Jane and the Final Mystery

The immersive and poignant conclusion to the Being a Jane Austen Mystery series.

The fifteenth and final Being a Jane Austen Mystery takes place in the town of Winchester, England, home to the oldest British public school for boys, Winchester College (founded 1382) and Winchester Cathedral. Surrounding the ancient church is the Cathedral Close, a walled area of green lawns and gardens that holds a dozen picturesque houses belonging to the Dean of the Cathedral, canons of the church, and their families. One of them is the home of Elizabeth Heathcote and Alethea Bigg, two of Jane Austen’s dearest friends. Elizabeth is the widow of a canon; Alethea has never married. Both are sisters of the man whose hand in marriage Jane Austen accepted and then hurriedly rejected at the age of 26: Harris Bigg-Wither, the wealthy squire of Manydown House, where Jane might have lived comfortably throughout her life.

Elizabeth Heathcote’s only child, a year-old infant when his canon father died, is now a sixteen-year-old Commoner at Winchester College, living in the Headmaster Thomas Gabell’s house. Young William Heathcote is also heir to the baronetcy of Hursley, his childless uncle’s title, and the considerable estate of Hursley Hall. Elizabeth Heathcote is no longer on speaking terms with her former brother-in-law, who has adopted his butler’s son and educated the boy at his own expense. After a series of odd occurrences at Winchester College—a fire in First and Second Chambers, the accidental drowning of a fourth-form Scholar, and the mock-hanging of a Master—Elizabeth begins to fear that her son is in danger of being accused of crimes he did not commit, and expelled. She begs Jane, whom she knows is adept at sifting evidence, to offer her advice.

In May of 1817, Jane Austen is exceedingly ill from a mysterious disorder. Her local apothecary, Mr. Curtis, has declared he can do nothing more for her. Brother James calls in an old friend, Winchester surgeon Giles Lyford, to examine his ailing sister. Lyford, who consults at Winchester hospital, believes he can cure Jane if only she will remove to Winchester within reach of his care. 

Elizabeth Heathcote’s worried missive arrives at the perfect time. Elizabeth offers Jane and her sister Cassandra lodgings near her home in the Cathedral Close, at No. 8 College Street, overlooking the Headmaster’s garden and convenient to Giles Lyford’s surgery. Jane’s brother, James, sends his carriage and his son James-Edward to escort Jane and Cassandra during the sixteen-mile journey south from Chawton. James-Edward has recently left Winchester College for Oxford, but he is a close personal friend of the younger William Heathcote. James-Edward’s guarded observations of life at the school sound a warning bell in Jane’s mind. Winchester is seething with divided loyalties, antagonistic prefects (sixth form boys who rule the school) sadistic bullying and exploitative masters. But is all of that convenient cover for a more insidious plan to deny William Heathcote his inheritance—and his life?