A few things I've been reading recently.
God Rest Ye, Royal Gentlemen by Rhys Bowen, Adult mystery, 2021
This book takes place at Christmas in 1935, when Georgie and her husband, Darcy, spend their first Christmas together as a married couple with his aunt and a host of other houseguests. Someone has shot at the Prince, and another suspicious death occurs. Count on Georgie to eventually figure out "who dun it".
These books are fun and easy reads. I find it interesting to read about how royalty and the class system work, which are often important parts of the story. This book references book #6, The Twelve Clues of Christmas, several times. I haven't read that one yet, so that's next up for me with this series. Ward enjoys these books also and has started at the beginning and is reading them in order. I'm not quite so orderly. 😀
In Farleigh Field by Rhys Bowen, Adult historical fiction, 2017
Lord Westerman, his wife, and 5 daughters live on the Farleigh Estate in rural England. The war is on, and Hitler has been bombing London. The estate is housing soldiers, and children from the city are being sent to live in the country to keep them safe from bombing.
Then one day, the youngest daughter finds a dead soldier in the woods. It looks like he jumped out of a plane, and his parachute didn't open. An investigation begins, and numerous theories emerge regarding his mission. Meanwhile, one daughter is stuck in Paris, where she was studying fashion, and another daughter is secretly decoding German messages. Another childhood friend is an ace pilot, and another is a spy. In this world, no one is above suspicion, and you are kept guessing who is working for which side of the war.
The story is complicated with many characters and several locations, enough so that there is a list of characters and locations at the beginning of the book. Despite the complications, it was not hard to follow the narrative. Even though this is a WWII novel, it reads like a mystery. I enjoyed this book and will read other Rhys Bowen standalone novels. This was my second one.
Mrs. Christie at the Mystery Guild Library by Amanda Chapman, Adult mystery, 2025
I was also drawn to the book's premise. Tory is a book conservator and works below and lives above a library that specializes in mystery books. One of the library rooms is set up like Agatha Christie's actual home was, including the books on the shelves. One day, an older woman appears in the room, claiming to be Agatha Christie from the beyond. She was bored in eternity, so they let her come to earth to solve a murder. Tory thinks she is a disturbed woman and is unsure what to do about her.
In the meantime, Tory's cousin, Nic, becomes involved with her manager's death. And thus a purpose for Mrs. Christie's appearance. Various people (an 11-year-old girl, a librarian, a detective, Nic, Tory, and Mrs. Christie) end up meeting every Monday evening to discuss the case.
Mrs. Christie manages to appear and disappear without anyone seeing her come and go, and they never know when she will show up. However, she does come regularly to the Monday meetings. During the meetings, she is quiet and occasionally interjects with something that makes the others think. Most of her comments are quotes from one of her books. She gently guides the others to solving the crimes.
This was an entertaining read. At first, I was bogged down by the author trying to establish the backstory for everything. However, when Mrs. Christie appeared, the book began to pick up, and soon I was totally into the story. Tory has her own introvert issues, and among other things, she has a crush on the hunky detective, but is too shy to act. Her cousin Nic, an actress, is outgoing and naive. The little girl is clever beyond her years.
The story takes place in New York City with many place names. They didn't mean a lot to me, but they could to someone who knew the city. However, I did find it interesting to learn about the various aspects of conserving old books through Tory's work.
The best part of the book was the numerous references to Agatha Christie's books. While I've read a few Agatha Christie mysteries, I've barely made a dent in the 66 detective novels she wrote. But I found the references to the books interesting and well done. I also found that there was more discussion about who committed the murders and why than in some other mysteries. The Monday meetings, with the diverse attendees, had them discussing all of the possibilities. I enjoyed that, and it didn't leave me with any confusion about what happened. Sometimes, I finish a book and feel like I have to have it explained to me.
This was Chapman's first book, and it just came out in August. If it sells well, I'm sure there will be more to follow.
Your Guide to Not Getting Murdered in a Quaint English Village by Maureen Johnson and Jay Cooper, Adult non-fiction (Dewey 818.602), 2021
That's it for now.
Until next time...
