This is the seventh of the Jane Austen as detective series written by Stephanie Barron, though it is only subtitled as: Being a Jane Austen Mystery. This one also involves Lord Harold Trowbridge, as several others do. And this one comes very close to a real romance, which I’m sure is / was a great relief to most of us.

Rather more violence than usual in these books – and to me all the characters seemed drawn even more strongly than usual. The Napoleonic Wars were still going on, and there had been bitter battles in Portugal. Many of the book’s characters had ties to Portugal, spies and counterspies among them. Several key and wonderful characters are lost in this book – just a trigger warning!

It is very exciting, and includes a lot that you might want to know about how duels were actually carried out. As always, an excellent book.

Still in my Jane Austen addiction, and really enjoying Stephanie Barron’s Jane Mysteries. Jane the the Prisoner of Wool House, Being the Sixth Jane Austen Mystery, is another excellent one. This time, we are in Southampton, and Jane’s brother, Frank, a post captain in the Royal Navy, is a key figure – and Wool House is where the navy keeps it prisoners. Frank’s best friend, another captain, is due to be hanged, with Frank receiving the captaincy of that ship. And a French prisoner may hold the key to his guilt or innocence.

So much great history in here – the Napoleonic wars, the colonization of India, England’s intricate class rules, and the very authentic voice of Jane as she works her way through all the intricate parts of this mystery. Plus the intricate household relationships – Jane’s mother and sister, her sister-in-law and occasional glimpses / mentions of brothers, their families, friends of rank and those without rank. And of much rowing over the ocean, with a very large amount of dampness all around.

This is a very fast paced mystery, even thought Britain’s strictures sometimes have Jane watching the clock and noting how much time she has been kept out of the action. Her mind, of course, has been going full speed ahead at all times. And all the pieces of the mystery fall into place, fairly satisfactorily.

I just finished this book – Jane and the Stillroom Maid, Being the Fifth Jane Austen Mystery, by Stephanie Barron, published in 2000. This series just keeps getting better and better. Jane has turned 30, a fact which is much on her mind, and which clearly puts her beyond the bounds of ever being married, in the culture of that time.

However, in this volume, back again is Lord Harold Trowbridge, the second son of a duke, a spy, diplomat and mediator for his country around the globe, and one of Jane’s closest friends and sleuths. Jane is very attracted to him, but realizes in her head, not her heart, that in this stratified society such an attraction would horrify most people. Jane is a lady, but not of the nobility.

This strand, and much else about the culture of the early 1800’s in England, as Napoleon raged over the continent and threatened Britain, is a big part of these mysteries. A stillroom maid, for instance, was in many ways an apothecary / druggist, working with herbs and other substances for healing and health, as well as preserving and canning vegetables and fruits. The surgeon in this part of Derbyshire is also a blacksmith – and there are many other anomalies sprinkled throughout all of this series. Which is part of what makes them all so fun.

Stephanie writes with Jane’s voice effortlessly – in thinking, in conversations, in her relationships with her mother, sister and others who come and go from book to book. And these are terrific puzzlers, with many clues to the numerous possible killers in each book. This book, for instance, brings in the Masons and their practices, whose members are drawn from the upper classes across the country. The clues point in many directions. I figured it out early, and then was distracted by all the other possibilities, and decided I was wrong. It is great to be fooled by a true master.

The Cincinnati Public Library has all these books – and so does your nearest bookstore. Go for it!

Rick Riordan, since finishing his first series, Percy (Perseus) Jackson and the Olympians, has also written the The Heroes of Olympus, based on Greek and Roman mythology, The Kane Chronicals, based on Egyptian mythology, and Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard, based on Norse mythology.

Demigods & Magicians brings together Percy Jackson and Annabeth of The Olympians with Sadie and Carter, kids who are magicians working with Egyptian magic and gods – including lot of animal deities.

Maybe I’ve just read this book too soon – but it really does read like a kids book – grades 5 to 8 maybe. Lots of magic, lots of amazement, lots of Egyptian lore. And yet… not much connection.

The Last Olympian, Book V and the last book in the series Percy Jackson and the Olympians, is a rip roaring finish to this ‘quintilogy’ – that may be a word, or not.

Most of the characters, even a couple who have died are back, and we get to meet gods and goddesses we’ve only heard about before. Percy and Annabeth are, of course, front and center. Rachel Elizabeth Dare’s role and relationship with Percy is clarified, there are even more monsters, including Typhon, who is marching across the United States spreading devastation – while Kronos / Luke and his troops are working to take Manhattan and then Olympus. Imagine everyone in Manhattan just falling asleep where they are – well, it’s happened, and Percy, Annabeth and the other Half Bloods have to fix it.

A more-than-satisfying, actually terrific ending – and, FYI, the good guys win (using ‘guys’ generically. : >

As you can tell, I am still working through my Jane Austen addiction. The full title of this book is Jane Austen Made Me Do It – Original Stories Inspired by Literature’s Most Astute Observer of the Human Heart, Edited by Laurel Ann Nattress.

This is a really good book of short stories – 22 of them, each different from the next, each totally immersive. When each tale is complete, for just a moment I was lost between the two worlds. There are surely a lot of good writers in the world today – and so many of them are writing in Jane Austen’s voice!

So one morning several weeks ago, I woke up with a title in my head, and sat down at the computer to write the rest of the piece: The Black, White, Blue and Gray of It All. It is about black men and police officers, and was written shortly after the Dallas tragedy – and also after Alton Sterling and
Philando Castile died at the hands of police officers.

I’ll copy it into this blog sometime in the next couple of days. In the meantime, though, I’m just going to talk about it. After I wrote it, instead of just sending it on to Cindi Andrews at the Enquirer, I ran it by son Brian. I wanted his comments on the tone and direction, because it was a very strong piece, and for some reason I was fussed about it. But I didn’t say that – so he did a copy edit. He also picked up a couple of statements that were not quite accurate from his memory and point of view.

Even after I made the changes I wanted to make, from the ones he suggested, I remained in a fussed condition. Most unusual for me – I usual write what needs to be said, very fast, and that’s it. And I never fuss. Even when I sent it in to Cindi, the editorial page editor, who used to be my editor at Women’s Business, a monthly newspaper of which she was part owner, I was still fussing. I told her to make any changes she wanted, and that would be fine. I have never said any such thing to an editor before.

A couple of days later, but before it was actually published, I realized there was a conflict in my own mind. I definitely wanted to be clear, wanted folk to see what I see, and wanted them to know the pain being caused. But I also was feeling compassion for the white folks who seem unable to see, and didn’t want them to turn away, didn’t want them to refuse to hear. Aaaahhh. That relieved my confusion.

After it was published on July 21, I expected to get nasty notes, perhaps a nasty letter to the editor – I’ve had that experience before. Published the next day, July 22 (so he must have sat right down at his computer), was a strong letter in rebuttal, but not particularly nasty. He did believe that my statements about Brian being hassled were ‘incredulous'(sic), and sarcastically said I seem ‘to be an expert on “racist” police-community relations’, and wondered how many police runs I had been on. Of course, having lived and working in inner city neighborhoods for 51 years, I have had a pretty considerable experience with policing and police officers, and have indeed ridden with officers. I have also had experience with my sons and many friends during protests against the war, against the World Trade Organization, against injustice. And I’ve worked with many great folk in and around City Hall, who work hard to listen and respond.

The main response to the column, though, was during my regular work day and regular life, when so many people – white and black, male and female, told me they appreciated my column, and were very glad I had written it. Proof for the Enquirer, I think, that readership is still holding and strong, at least among people involved in making Cincinnati a better and happier place.

This is the second last of a 5 book series called Percy Jackson and the Olympians. Supposedly for middle and high schoolers. But those of us who love mythology and the ancient gods and goddesses can also be enthralled.

And I have always loved the labyrinth, and have been so happy to see them beginning to show up at spiritual centers, and indeed – all over the place. (There is a beautiful and accessible one on the riverfront in Cincinnati!)

So I would have read this one, even if I wasn’t already in love with the series.

And this might be my favorite so far – even more of that breakneck pace, Percy (Perseus) and all his friends, all the appropriate bad guys – and starring the labyrinth itself, which apparently is / was under the entire United States at least.

Almost everyone is still alive at the ending – and Rachel Elizabeth Dare, a mortal, has joined the good guys. This time, for the first time, we get clues at the very end about the next and last book in the series. Which I already have in my bedside table, thanks to the public library. Aaaahhhh. But I have to finish and return a collection of short stories by afficionados of Jane Austen first – so I have two addictions going at one time now. Fun!

You know I’m still in the middle of my Jane Austen craze. And I haven’t even read all of Jane’s actual books yet. In the meantime, my mystery loving self has started on the whole shelf full of Jane Austen mysteries that Stephanie Barron has been writing since 1996. Her fictional basis is that, while visiting friends who are of old Baltimore stock, and who live in a Georgian period home in that area, she explored with them a box of old papers and journals that turned out to be manuscripts written by Jane herself – there is a distant family connection – which included experiences, unknown to Austen scholars, that were ‘personal records of mysteries Jane Austen encountered and solved in the course of her short life’.

Stephanie definitely writes with Jane’s voice – that of a keen observer of occurrences and of behaviors of those around her, who then mulls that information over until she understands what is going on. At that point, Jane acts. She is not able to pass by a chance to fix a situation once she is sure of her facts. Which makes these mysteries totally wonderful – history, psychology, cultural notes, fashion, transportation – it’s all here in Jane / Stephanie’s work.

Plus the occasional – and modest – love interest. What constraint and restraint existed among the upper classes in Jane’s time. These mystery and mysterious journals also follow Jane’s actual path during the particular time period, whether she was living in Bath with her parents, or visiting siblings and friends in other parts of England.

A lot of delight in these pages. I’m reading them in order, and have completed Jane and the Unpleasantness at Scargrave Manor, Being the First Jane Austen Mystery; Jane and the Man of the Cloth; Jane and the Wandering Eye, Being the Third Jane Austen Mystery; and Jane and the Genius of the Place, Being the Fourth Jane Austen Mystery.

I know I’m going to be disappointed when there are no more to read, and I have to come back to the real world once more. Sigh.

Book Two of Percy Jackson and the Olympians published in 2006 continues the breakneck pace of The Lightning Thief. Percy (Perseus) returns as do most of his wonderful in several senses of the word friends. Including a cyclops who turns out to be his half-brother, Tyson, another son of Poseidon. Plus Annabeth, daughter of Athena, from the first book. And Grover the son of Pan, who keeps his goat feet covered with fake shoes.

One of their major problems to solve in this book is the actual Cyclops, the one who wanted to kill Odysseus. Circe and the Sirens pop up, too. The real problem, though, is Luke, son of Hermes, who wants to wipe out Olympus, stone by stone.

This is good, fun, interesting, well-tangled writing. I know it says it’s a kids book. You don’t have to believe that. : >