Rhys Bowen on Historical Fiction and Memorable Heroines ‹ CrimeReads

Rhys Bowen: I am drawn to the first half of the Twentieth Century because it is connected to my own time through my parents, grandparents and their stories. It is in some ways so familiar and yet so distant. I could take you on a walking tour of Molly's New York and find it all pretty much unchanged, and yet I write about a time when half the population couldn't vote, when husbands essentially owned their wives and children died of simple diseases. Also writing mystery novels set in the period gives my sleuth a challenge. It is not the sterile crime solving of CSI. There are few forensics and the sleuth must rely on wits and observation. No DNA to solve the case.