Featuring on Friday - Rhys Bowen

Our Mystery Book Club selection for February was books by Rhys Bowen.

I had read several books by Rhys Bowen and really liked all of them. Everyone in the book club really enjoys her books so I thought I would share more about her.

About Rhys: https://rhysbowen.com/

"Rhys Bowen is the New York Times bestselling author of two historical mystery series as well as the #1 Kindle bestseller In Farleigh Field and the international bestseller The Tuscan Child.

In Farleigh Field was nominated for the Edgar Award, and won the Agatha Award for best historical mystery as well as the Macavity and Bruce Alexander Memorial Awards. The Tuscan Child has sold over half a million copies to date.

Rhys was born in Bath, England, and educated at London University, but now divides her time between California and Arizona. Her books have been nominated for every major mystery award and she has won twenty of them to date. They have been translated into twenty-two languages, including Chinese and Arabic.

She currently writes two historical mystery series, each very different in tone. The Molly Murphy mysteries feature an Irish immigrant woman in turn-of-the-century New York City. These books are multi-layered, complex stories with a strong sense of time and place and have won many awards including Agatha and Anthony. There are 17 books so far in this series, plus three Kindle stories, The Amersham Rubies, Through the Window and The Face in the Mirror—a great way to introduce new readers to Molly’s spunky personality.

Then there is Lady Georgie, Rhys’s latest, and very popular, heroine. She’s 35th in line to the throne of England, but she’s flat broke and struggling to survive in the Great Depression. These books are lighter and funnier than Molly’s adventures. They poke gentle fun at the British class system—about which Rhys knows a lot, having married into an upper-class family rather like Georgie’s, with cousins with silly nicknames, family ghosts and stately homes. The thirteenth book in the series, Love and Death Among the Cheetahs, was published August 2019. Two books in the series have won the Agatha Award for best historical mystery. The series received the Readers’ Choice Award for favorite mystery series and Rhys was nominated for career achievement. It was also voted one of Goodreads’ top-10 cozy mysteries.

Her most recent achievement has been the big historical stand-alone novels, In Farleigh Field, The Victory Garden, and The Tuscan Child. They have enjoyed impressive sales world-wide and brought Rhys many new readers. Her latest stand-alone, Above the Bay of Angels, will be published in 2020.

As a child, Rhys spent time with relatives in Wales. Those childhood experiences colored her first mystery series, about Constable Evans in the mountains of Snowdonia. She wrote ten books in the series, including the Edgar nominee Evan’s Gate.

he has lived in England, Germany and Australia, but has called California her home for many years. She now escapes to a condo in Arizona during those cold California winters. When she’s not writing, she loves to travel, sing, hike, paint, play the Celtic harp and spoil her grandchildren."

I have read one Molly Murphy, a couple of the Royal Spyness books (Lady Georgie), and In Farleigh Field.

Here is the book I read for this month's Mystery Book Club.

About:

"Evan Evans is a young police constable who has traded in the violence of city life for idyllic Llanfair, a Welsh village tucked far away from trouble. Nestled among the Snowdonia mountain range, Llanfair looks to Constable Evans like a town forgotten by time, but he quickly learns that even the bucolic countryside has its share of eccentric - and deadly - characters. Evans' new neighbors include two competitive ministers vying for the souls of their flock, one lascivious barmaid, and three other Evanses: Evan-the-Meat, Evans-the-Milk, and Evans-the-Post (whose favorite hobby is to read the mail before he delivers it). 

Before Evans has time to sort through the complicated relationships and rivalries of his new home, he's called to the scene of a crime as brutal and fearsome as any he encountered in the big city. Two hikers have been murdered on the trails of the local mountain, and Evans must hunt down a vicious killer - who may or may not be linked to the mysterious destruction of Mrs. Powell-Jones' prize-winning tomatoes."

I loved this book also. It is the first in the series, so the characters and setting is being introduced for the next books. Evan Evans is a very likeable character, with good, strong morals which are tried many times. The mystery is good, reminiscent of Midsomer Murders. I like his relationship with his landlady - even though he could go get his own place, he feels she needs his company. The descriptions of the extravagant meals she makes him that he feels he must eat, is comical. Mrs. Powell Jones also gives the reader a laugh. I thought the ongoing description of Evan's investigation was very good.. The village teacher could be a love interest but the local bar hussy is constantly throwing herself at him. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I listened to this book and thought the narrator was great too.

As I said, everyone in the group, likes the books by this author. Some have read all the books in one series or the other. Some of their comments were; like the descriptions of the city life, the historical facts, funny, likes the use of play on words, and commented on how much meticulous research Rhys puts into the books. 

Two thumbs up!

Rhys Bowen's books are a Mystery Book Club 5 Star recommendation!