Rhys Bowen and the Georgie series

Rhys Bowen was born in 1941 in Bath, England.  Her real name is Janet Quin-Harkin.  She worked in the Drama Department at the BBC, and also as a drama teacher for a time.

However she became a writer in the 1980s. She started by writing teenage romances.  Then in the 1990s she began to write under the name Rhys Bowen... She had  settled in America (having married an American).  She writes mystery novels. One series is the “Royal Spyness”, which is set in the 1930s, in England.  (I’ve never read the other 2 series, one is based in turn of the century New York with Molly Murphy, an Irish immigrant as the detective and the other is the Evans series, based in contemporary Wales).

 In the Royal Spyness series, the amateur detective is Lady Georgiana Rannoch, the daughter of an impoverished upper class family from Scotland.  The family are related to Queen Victoria and hence Georgiana is distantly in line for the throne.  Her mother is a former actress who has lived a luxurious life, “bolting” from one rich husband to another. Her father killed himself after losing much of the family fortune and Georgie’s half-brother is an amiable but not very clever man, dominated by his wife, Hilda.  She is mean and cold blooded, and dislikes Georgiana, and tends to try and tell her husband that they “cant afford to support his sister” – rather like John Dashwood's cold hearted wife.  Binky, her brother is struggling to keep the estate going.   Georgie stumbles across mysteries and gets involved with them.  She starts by investigating when her brother is accused of murder.

  She also does occasional “commissions” for her distant cousin, Queen Mary…who is currently worried about her son, David, the Prince of Wales.

One of the things I like about the series is that it is humorous, though sometimes the author rather strains for jokes… but generally it’s amusing.  Also, I like the fact that Georgie has a “young man”, Darcy O’Mara, an Irish aristocrat who is rumoured to be a spy... but she and he have never become lovers.  Georgie is shy and awkward and has never had many beaux...And she wants to wait for marriage and have a happy faithful marriage.   Her mother is a lively lady who had several husbands and lovers, and her best friend Belinda is also rather promiscuous.  However I think that Georgie’s attitude is closer to the realities of life for young women in the 1930s.

Georgiana and Darcy have been planning to get married now for several books and are on the verge of it. I look forward to reading at least one “post marriage” book.  However as the 1930s go on, the series will be getting closer to World War II and it may be time to call a halt….