Ever wished you could experience a Georgian Christmas at an English country estate? In this 12th installment of Stephanie Barron’s Jane Austen Mystery series, Jane and the Twelve Days of Christmas, your wishes will come true. The Austen family has been invited by Elizabeth Chute to spend Christmas, 1814, at the Chute’s majestic ancestral home, The Vyne. There will be 12 days of celebration, culminating in the Twelfth Night’s Masked Ball, also known as the Children’s Ball.

The contrast between the modest parsonage where Jane grew up and the opulence of The Vyne, home of the well-connected and political Chute family, is an obvious one. But their wealth can’t protect them when first one guest dies, then a second is found dead of an apparent suicide. The specter of sabotage and the possible theft of important documents impact the festivities, as Jane discovers the fatal accident was really murder in disguise.

Political intrigue raises its ugly head, as a spy for the French works behind the scenes. Stephanie Barron painlessly brings readers up to date with just enough history (Napoleon Bonaparte’s defeat and the capture of Washington, DC, by British troops) to understand her characters’ motivations.

And there are a wealth of characters here: notably Jane’s aunt, the miserable Mary; nasty aristocrat Lady Gambier; hunt-happy brother James; a delightful young niece, Caroline; plus a mysterious dark stranger, the yummy Mr. Rachael West. Jane herself is portrayed as smart, approachable, but not always admired for her writing. (One guest at the manor calls her work “outrageous nonsense.”)

As the search for the killer continues, its repercussions involves not only a British general and the Treaty of Ghent, but the honor of the British parliament. Even readers unfamiliar with the genre can and will enjoy this story, released just in time for the Christmas holidays.