In a crumbling Georgian mansion, the secret letters of Jane Austen provide a clue to a modern-day double murder for this father and daughter detective team.

Peter and Georgia Marsh, father and daughter investigators who specialize in cold cases, are looking forward to a Jane Austen-themed summer gala at Stourdens. It's said that the eighteenth-century manor house was the author's inspiration for her unfinished novel, The Watsons. It's here that a collection of Austen's never-published letters, pertaining to a mysterious love affair, are locked away. And most intriguing to Peter and Georgia, Stourdens is also the site of an unsolved murder, cold for nearly three decades.

As tourists and literary groupies descend on the property, tensions begin to stir among the mansion's volatile family. And when another murder occurs on the grounds, the Marshes are compelled to investigate. That means unearthing secrets both past and present—secrets that someone is willing to kill to protect. Especially pertinent to the case are those secret sentiments of a young woman whose heart was broken more than a hundred years ago.