Her Royal Spyness (Her Royal Spyness Mysteries, #1) in Ask Rhys Bowen, Deborah Crombie, and Charles Todd!

Mar 03, 2011 Pamela rated it really liked it

Meet Lady Victoria Georgiana Charlotte Eugenie Rannoch, but just plain Georgie will do. Georgie is in a bit of a pickle. Her dim and rather spineless elder brother Binky, Duke of Glen Garry and Rannoch, has cut off her allowance, forcing her to live on his charity in their drafty Scottish castle to be lorded over by his harpy of a wife, Fig (née Hilda). This is not quite the pickle. The pickle is that, as a member of the royal family (her grandmother was "the least attractive of Queen Victoria's Meet Lady Victoria Georgiana Charlotte Eugenie Rannoch, but just plain Georgie will do. Georgie is in a bit of a pickle. Her dim and rather spineless elder brother Binky, Duke of Glen Garry and Rannoch, has cut off her allowance, forcing her to live on his charity in their drafty Scottish castle to be lorded over by his harpy of a wife, Fig (née Hilda). This is not quite the pickle. The pickle is that, as a member of the royal family (her grandmother was "the least attractive of Queen Victoria's daughters"), it is Georgie's duty to "make a good match with some half-lunatic, buck-toothed, chinless, spineless, and utterly awful European royal, thus cementing ties with a potential enemy [of Britain]." This will not do. One day, in the bathroom--"how many people have had life-changing experiences while on the loo?"--she overhears her brother and beastly Fig hatching a plot to bring a particularly odious Princely Specimen to the castle in order to throw the two of them together. That settles it: Georgie is off to London, without servants and without a penny to her name, to make a life for herself. But first, how does one lay a fire? Or make tea? Or boil an egg? And then what is one to do with the dead body one discovers in one's bath? A dead body, I should add, belonging to a horrid Frenchman who is trying to swipe the family estate?

Faster than you can say "Buckingham Palace," Georgie finds her brother and herself implicated in the crime. She must put off her burgeoning business, Coronet Domestics--incognito housecleaning--running with the fast city set, and her flirtation with the dashing Darcy O'Mara and crack the case before Binkie swings for it. Joining forces with her are her old school chum, fashionista Belinda Warburton-Stoke, and her Cockney grandfather (on her mother's side). Playing girl detective isn't all fun and games, though. A quick shove on a tube platform, a poisoned sugar cube, a boating accident, and Georgie begins to wonder if there is more to Gaston de Mauxville's death, if one of the bright young things has it in for her family...and for Georgie herself.

This was such a treat. Georgie is a delightful heroine--wry, witty, and plucky--you root for her from the start. Bowen's command of language is flawless and her plot, while not very demanding, completely satisfies. Picture a somewhat less capable Flora Poste meets Agatha Christie. While ostensibly a whodunit, this is really a social comedy of errors about girl meets world. The mystery is intriguing, but I was much more drawn in by Georgie's frustrations with her lack of life skills and her largely ingenious ways of obtaining them, which is something that I think all young adults, freshly out of the nest, can relate to. We all have our Macgyver moments, having no clue about how to fix something (or tools, for that matter) and being too stubborn to call Mom--I remember once mending a pair of glasses with a paper clip and a pair of scissors. Georgie's involves a ladle and a coal scuttle.

It is also a comedy of manners and class, and I especially enjoyed Bowen's characterizations. Her Royal Spyness is a parade of types culled from British literature of the '20s and '30s, from worldly and modern Belinda (what one would call a "fast girl"), to the utterly useless Binky, to Fig's self-important frugality, the puppyish Wiffy Fetherstonehaugh and Tristram Hautbois, Darcy the Irish rogue, Georgie's actress mother, all the society matrons, and especially the royals--imperious HRH Queen Mary--and the wannabes--a perfectly vulgar Wallis Simpson.

High Literature, this is not, but I wouldn't want it to be. Highly recommended for all Anglophiles, to be consumed in one sitting with an ocean of tea and buttered crumpets. My only regret is that as soon as I started this, I came down with a disgusting cold that prevented me from going down to the library to get the rest of the series. (These are the ideal sick books.) Now I am reading Shirley Jackson. ...more

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Mar 04, 2012 Barbara rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: mystery-cozy

This really sounded cute in the description (not the description on Goodreads - it must have been Amazon or somewhere else). Turned out not to be so cute. I'm really disappointed. I've read other books by Rhys Bowen, from the Constable Evans series, and enjoyed them. Not this one, so much.

As a penniless royal, from a family that's barely afloat as it is, she needs to either marry wealth or find some way to support herself. I admired the lead character's resolve, resilience and strength in setti ...more

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Mar 08, 2011 Camille rated it it was amazing

Shelves: audiobook-listen, mystery, historical-fiction, historical-figures, anglophile-s-delight, 2011

Enjoyable little mystery with Katherine Kellgren reading the audiobook. Fun.

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Dec 29, 2012 Teresa rated it really liked it

Shelves: read-in-2012

Fun little read.

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Dec 20, 2012 Leah rated it really liked it

I love Georgie's character. The historical perspective is interesting and her relationship with her Grand Dad is charming. ...more

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Feb 17, 2013 M. rated it really liked it

This is a great listen.

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Feb 09, 2009 Carrie Goodall rated it really liked it

Shelves: mystery-and-suspense

This one was a lot of fun. London in the 30s and the main character is a related to the royal family. I'm ready to read the 2nd in the series. ...more

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