Nicolas Freeling's novel The Janeites was definitely not what I had expected from the title. It's written at the highest level of oblique "you-know-what-I'm-saying" tough-guy style, and takes much for granted for the American reader -- which can be very confusing. And the style seems quite jarring with the characters' interest in the works of Jane Austen, which (by the way) don't make their entrance until about half-way through the book. It's mostly a story of two intertwined romantic triangles involving a Parisienne aristocrat, a police bodyguard, a couple of high-ranking politicians, a mysterious good-time girl, and a Jesuit cancer researcher. In this cynical tale, power politics invades every aspect of life and death. The language and the plot both demonstrate that things are seldom what they seem. Jane Austen's works appear to serve as the corrective to -- or the distraction from -- the serious illness, amorality, and violence of the modern world. ( )