Genevieve sits down for a question-and-answer session with dru’s book musings so that we, the readers, can get to know her better.

What is your full name?
Genevieve Planché

How old are you?
30

What is your profession?
It’s 1764 and I’m the owner of a silk design business and an aspiring artist

Do you have a significant other?
Yes

If so, what is his name and profession?
Thomas Sturbridge, a Cambridge-educated chemist

Do you have any children?
Yes, a son named Pierre

Do you have any siblings?
No

Are your parents nearby?
They are both dead. I was raised by my Huguenot grandfather, Pierre Billiou.

Who is your best friend?
Evelyn Willoughby

Do you have any pets?
Not since my grandfather’s canaries died

What town do you live in?
Spitalfields neighborhood east of London

Do you live in a small town or a big city?
Part of a big city

What type of dwelling do you own or rent?
A townhouse on Fournier Street built 50 years earlier

What is your favorite spot in your home?
My third floor workshop, where my two high-strung young artists, Caroline and Jean, help me design flowers for silk dresses.

What is your favorite meal and dessert?
Cassoulet, with a macaron cookie.

Do you have any hobbies?
Painting London scenes, inspired by William Hogarth

What is your favorite vacation spot?
Bath, where Thomas Gainesborough lives.

What is your idea of a really fun time?
A party with champagne, seething with gossip about London art and aristocrats

If you were to write a memoir, what would you call it?
My Life As a Spy

Amateur or professional sleuth and whom do you work with?
Amateur sleuth, trying to help solve a crime Sir Humphrey Willoughby is investigating . . . to deflect attention from myself and my loved ones.

What is a typical day in your life like in general and when you are on a case?
I’m trying to support my family with my silk design business, so I work hard on that six days a week. But when I’m investigating a crime in the art world, I forsake my business to ask the kind of questions that all too often put me in danger!

The Fugitive Colours, A Genevieve Planché Mystery #2
Genre: Historical Thriller
Release: May 2022
Purchase Link

As Genevieve Sturbridge struggles to keep her silk design business afloat, she must face the fact that London in 1764 is very much a man’s world. Men control the arts and sciences, men control politics and law. And men definitely control women.

A Huguenot living in Spitalfields, Genevieve one day receives a surprise invitation from an important artist. Grasping at the promise of a better life, she dares to hope her luck is about to change and readies herself for an entry into the world of serious art.

She soon learns that for the portrait painters ruling over the wealthy in London society, fame and fortune are there for the taking. But such high stakes spur rivalries that darken to sabotage and blackmail—and even murder. And watching from the shadows are ruthless spies who wish harm to all of England.

Genevieve begins to suspect that her own secret past, when she was caught up in conspiracy and betrayal, has more to do with her entrée into London society than her talent. One wrong move could cost her not just her artistic dreams but the love of those she holds dear … and even her life.

A sequel to Nancy Bilyeau’s The Blue, The Fugitive Colours again reveals a dazzling world of glamour and treachery in Georgian England, when beauty held more value than human life.

About the author
Nancy Bilyeau, a Michigan native, has worked as an editor on the staffs of InStyle, Rolling Stone, and Good Housekeeping. Passionate about history and art, she wrote an award-winning trilogy set in Tudor England before creating a heroine, Genevieve Planché, who holds personal significance. Nancy is descended from a Huguenot settler who came to America in 1661 and draws on her fascination with French Protestant refugees when writing the character of Genevieve Planché, a Huguenot artist. The Fugitive Colours is a follow-up to her 2018 historical thriller The Blue. Today Nancy lives in upstate New York with her husband and two children.

All comments are welcomed.