Calling All Jane Austin Fans

Jane Austin

Arguable one of the greatest writers ever published. Many of you, like me, may have wondered what happened to the characters of your favourite book after it ended, or even before it started. While trying to research a book I wanted to blog about I came across this site. Jane Austin is my Wonderland. A Jane Austin fansite it lists books that are prequels and sequels.  It is in French but you can use google translate, and post say which language the book is published in.

Here is the burning question. Non Jane Austin books featuring Jane Austin characters. Yeahy or Nay

Would love to know what you think!

A DEATH IN SUMMER BY BENJAMIN BLACK

A DEATH IN SUMMER BY BENJAMIN BLACK

It is a warm Sunday afternoon when Dick Jewell’s body is found in his office. Dr. Quirke, who some of you might know from “Christine Falls”, “The Silver Swan” and “Elegy  for April”, is called to take a look at the body as Harrison ,the State Pathologist is recovering from a heart attack.  Quirke and Inspector Hackett quickly establish that Jewell, a newspaper mogul, was murdered. What is not so obvious is by whom.  They begin by interviewing the people present at Brookland, the Jewells country home, but Francoise d’Aubigny, Jewell’s wife, his much younger half-sister the highly strung Dannie, and yard manager Maguire are unable to shed light on the matter.  Never one to stay out of matters that don’t concern him Quirke gets involved in the case. With rumours flying around Dublin  Jimmy Minor, journalist and sometime friend of Quirke daughter Phoebe, turns up on Quirke’s door step to see if he can get the inside scope. Jimmy reveals to Quirke that Carlton Sumner, son of a Canadian timber baron, who had a fight with Jewell weeks before he died, also owned 29% of Jewell holdings and was trying to buy Jewells paper ‘The Clarion’.

Quirke and Hackett head Wicklow to interview Sumner, who was in college with Quirke. Sumner denies killing Jewell, but makes reference to Jewells involvement in ‘Friends of St Christopher’s’ a group of wealthy Dublin men  who raise money for St. Christopher’s Orphanage.  Suspicious of Jewell’s charitable work, Quirke pays a visit to Fr. Ambrose at the Orphanage, where Quirke himself was as a child.  Costigan, a member of the Friends pays Quirke a visit to warn him off digging around. A warning when ignored lands Quirke’s assistant, who is in the early stages of a romance with Phoebe, in hospital missing a finger. The investigation encounters many twists and turns before Quirke learns the truth about Jewell’s death and ‘The Friends’ interest in the children in the orphanage.

I am a huge fan of John Banvilles crime novels. I was glad to see the story feature more of the supporting characters like Inspector Hackett and Sinclair. What do you think of the books? Who would you like to see more of

Man Booker Prize 2011 shortlist announced

The Man Booker Prize 2011 shortlist has been announced.

The list of 13 has been narrowed down to 6.

Julian Barnes The Sense of an Ending (Jonathan Cape - Random House)
Carol Birch Jamrach’s Menagerie (Canongate Books)
Patrick deWitt The Sisters Brothers (Granta)
Esi Edugyan Half Blood Blues (Serpent’s Tail)
Stephen Kelman Pigeon English (Bloomsbury)
A.D. Miller Snowdrops (Atlantic)


Irish writer Sebastian Barry did not make the shortlist. This suprised me as I liked his book and it was a favourite to win the prize