The tree is lit. The presents are wrapped and distributed. The cookies are baked. The carols are blasting. And here at the Owlet’s nest, that means one thing: it’s Advent of Mystery time.
For those not in the know, Advent of Mystery is a countdown to Christmas. Each day features my thoughts on a different holiday mystery. When I first started, I thought this would be just for that year… and now, four years later, I’ve found yet another stack of 10 mystery books to share. (I suppose I’ll stop when the publishing industry stops creating holiday mysteries.)
This year is another year of modern mysteries, but with a more classic bent to them. While you’ll see some Advent of Mystery-favorite authors, many of this year’s mysteries reference a historical tradition or two. It’s a pattern exemplified by today’s mystery (an apt one for Jane Austen’s 250th birthday celebration): The Austen Christmas Murders. (Note for my US readers: not yet available on this side of the pond, in what feels like a Big Miss.)
A densely packed mystery
The Austen Christmas Murders is really a novella, coming in at a scant 165 pages. You’d think that would barely be enough to fit so many concepts – Austen AND Christmas AND murders. But Jessica Bull’s plot is jam-packed, containing everything you see on the tin, plus family drama, Good Works, and little epistolary interludes. Plus, Bull intersperses several Charade puzzles into the siblings’ holiday letters to each other. With this much to parse, 165 pages goes fast – but how well does that fast pace align with the goals of a cozy Christmas mystery?
The main mystery starts when Jane, while visiting her brother, stumbles across a mummified body in the pantry. Of course, being an independent spirit, she decides to investigate, digging into the house’s history and that of her community. This leads to a little bit of faff – i.e. digging into the local Ghost Girl story – but is, for the most part, a coherent and even cohesive mystery. The ending of the mystery did feel a bit like a cheat, in that Jane can access much more local and historical context than can the reader…
…set during a Regency Christmas
Bull really anchors her mystery in its historical setting. This fictional version of the Austen family leads a very different life from a potential reader’s. The rhythm of the Austens’ life feels as those it mirrors one of Austen’s own heroines – or, perhaps, those of the March sisters. There are walks to and from relatives’ houses and town. There are charitable Good Works, including support for victims of smallpox. And there are long letters between siblings at War; references to the pop culture and reading of that time; plus several other reminders that the past is a foreign country.
The result, for me, was almost historical tourism – what did Christmases look like in this time and place? Sometimes, historical stories reach across time to remind you that, in the end, humans stay human at our core. For me, this story did the opposite – it threw into sharp contrast how much holiday celebrations and themes have evolved over the years.
Perhaps nothing highlighted this emphasis more than the solution to the mystery. I’ll avoid spoilers here, but suffice it to say that Jane’s “solve” relies on her pondering two pieces of information – one cultural and one scientific. The cultural one feels anchored in Jane’s context (i.e. what’s “in character” for this suspect or another?) that didn’t feel readily accessible to me while reading. And the scientific piece is so ubiquitous today that I entirely missed the idea it could be innovative in this era. This is, perhaps, the peril of setting modern psychological mysteries in historical eras – when the psychological grounding is so different from a reader’s context, it can be hard to find one’s footing and even harder to feel comfortable making guesses.
A new (to me) angle to Austen
The result was a story that placed me on the outside, looking in. Instead of playing along, I found myself trying to keep up with all the different traditions, references, and puzzles scattered throughout the book. I came looking for cozy and got a cultural update instead.
That’s not to say I didn’t enjoy this read quite a bit. Despite my love of her novels, I haven’t read much about Austen herself. And this read certainly instigated me to learn more – I’ve got a bit of a reading list going now, so you may see some of that in the New Year. True Austen fans – of both the person and the author – may find more to love in The Austen Christmas Murders on first read.
Overall, a promising start to a mystery-filled Christmas season. Come back tomorrow for another festive story – and until then, stay cozy, and stay curious!
