Death of a Schoolgirl: The Jane Eyre Chronicles

Fans of historical cozies will best appreciate Slan’s first in a new series featuring Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre. Soon after the birth of Jane and Edward Rochester’s first son, Jane receives a troubling plea for help from her former pupil, Adèle Varens, now at London’s Alderton House School for Girls. Jane travels from Yorkshire to London, where she poses as a German teacher to gain entry to Alderton House, which she discovers is a hotbed of bullying, theft, laudanum drugging, and long-held grudges. The death of one of Adèle’s schoolmates and a possible connection to George IV add to the intrigue. Slan (Ready, Scrap, Shoot and four other Kiki Lowenstein mysteries) captures neither the voice of Jane Eyre nor the timeless appeal of its heroine, but she credibly recreates Regency London and the era of the Bow Street Runners. Agent: Paige Wheeler, Folio Literary Management. (Aug.)