This is the first entry in the “Silver Screen Historical Novels’ series by Barbara Hambly. It’s 1924 when Emma Blackstone joins her sister-in-law Kitty Flint, a Hollywood actress whose stage name is Camille de la Rose, on the set as Kitty’s girl Friday. (Emma’s American husband is killed in WWI and her extended family died from the Spanish flu.) Kitty’s first husband, Rex Festraw, is found shot to death in her dressing room, and someone is trying to frame Kitty for the murder. Emma and her significant other, cameraman Zal Rokatansky, are very clever in figuring out who the murderer really is.

For fans of historical fiction and Hollywood in the 1920’s, this is a quick fun read by the prolific author Barbara Hambly.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

~Emma

It’s 1935 when newlyweds Georgie and Darcy O’Mara plan a small gathering of friends and family over the Christmas holidays at their new home. Their plans change when an unexpected invitation arrives from Darcy’s eccentric Aunt Ermintrude. Ermintrude had been a lady-in-waiting for Queen Mary and is living at Wymondham Hall which is on the edge of the royal Sandringham estate. The invitation implies that the Queen would like to visit with Georgie. The O’Mara’s feel they must accept Ermintrude’s invitation. Georgie’s mother, brother Binky and his wife Fig are also invited along with their two children. The Prince of Wales and Wallis Simpson are in attendance. The Prince is duty-bound to his family’s holiday traditions especially since the King’s health is failing and this may be his last Christmas. Wallis is unhappy that she is left behind at Wymondham Hall while the Prince is at Sandringham.

Awful accidents happen at Sandringham, and the Queen wants Georgie (along with security and the police) to figure out what is going on. She feels that the estate is cursed. The Prince is shot at. An equerry (an officer of the household of a prince or noble who had charge over the stables) died last Christmas and another died this Christmas. Wallis Simpson is left unconscious when a collapsible staircase falls and hits her on the head at Wymondham Hall.

I won’t give away any more of the plot and invite you read the novel. I thoroughly enjoy the Royal Spyness series and recommend that the books be read in order. The stories and characters build on each other.

1. Her Royal Spyness – 2007
2. A Royal Pain – 2008
3. Royal Flush – 2009
4. Royal Blood – 2010
5. Naughty in Nice – 2011
6. The Twelve Clues of Christmas – 2012
7. Heirs and Graces – 2013
8. Queen of Hearts – 2014
9. Malice at the Palace – 2015
10. Crowned and Dangerous – 2016
11. On Her Majesty’s Frightfully Secret Service – 2017
12. Four Funerals and Maybe a Wedding – 2018
13. Love and Death Among the Cheetahs – 2019
14. The Last Mrs. Summers – 2020
15. God Rest Ye Royal Gentlemen – 2021

~Emma

It’s 1914 in Baltimore when Ruth and Elise Duncan finally defy their father’s wishes. Ruth wants to become a doctor, but society and her father don’t feel that’s an appropriate career choice for women. Women should be stay-at-home wives and mothers. The sisters volunteer to help the British on the Western Front and head to Ypes, Belgium. There Ruth will work as a nurse and Elise will be an ambulance driver and mechanic. The horrific conditions keep both women too busy. At times Ruth oversteps her nursing duty boundaries and assists in the operating theatre annoying doctors. With the support of John Doweling, who is a doctor with the British, Ruth gains additional knowledge and practice in the operating room. John and Ruth soon fall in love while Elise and Hera, another driver in the all-female Ambulance Corps, also fall in love.

When the war is finally over, John and Ruth plan to marry. Ruth is still determined to become a doctor but medical schools will not accept married women. Elise and Hera plan to stay together and raise a houseful of orphans.

This novel is not meant for anyone with a sensitive stomach. Near the battlefront, there are many life threatening wounds, amputations and deaths. I am guessing a sequel is in the works for this book. There are several loose ends that could be resolved.

~Emma

In this sequel to Dear Mrs. Bird, its 1941 when Emmeline Lake is hired as the wartime advice columnist for “Woman’s Friend” magazine. Along with her publisher, Emmy attends the Ministry of Information meetings where the need for women wartime workers is stressed. The British magazines are asked by the Ministry to do their part to help recruit more women. Emmy is up to the challenge and expands her role at “Women’s Friend”. She is allowed to visit a munitions factory to see firsthand women workers at their jobs and write a series of articles for the magazine. She is allowed to interview women who face the difficulty of being wartime workers, wives and mothers. With their long workdays and odd hours, these women need government-sponsored nurseries for daycare. Emmy and her best friend Bunty help take up the cause for nurseries, equal pay for equal work, and the ability for women to join the union.

The second entry in the Emmeline Lake Chronicles series is a heartwarming novel with a little romance. Emmy gets married just as her husband joins the fight.

~Emma