Monday, September 1, 2014

BOOK: Her Royal Spyness by Rhys Bowen

Her Royal Spyness by Rhys Bowen, 324 pages

book 1 of 8 in the series

This was a surprising fun romp through 1932 London. Lady Georgiana is thirty-fourth in line for the throne of England, but flat broke. She lands in London from Scotland after being cut off by her brother who gets the title and the castle, with nothing but her royal connections to help her get by. She tries to get a job, tries to avoid getting set up to marry a fish-face prince, and then finds a dead body in her bath-tub.

I`m not usually a fan of cozy mysteries but this one worked for me. I am delighted to see that there are seven more books in the series. Lady Georgiana has pluck and the desire to make it on her own, and this first book certainly has a lot of examples of how difficult it was for her to live on her own and the differences between the classes still in the 1930s. She finds work ``opening up the London house` for others of her set, but forgets and tries to enter at the front door. Having to dig the coal out of the basement and start a fire for herself is a whole other adventure.

The mystery was thin (even I figured out who the murderer was, and I`m terrible at that!) but I still enjoyed it. There were a number of other great characters - her brother Binky, HRH the queen, her Cockney grandfather, and a few other friends from her set also eking out a sustenance, while trying to maintain a certain lifestyle. It often involved crashing weddings for a good meal.

I look forward to more adventures amongst Georgiana`s circle as she learns to stand on her own.