

Vanessa and Virginia by Susan Sellars imagines the complex relationship that existed between artist Vanessa Bell and her sister, writer Virginia Woolf. It follows their lives from a childhood clouded by loss to adulthood as women forging their artistic careers in post-Victorian England.


Peril at Somner House by Joanne Challis is a murder mystery featuring writer Daphne Du Maurier. Young Du Maurier, not yet a writer, investigates the murder of Lord Max Trevelyan. This is a leisurely paced mystery rich in the atmospheric detail of Cornwall in the early twentieth century.


Jane Austen has been a popular choice (target?). In Jane Goes Batty by Michael Thomas Ford, Jane was apparently taught to be a vampire by her former lover Lord Byron - who knew? She is trying desperately to keep her identity a secret and somehow an undead Bronte becomes involved. A serious and complex work of literature - just kidding! - silly and fun.

Emily's Ghost by Denise Giardina features Emily Bronte who lived out her short life in Yorkshire in the early nineteenth century. Giardina speculates on the relationship that might have existed between Emily and curate William Weightman. A biographical, historical and romantic novel rolled into one.
The Tale of Applebeck Orchard: the cottage tales of Beatrix Potter by Susan Wittig Albert is the latest installment in this whimsical mystery series featuring talking animals who would live perfectly in Beatrix Potter's world. Three cats and a dog visit a ferret to find out why mean old farmer Harmsworth has barricaded their pathway through his Orchard. Miss Potter herself is on the case.
http://preview.tinyurl.com/3v98kbo This tiny is a link to the Google Books preview of (several pages from) Chapter 10 of "The Real Life of Sebastian Knight" (1941), by Vladimir Nabokov -- a review of the fictitious mystery novel "The Prismatic Bezel." Fans of the movie "Murder by Death" (1976) may have fun with this exercise in self-influence and really unreliable autobiographical fiction. Did VV influence himself? Reading this will not answer the question, but severe brain damage is nearly certain.
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