The Suspicion at Sanditon (Or, The Disappearance of Lady Denham)

I held off reading Carrie Bebris's last (?) Mr. and Mrs. Darcy mystery because I'd never read Sanditon. That literary fragment doesn't give much to Bebris other than a setting and some character names, freeing the author to place Lizzie and Darcy in the middle of a cross between a mystery and a screwball comedy, in a setting reminiscent of the house party that inspired Frankenstein.

The Darcys find themselves in Sanditon to investigate a land deal on behalf of Colonel Fitzwilliam. After a few chapters in which we meet the major characters (Mr. Parker's siblings, Lady Denham and her poor relations, a ghost, Charlotte Heywood, Mr. Grenville, and the mysterious Mr. Hollis), the group assemble for a dinner party - but Lady Denham never appears.  While a storm rages outside, the group split up in search of their missing hostess...and the single ladies who also disappear one by one.  As with Bebris's earlier novels, the mystery is not as good as the novel, but the novel is entertaining. I suspect that she used the mystery as a hook to publish what's essentially well-done Jane Austen fan fiction.  I've enjoyed the light, entertaining series, but I'm not particularly sorry that it's now complete.