Stephanie Barron Books In Order

Publication Order of Jane Austen Mysteries Books

Publication Order of Jane Austen Companion Books

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Anthologies

Stephanie Barron is the pen name of author Francine Mathews. She was born in 1963 in Binghamton, New York and is an author of mystery fiction as well as historical mysteries. She has been featured as one of the Great Women Mystery Writers. She grew up in Washington D.C. and was the youngest daughter out of five older siblings, all sisters. She did graduate from Georgetown Visitation Preparatory School and followed that up by earning a degree in European History from Princeton University. At Princeton she wrote for the newspaper at the university and later landed jobs with the papers of The Miami Herald and the San Jose Mercury News. She then went on to graduate from Stanford University with a masters degree in history.

Barron then followed that up by working for the C.I.A. for a couple years as an intelligence analyst. She began writing as a job full time after her first book was published. She says that professor John McPhee from Princeton and Elizabeth George were some particular influences of hers. Barron lives in Colorado currently with her husband and her children. She has also written two series under her given name Francine Mathews. One features a female police officer set in Nantucket in the New England region, depicting difficult New England life and economic issues facing the fishing industry. The second series are books that are mainly spy thrillers that draw from her time working with the C.I.A.

Francine Mattews created the pen name Stephanie Barron by drawing from her middle name as well as her maiden name. Her latest books feature mysteries set in historical times depicting the author Jane Austen playing a Sherlock amateur sleuth role as a secret detective in the Regency England. The books are written in the format of lost diaries that Barron edits. She has done a lot of research into the life and character of Jane Austen to write the series, and uses Austen’s correspondence and letters as a source of inspiration.

Jane and the Unpleasantness at Scargrave Manor

This is the first book in Stephanie Barron’s series featuring the young female author as a secret detective. The book has many fans from people who love Jane Austen to mystery story enthusiasts, and the entertaining series has done well. Jane Austen is a sleuth that goes to the estate of friend Isobel Payne, a beautiful young woman who is the Countess of Scargrave. While she is there, Jane is a witness to a tragedy. It seems that the husband to Isobel who is a mature gentleman falls prey to a mysterious ailment that is very painful.

The death of the Earl appears to be a terrible twist of fate for both himself and Isobel, who is newly married. But the grieving widow soon discovers that the suspicious death of her husband is only the beginning of what’s to come. Isobel is accused of adultery as well as murder along with the Earl’s nephew. Isobel is afraid that the threatening letter she has received will put her through terrible scandal and begs her friend Jane to help. Soon Jane Austen finds herself directly in the middle of a dangerous investigation into what has occurred, having her following clues and trying to solve the mystery. The quest will take her from Newgate Prison to the House of Lords, and may have Jane in danger along the way.

Jane and the Man of the Cloth

The second book in the Jane Austen detective series is a romantic mystery full of Victorian charm that finds Jane along with her family, her sister, their mother, and the Reverend Henry Austen on vacation at the seaside village, Lyme Regis. But on the fringes of town while riding in a carriage, events are already in motion that they cannot stop. As their carriage turns over, it forces the travelers within to seek shelter at a near by manor and Jane’s sister Cassandra is hurt. As they arrive in the middle of a storm to High Down Grange, she discovers that it is the house of the dark, forbidding Geoffrey Sidmouth and his cousin Seraphine LeFevre. While Sidmouth does not offer a warm welcome at first, Sidmouth avails the family of his home, his staff, and himself. He seems strangely attractive, but Jane’s attention is diverted by the mystery she soon uncovers, and she starts wondering what it is that the lord of the manor has to hide.

Jane is distressed at being attracted to the unusual Sidmouth, but what is she to do? Then a man is found hanged by the sea, and the plot thickens. The people in charge at Lyme think that the man’s death is done by “The Reverend”, a man who is the leader of a smuggling trade of whose identity is the biggest mystery in town. Now it is up to Jane to discover who did the crime and who exactly this ringleader might be. Barron does a great job of creating a story that is true to the period of both coast line midnight smugglers and the Napoleonic Wars. Jane continues to follow up on her curiosity and ear for news by collecting gossip from several persons, including the Captain Percival Fielding. It is he who drops the hint that he believes it is none other than Sidmouth who may be The Reverend. But then Fielding is murdered and Geoffrey Sidmouth is arrested, and Jane is asked to conduct an official investigation.

Jane eagerly agrees to the task and uses her daring and smarts to try and unravel the case and find out who The Reverend is and who killed Fielding. It’s up to her to trap and expose the Reverend, even if it means incriminating Sidmouth himself, who she is falling deeper and deeper in love with. Jane soon discovers that maybe not everyone is telling the truth, and who people really are can be different from who they pretend to be. Along the way she learns the meaning of what it is to be a hero. Barron has based the characters in this novel on the Austen novels as almost faux-inspirations for Austen’s fictional characters with great success. Sidmouth mirrors Willoughby, Austen mirrors Mrs. Bennet, and the Bennet and Darcy relationship to Jane’s relationship with Sidmouth. Witty and creative, these books have many fans and continue to spin fictional mysteries that astound and delight.