What is Joanna Campbell Slan reading?

The current featured contributor at Writers Read: Joanna Campbell Slan, author of Death of a Schoolgirl, the first novel in The Jane Eyre Chronicles, which features Charlotte Brontë’s classic heroine as an amateur sleuth.

Her entry begins:

I'm the type of reader who has a handful of books going at once. I flit from book to book. I try very hard to balance non-fiction and fiction. Currently, I'm enjoying How to Marry an English Lord: Tales of Wealth and Marriage, Sex and Snobbery. Although my new release, Death of a Schoolgirl, is set sixty years earlier than this book, many of the fine points of British etiquette changed only a little over the ensuing decades. How to Marry an English Lord provided inspiration for the creators of Downton Abbey, I'm finding it...[read on]

About Death of a Schoolgirl, from the publisher:

In her classic tale, Charlotte Brontë introduced readers to the strong-willed and intelligent Jane Eyre. Picking up where Brontë left off, Jane’s life has settled into a comfortable pattern: She and her beloved Edward Rochester are married and have an infant son. But Jane soon finds herself in the midst of new challenges and threats to those she loves...

Jane can’t help but fret when a letter arrives from Adèle Varens—Rochester’s ward, currently at boarding school—warning that the girl’s life is in jeopardy. Although it means leaving her young son and invalid husband, and despite never having been to a city of any size, Jane feels strongly compelled to go to London to ensure Adèle’s safety.

But almost from the beginning, Jane’s travels don’t go as planned—she is knocked about and robbed, and no one believes that the plain, unassuming Jane could indeed be the wife of a gentleman; even the school superintendent takes her for an errant new teacher. But most shocking to Jane is the discovery that Adèle’s schoolmate has recently passed away under very suspicious circumstances, yet no one appears overly concerned. Taking advantage of the situation, Jane decides to pose as the missing instructor—and soon uncovers several unsavory secrets, which may very well make her the killer’s next target...

Learn more about the author and her work at Joanna Slan's website and blog.

Read--Coffee with a Canine: Joanna Slan & Rafferty and Victoria.

The Page 69 Test: Death of a Schoolgirl.

Writers Read: Joanna Campbell Slan.

--Marshal Zeringue