialises in the work of Jane Austen. So much so, that Phaedra offers students taking her classes the full immersive experience by lecturing in full Regency dress. (The dream!)

Phaedra has been offered the role of historical consultant on a reality show filming nearby, Who Wants To Marry Mr Darcy? (Sounds like a show I would definitely watch – but also very similar to, if you’ve seen it, NBC’s The Courtship.)

It is filming at the mansion of Marling, which was recently inherited under suspicious circumstances by William Collier. Collier has recently married Phaedra’s oldest friend Charlene, and Phaedra isn’t his biggest fan.

But when Phaedra finds William dead in a bathroom at Marling, all hell breaks loose. It looks like he has been electrocuted by a faulty hairdryer… but has he?

Everyone is a suspect, and Phaedra, full of allegiance to Charlene, begins investigating herself, much to the chagrin of the aloof Detective Matteo Morelli.

Two Mr Darcy candidates?

Now, it wouldn’t be a Jane Austen-inspired book without some potential love interests. Phaedra is an intelligent, successful woman in her own right, and I love how Oliver has written her. Her mother is desperate to marry her off, but Phaedra is content with her career, her research and her cat Wickham.

That isn’t to say there aren’t candidates for Mr Darcy though… Not only does Phaedra clash with Detective Morelli, but a new member of staff enters the English faculty at Somerset University. Mark Selden is a British Shakespeare professor, and though his accent and his face are handsome, he and Phaedra begin on the wrong foot.

I love that there are two potential Darcy figures (will one be a Wickham, is what my Austen-loving brain is screaming inside), and I’m excited to read the next two books in the series to find out.

An air of mystery

I won’t give any spoilers, but I will say this mystery is full of delightful twists and turns that will keep you guessing.

From Charlene’s behaviour and background (even though you cannot help but root for her character), to suspicious and shirty butler of Marling Jasper Finch, as well as the scorned, disinherited Fortune family, Oliver has created a cast of characters that all have motive and fascinating backstories. I truly was not sure who was the culprit, changing my mind every few chapters.

I also thoroughly enjoyed the relationship of the actual Tea Society members: a book club that Phaedra and her friends and colleagues Lucy and Marisol have created. It’s always great seeing the development of female friendship, and I look forward to reading more about them as the series progresses.

Oliver has definitely set up a world around Somerset University, Marling and the local town that deliver a fabulous cast of characters ripe for mysterious potential in the next two installments of the series, with narrative threads that have been dropped in ready for picking up in future Phaedra adventures.

I am certainly excited to curl up over the next two weeks with hot chocolate and Book 2, A Murderous Persuasion, and Book 3, Cyanide and Sensibility, and can’t wait to share my reviews with you. I love that a perk of this blog is being sent books in exchange for review, and it’s even better when the books are from some of your favourite authors.

Thank you to Berkley and Austenprose for sending me copies of Katie Oliver’s books in exchange for honest review.