The Fugitive Colours: A Genevieve Planché Novel

Set in 1764, Bilyeau’s engrossing sequel to 2018’s The Blue finds Genevieve Sturbridge (née Planché) running her struggling silk design workshop in Spitalfields, a neighborhood in “the east end of damp, murky London.” Genevieve, a spy during the Seven Years’ War, now wants nothing more than to stabilize her business; raise her young son, Pierre; and make a loving home with her husband, Thomas, himself a former spy, as well as a brilliant chemist, who now works as a tutor to the children of an English peer. An invitation to a memorial gathering for the recently departed William Hogarth at the home of Joshua Reynolds, “the leading artist of all England,” drastically alters the course of Genevieve’s life, puts her nearest and dearest in danger, and places her squarely as a suspect in the murder of a mysterious and odious man. Along the way, readers learn, among many other things, about the rise of science from the embers of alchemy and about the London art world’s power brokers. Readers will wallow in the fascinating history, all the while admiring Genevieve’s pluck. Bilyeau reliably entertains. (May)