Jane Austen Investigates

Jane Austen Investigates imagines the young Jane Austen applying observation, scepticism and an ear for revealing conversation to mysteries encountered before her published career. The cases turn the social settings later associated with her novels—schools, balls, family visits and ambitious professionals—into scenes of theft, disappearance and injustice.

The supplied export contains books two and three, The Burglar's Ball and The Convict's Canal. They move from a locked-room theft at a girls' school to the dangerous construction of the Oxford Canal, while Jane tests first impressions and resists the easy conclusions imposed by class and prejudice.