Katherine Cowley Books In Order

Publication Order of The Secret Life of Mary Bennet Books

Publication Order of Anthologies

Katherine Crowley
Katherine Crowley is a writing teacher and a mystery author. Her first novel is a Jane Austen-inspired Regency mystery.

She read “Pride and Prejudice” for the very first time when she was only ten years old, and wound up loving it so very much that she reread it over again just a few months later. It kicked off a lifelong obsession with Jane Austen along with literature in general. Her favorite genres are classics, science fiction, fantasy, and mystery.

When Katherine set out to write “The True Confessions of a London Spy”, she gave herself a constraint: she decided she’d include at least one major historical event with as many accurate details as she could work in. this comes from her own love of historical novels which use largely fabricated events and a historical backdrop, which is what she did in her debut.

Another constraint she placed on herself was that it needed to feature Mary Bennet, from “Pride and Prejudice” fame, as a spy that was solving a mystery. So she immersed herself in the history of the Regency period, consulting a nonfiction book titled “Our Tempestuous Day” and doing a deep dive on timelines that were posted on Wikipedia.

It may sound strange (or at least counterintuitive) to put constraints on herself, but she likes the challenge and being challenged typically forces her to get more creative.

She loves Jane Austen, Elizabeth Peters novels, playing the piano, traveling, history, and chocolate.

“The Secret Life of Miss Mary Bennet” was nominated for the 2022 Mary Higgins Clark Award. Katherine’s blog Jane Austen Writing Lessons was selected by The Write Life as being one of the 100 Best Websites for Writers in the year 2021.

She loves figuring out new ways to approach words and teaching others the techniques which can enable them to succeed at any sort of writing.
Katherine has a bachelor’s degree in Humanities with an emphasis in Media Arts (Film), and a master’s degree in English with an emphasis in Composition and Rhetoric, each from Brigham Young University.

She has previously taught writing, humanities, and film classes at Mesa Community College and Brigham Young University. She’s also worked as a radio producer for NPR-affiliate station Classical 89, and as a documentary film producer.

“The Secret Life of Miss Mary Bennet” is the first novel in the “Secret Life of Miss Mary Bennet” series and was released in the year 2021. In the much revered “Pride and Prejudice”, Mary (the middle sister) often gets passed over. That changes now.

Mary Bennet’s life gets thrown into turmoil upon her father dying. Without any marriage prospects and no fortune, she has to rely on the kindness of her own relatives. A mysterious late-night visit by some unknown relative, some Lady Trafford from Castle Durrington, leads to an extended stay and the opportunity to have an education, Mary accepts this opportunity gratefully.

However even when she shows up at the castle, she is confronted with one mystery after the next. Who even is Lady Trafford truly and what’s she hiding? Could her manipulations and secrets place the tiny seaside community at risk of an invasion from Napoleon Bonaparte? Mary, always curious, sets out to learn the truth. However when she finds the corpse of a would-be thief she outed just before her dad’s funeral, she jeopardizes her job at the castle and her family’s good name in her search for the truth.

Never underestimate the observational skills of a woman that usually just hides in the background.
Katherine does an incredible job of depicting Jane’s original characters, and especially expanding Mary’s inner life. She is socially awkward and can be rather rude, yet becomes rather sympathetic once we get to see inside her head.

“The True Confessions of a London Spy” is the second novel in the “Secret Life of Miss Mary Bennet” series and was released in the year 2022. Nobody said being a spy for the British government would be at all easy.

Miss Mary Bennet is assigned to London for the Season, eligible men and extravagant balls are the least of all her worries. Some government messenger has been killed and suspicion is falling upon the Radicals, who might be destabilizing the government in order to compel England down the bloody path of the French Revolution.

Mary, while working with Miss Fanny Cramer and Mr. William Stanley (her fellow spies), has to investigate without raising her family’s suspicions, rescue her friend Miss Georgiana Darcy from the suitor scandal she’s wrapped up in, and then solve the mystery before anybody else gets harmed. All without getting found out, lest she get exiled on back to the countryside.

This is the perfect job for a woman that exists entirely in the background. Can Mary prove herself, or is this assignment going to be her last?

“The Lady’s Guide to Death and Deception” is the third novel in the “Secret Life of Miss Mary Bennet” series and was released in the year 2022. What’s a spy truly willing to do when both her country and her heart are each at risk?

Life changes once more for Miss Mary Bennet, a British spy, when Napoleon Bonaparte escapes off the Isle of Elba. Mary soon departs England, heading to Brussels, which is the city where the Allied forces are preparing for war against the French. However soon after her arrival, one of the Duke of Ellington’s best officers gets murdered, which is an event that threatens to break apart the delicate alliance between the Allies.

Investigating the murder forces her into some precarious levels of role-playing, deception, and espionage with Mr. Withrow (her new partner and the heir and nephew of Mary’s prominent sponsor), and the spy with whom she’s at odds with often. Together, they court discovery and danger while playing dual roles gathering intelligence for the British. However Mary quickly realizes that her growing feelings for Mr. Withrow put her heart in just as much danger as her own life. Then there’s another murder.

Mary is going to need to unmask the killer before more are murdered, yet can she manage to do so and stay hidden in the background?