Above the Bay of Angels by Rhy Bowen

Above the Bay of Angels. Rhys Bowen. Amazon Publishing. February 11, 2020. pb, 348 pp.; ISBN #: 9781542008259.

Queen Victoria is older and Albert has died.  Isabelle Waverly’s father life is slowly dulling because he drinks too much.  His two daughters will be all right; one will marry and the other one has unbelievable luck.  For she sees a woman die from being hit by a truck and she assumes the identity of this woman who has been invited to Buckingham Palace.  She has the background and becomes Helen Barton.

The position is hers and she works so very hard at becoming a junior cook.  Luck seems to follow her.  Despite the mockery of Roland Barton, she gets him a job as a follower of the Queen’s son.  Others try to push her but she holds off many, telling each she will not bed them as she is committed to honesty and integrity that go with marriage.  This makes for many tight moments!

Then one year the Queen decides to go to Nice in France!  There she pleases the Queen with her scones and her honesty.  The beauty and food of this locale please Helen and she learns to cook them via the French chef who becomes a friend.  She is challenged by the death of a German prince and is judged guilty of murdering him with a mushroom.  She manages to find the guilty party who did commit this horrendous crime and in so doing earns the care of her peers. 

Thus she agrees to marry the French chef, Jean-Paul Lepin and open their own French restaurant.  Alive and moving beyond its borders, this novel will satisfy you and also satisfy the mystery.  It’s a tale told in simplicity and honesty. 

It’s good, solid historical fiction that this reviewer highly recommends!