At age 26, while working on a Ph.D. in history at Harvard, Lauren Willig wrote The Secret History of the Pink Carnation in her free time. Picking up the spy theme where Baroness Orczy’s Scarlet Pimpernel left off, Willig sends her lead character, Elise Kelly, to London to do research for her doctoral dissertation on English spies in the Napoleonic era. Following the classic writer’s adage to write about what she knows, Willig's depth of knowledge of history is obvious. The story is not bogged down with dry details, but, instead, sparkles with little gems of historical mention sprinkled throughout the text.
The Pink Carnation series contains relationships and mystery as well as spying
Not categorized as a mystery series, the main plot of the Pink Carnation novels is the developing — or not — relationship between Eloise Kelley, the Ph.D. candidate, and Colin Selwick, owner of Selwick Hall. But there is mystery afoot. Why is Colin, a descendant of Lord Richard Selwick, aka the Purple Gentian, so reluctant for Eloise to examine his family’s papers in her search for the identity of the Pink Carnation, a spy who operated on the side of England during Napoleon Bonaparte’s reign? What Colin does for a living is in the dark as well. He claims to be writing spy novels. At least that’s what it looked like when Eloise sneaked a peek — purely by accident — at Colin’s computer.
Not all of the Selwick family is antisocial. Colin’s aunt Arabella Selwick-Alderly responds in the affirmative to Eloise’s request to examine family correspondence for her dissertation, tentatively titled “Aristocratic Espionage during the Wars with France: 1789-1815.” Aunt Arabella introduces Eloise to a chest filled with ledger books and letters written to and by Amy Balcourt, aka Mlle Aimée de Balcourt, and her brother Edouard, both of whom were “exiled” to England to escape The Terror of the French Revolution.
Spy capers from a feminine point of view
The unfolding tale of the friendship and adventures of Amy and her English cousin Jane Wooliston are interwoven in Willig’s story about Eloise’s research challenges and her relationship with the Selwicks. Eloise discovers coded letters about evil secret societies, exciting exploits, romance, the unmasking of knaves and spies, and the rescuing of damsels in trouble of their own making.
The Pink Carnation series pulls it all together
The jackets for each book in the series features a reproduction of a period painting of a lovely young lady. Lauren Willig, herself an attractive young woman, wears a classic single strand of pearls in her first author’s photo. After receiving a graduate degree in English history and a J.D. from Harvard Law School, she moved to New York City and took up writing full time. She is crafting a series of historical fiction books that is a fun read for history buffs, romantics, aficionados of spy stories, and cozy mystery readers.
Identifying fact woven into the fiction
True to her training, Willig includes in each book an Historical Note that identifies some of the actual historical facts that were used in the novel and indicates where flights of fantasy took freedoms with those facts.
The Pink Carnation series by Lauren Willig, published by Dutton:
- The Secret History of the Pink Carnation (2005)
- The Masque of the Black Tulip (2006)
- The Deception of the Emerald Ring (2007)
- The Seduction of the Crimson Rose (2008)
- The Temptation of the Night Jasmine (2009)
- The Betrayal of the Blood Lily (2010)
- The Mischief of the Mistletoe (2010)
- The Orchid Affair (2011)
Denise Larson - Denise Larson is an author, editor, and freelance writer, mostly of history and genealogy, and a hobbyist in gardening and healthy ...
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