Pride and Prejudice and Murder

Jane Austen did not die of natural causes -- she was murdered.

I know some of you suspect Seth Grahame-Smith, but I’m not talking about mash-ups here.

There’s a wonderful new novel out, and author Lindsay Ashford’s theory is that Austen did not die of bovine tuberculosis or Hodgkins’ lymphoma, as historians believe, but of arsenic poisoning.

And, just maybe, it was murder.

　

There seems to be something of a cottage industry surrounding Jane Austen, with mountains of Jane-inspired books and movies reveling in the Regency period. But Ashford, a novelist whose work is usually of the gritty and urban varieties, offers something completely different to Austenites -- crime!

And the exciting part is that it’s true crime. Well, Ashford's book The Mysterious Death of Miss Austen isn’t really true crime, it’s speculative fiction, but it’s based on some pretty intriguing evidence. Austen’s letters describe symptoms consistent with arsenic poisoning, and -- bum bum bummmm -- a lock of Austen’s hair tested positive for arsenic.

I’m already imagining Agatha Christie time-traveling to the nineteenth century to crack the case. Maybe along the way she’ll team up with a young Mary Shelley.

And together, they’ll fight the Zombie Menace.