A Royal Pain (A Royal Spyness Mystery) | Rhys Bowen

A Royal Pain (A Royal Spyness Mystery) | Rhys Bowen | A Royal Pain

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A Royal Pain (A Ro...

	A Royal Pain (A Royal Spyness Mystery) Rhys Bowen Berkley Hardcover, 2008 - 320 pages average customer review:based on 13 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Another hilarious mystery featuring penniless aristocrat Lady Georgie, ?a feisty new heroine to delight a legion of Anglophile readers? (Jacqueline Winspear).

The Queen of England has concocted a plan in which Georgie is to entertain a Bavarian princess? and conveniently place her in the playboy Prince?s path, in the hopes that he might finally marry.

But queens never take money into account. Georgie has very little, which is why she moonlights as a maid-in-disguise. She must draw up plans: clean house to make it look like a palace; have Granddad and her neighbor pretend to be the domestic staff; un-teach Princess Hanni the English she?s culled from American gangster movies; cure said Princess of her embarrassing shoplifting habit; and keep an eye on her at parties. Then there?s the worrying matter of the body in the bookshop and Hanni?s unwitting involvement with the Communist Party. It?s enough to drive a girl crazy...

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"Hiya, doll."

Rhys Bowen has definitely got something here, with Lady Georgiana Rannoch, her newest and very blue-blooded sleuth. And, with apologies to Constable Evans and Molly Murphy, Georgie is fast becoming my favorite Bowen protagonist. A ROYAL PAIN happens to be the winning sequel to Her Royal Spyness (A Royal Spyness Mystery) as it sinks Georgie in an even more perilous adventure.

It's 1932, London, and there's a Depression on, affecting not only the common masses but the nobility as well. But Lady Georgiana Rannoch isn't your conventional impoverished royal. To support herself, she'd earlier established a domestic agency which provides light cleaning service, with her as the sole employee. But Georgie has to keep her new vocation on the sly; it simply wouldn't do to be found out, what with her being 34th in line to the throne and all.

Rank has its priveleges... and its duties. Queen Mary means to pry her son, the young Prince of Wales, from the influence of an unscrupulous American seductress. Georgie is tasked with hosting and chaperoning the Bavarian Princess Hannelore, who is just out of the convent and newly arrived to London. Georgie is encouraged by the Queen to take her new houseguest and mingle with the smart set, with the hope that the gorgeous princess might turn the Prince's head. Georgie promptly finds out that Hannelore (or Hanni) is a handful, like "looking after a naughty puppy." Hanni, it seems, had picked up her very unsuitable English from watching American gangster films (her first words to Georgie is "Hiya, doll."). Soon, Georgie is busy coaching Hanni in proper English and averting shoplifting disasters, not to mention tempering the Princess's desire to enter the world of dating and, alarmingly, the world of communism (there's this nice looking communist boy, you see...).

You get so enwrapped in Georgie and Hanni's comic misadventures that you tend to forget that this book is also a cozy mystery. But, then, the stabbed corpse in the bookshop turns up.

To make things worse, Hanni is now supplementing her gangster slang with Cockney vernacular, thanks to Georgie's hastily improvised household of servants, comprised of her commoner grandfather and his lady friend.

I happen to think that Lady Georgiana is Rhys Bowen's best creation yet. Born to privelege but broke as hell, yet with the backbone to do something about it, Georgie is simply an awesome heroine. Tall and clumsy, intelligent yet vulnerably reserved, and constantly upholding the Rannoch ideals, is Georgie. That she also solves mysteries is almost an incidental bonus. A key part in making her so ingratiating is her relationship with her salt-of-the-earth Cockney grandfather, an ex-policeman and Georgie's favorite person in the world. He does come in handy when murder's in the air. Also back is the appealing Belinda, Georgie's gregarious best friend.

Rhys Bowen hasn't let her readers down yet, and that trend continues with A ROYAL PAIN. Her smooth writing style makes her readers feel instantly welcome and at ease. There's more depth to this sequel, as Bowen plants Georgie even more firmly in her 1930s historical backdrop. Not only does Georgie continue to bump into her old school chums and social peers, but she rubs elbows with common Londoners and is exposed to some of the political climate of the times. Back then, violent outbreaks between the communist party and the fascist Blackshirts were common occurences. And, yes, Georgie and Hanni get caught in the middle of one such brawl. But fans of the first book shouldn't fret, as Bowen still infuses the novel with tons of drawing room farce and outrageous upper class scandals. The dashing if dubious Darcy O'Mara returns to make things interesting for Georgie, but it seems he's got an eye for the princess. Just another thing for Georgie to worry about.

A ROYAL PAIN just whets my appetite for more sightings of Lady Georgiana and of her friends and her wonderful granda. Me, I happen to like mysteries, and I'm telling you, Georgie is such an appealing character that I wouldn't even mind if there weren't mysteries for her to solve. Rhys Bowen is that good a writer.

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A Royal Pain

An absolutely delightful cozy British mystery with a historical twist to it! The author weaves the historical and the fictional with such ease. You will definitely think you "are there!" For any Anglophile mystery reader, this book is a must!! ENJOY!!

An entertaining romp of a mystery with a feisty and unique heroine

Sure, Georgiana Rannoch is the second cousin of King George V and thus in line for the crown (she only has 33 royals ahead of her), but she is also flat broke. Of course, it is the 1930s and a depression is in full swing in England. Georgie is so poor that she disguises herself to work as a maid and worries that the queen will send her out to the country to serve as Queen Victoria's daughter's lady-in-waiting, where she will have to walk the Pekinese and hold knitting yarn. Another horrid fate beckons to her in the form of marriage to discreetly gay Romanian Prince Siegfried. Compared to those possible futures, her life as a penniless maid is rather pleasurable.

Georgie's friend, Belinda, leads quite a different existence --- one filled with yachts, parties, new clothes and many dalliances with men. Belinda insists on dressing Georgie in some of her own finery so they can lunch at the Savoy. There, Belinda bemoans the fact that Georgie's love interest, Darcy O'Mara, has somehow vanished from her life. She also introduces her friend to some lively young gentlemen who invite them to an upcoming party.

Queen Mary summons Georgie to Buckingham Palace for tea. Over shared éclairs, the queen confides her worries over her son, the Prince of Wales. Instead of being interested in an appropriate young royal, the prince is enchanted with the unsuitable Wallace Simpson, who is not only an American commoner but is married. The queen has hatched a plan. She will invite a young Bavarian princess, Princess Hannelore, to visit, with the hope of diverting the Prince of Wales's romantic intentions. However, she doesn't want the prince to realize that he's being set up, so the queen has decided that the princess will stay with Georgie.

Georgie is floored. She can't say no to the queen, and yet her house is hardly suitable to entertain royalty. She has no servants, is living on toast and baked beans, and must go out to work. How ever will she cope? Happily, the one relative Georgie has been able to depend upon comes through for her. Her grandfather and his lady friend agree to pose as servants.

Her problems are far from over, as Georgie realizes when Princess Hanni arrives with her maid and companion. Hanni is trouble. She not only is a fan of American gangster movies, she actually talks like an American gangster. She also has a bit of a shoplifting problem, loves parties, and throws herself at any available young man (including Georgie's lost love, Darcy O'Mara). Yet, that is just the beginning. When one person ends up dead, it appears to be an accident...but when the corpses keep accumulating, the queen again calls upon Georgie, requesting that she act as a detective.

This second book in the Royal Spyness Mystery series is not only an entertaining romp of a mystery with a feisty and unique heroine but is also a fascinating glimpse into England between world wars and a comical peek backward at life in British upper classes. Many mystery lovers are no doubt familiar with award-winning author Rhys Bowen. Others will be ecstatic to discover her, introduced by the utterly smashing Lady Georgiana.

--- Reviewed by Terry Miller Shannon

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Delightful Cozy Mystery

I enjoyed the second installment this series. It is a fun, light read with some interesting period details.

Good addition to the series!

A Royal Pain is the second and latest in the Lady Georgiana (actually it's Lady Victoria Georgiana Charlotte Eugenie, cousin of King George V of England) "Her Royal Spyness" series. Lady Georgiana, aka Georgie, is a member of the royal family in the 1930's. She's 34th in line for the throne.

Georgie's brother, Binky, was left practically penniless after their father's fortune was lost due to the stock market crash and various other 'incidents' of their father's own making. As a result, Georgie, who doesn't want to live in the country with her brother and his 'not-so-nice' wife, lives in their London home. But, gasp! She has no servants, any money, nor any income. And the queen is forever asking for Georgie's help in matching up her son, the heir to the throne, with someone other than his American, married, older mistress.

This book has the queen asking Georgie to house and escort a visiting princess. This princess is quite a handful, being 18 and just recently left the convent where she was schooled. Georgie and the princess find several dead bodies along their adventures, which leads the police to not be very friendly, as you can imagine. As Georgie and her friends work to solve the mysteries - or maybe work to stay away but they keep cropping up - you are engaged in the drama and the fun.

The story is told from Georgie's point of view, so we get to hear her thoughts on her relatives, the times, and how she views herself. I find myself laughing out loud at her antics and how she seems to continually get herself involved, against her own wishes. Her friends and family are quite lovable, as is Georgie.

This book, as was the first one Her Royal Spyness, is a light, quick read with good characters. While some of the characters or situations are a bit predictable, the majority of the book is quite fun, unique and a good story. If you are looking for a light, 'not alot of thinking' series, this would be a good choice.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3

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