Crime & Culpability: A Jane Austen Mystery Anthology — story breakdown

Elizabeth Gilliland Rands
2 min readAug 20, 2024

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Cover for Crime & Culpability: A Jane Austen Mystery Anthology

Bayou Wolf Press’s latest book — Crime & Culpability: A Jane Austen Mystery Anthology — will release on September 10th. It is our first anthology, and we are excited to be working with such amazing, talented authors. Read on to see the range and scope of all the stories our creative authors put together:

In “Order and Disorder,” Regina Jeffers returns to her original character, Detective Thomas Cowan, as he and Mr. Darcy investigate a murder related to familiar faces from Darcy’s past.

In “Death at the Races” by Riana Everly (a sequel to Pride and Prejudice and a Mary and Alexander short story), a trip to the horse races ends in murder.

In “Shadows at Northanger” by Jeanette Watts, original characters move to Northanger Abbey and soon discover the home is not as idyllic as it first seems.

In “Darcy’s Revenge” by Michael Rands, a modernized, noir-styled sequel to Pride and Prejudice, Darcy has fallen on some hard times thanks to putting his trust in an old friend.

In “New Year, New Problems” by Linné Elizabeth, a robbery takes place in a modern club setting, after Liam Darcy and Izzy Bennet have a close encounter.

In “Detective Woodhouse and the Gallery of Forgery” by Emma Dalgety, a painting goes missing — but no fear, Emma Woodhouse is on the case!

In “The Beginning and the End,” by Elizabeth Gilliland (an Austen University Mysteries short story), Professor Walter Elias discovers he is being blackmailed and turns to an unexpected source for help.

Excited yet? Read on for the full book blurb:

“No one can withstand the charm of such a mystery.” — Jane Austen, Persuasion

Jane Austen mysteries have become a popular subgenre of Austen variations, but this is more than just a trend. Austen was a masterful storyteller who embedded clues within her stories for her readers to follow, inviting readers to read between the lines and “gather the evidence” to follow her intricate plotlines.

In this anthology, various authors who are also fans and admirers of Austen’s work have taken the challenge to add some mystery to Austen’s stories and characters. From Regency sequels to film noir retellings to cozy art heists, Crime and
Culpability: A Jane Austen Mystery Anthology explores the many faces of Austen and all of her
enigmas.

Featuring stories by Regina Jeffers, Riana Everly, Jeanette Watts, Michael Rands, Linne Elizabeth, Emma Dalgety, and Elizabeth Gilliland, with a foreword by Regina Jeffers and an introduction by Elizabeth Gilliland Rands.

Crime & Culpability: A Jane Austen Mystery Anthology is available for pre-order and will be released in paperback, ebook, and on Kindle Unlimited!

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Elizabeth Gilliland Rands
Elizabeth Gilliland Rands

Written by Elizabeth Gilliland Rands

Writer, Mom, Wife, English Instructor, Dr., Chocoholic. Co-founder of Bayou Wolf Press and the Detours Ahead podcast: www.bayouwolfpress.com