Book Review: Her Royal Spyness

Book: Her Royal Spyness (A Royal Spyness Mystery book #1) by Rhys Bowen

Rating: 5 stars

Review:

It's been a while since I've read a really good cozy mystery.

In this first book which is set in the 1930s opens to finds Lady Georgiana (whose full name is Lady Victoria Georgiana Charlotte Eugenie) in need of an escape from an impending doom, which would be Prince Siegfried who will be visiting Castle Rannoch in Scotland. Georgie had become aware of a plan on the Queen's part for Georgina's older brother Hamish (or Binky as she calls her dear brother) to host a party so that Georgie could meet the Prince where it may perhaps lead to marriage.

However, Georgie had no desire to wed to that cold fish and came up with an impromptu excuse to get away and head to London. Georgie didn't quite think her plan through because although of nobility she was flat broke and is in desperate need of money. Thankfully she wasn't homeless, Georgie was staying at the family's city residence Rannoch House. Although her brother Binky had cut off her allowance once she turned 21, he was also in no condition to give her money even if he had it. The family's finances have dwindled drastically.

Her arrival to the city didn't go unnoticed, Her Majesty requested Georgie's appearance at Buckingham Palace for tea. Once there, she found out that it was more than just a simple get together, the Queen had a reason for summoning her. She wanted Georgie to attend an upcoming party of Lord and Lady Mountjoy to spy on the woman that her son is secretly dating. Rumors have been swirling about this particular woman and the Queen would like more information about this situation to see if it needs to be swiftly ended.

With Georgie in need of money and having bad luck acquiring a job, she decided to start a cleaning service with herself as the only employee. Despite being 34th in line for the throne, she is still a royal and no one could find out what she was doing or it would be a huge scandal. In between cleaning houses she was also hanging out with her old school friend Belinda Warburton-Stoke, an aspiring fashion designer and the roguishly handsome Honorable Darcy O'Mara another penniless royal.

The mystery centered around the murder of Gaston de Mauxville, a detestable Frenchman. He had shown up days earlier claiming he had won the title of both Rannoch Castle and Rannoch House from Georgie and Binky's father during a card game. But since their father who was known to gamble was now deceased it would have been up to their lawyers to disprove his claim. But before that could happen, de Mauxville was found drowned in the bathtub at Rannoch House. All evidence seemed to point to Binky who had been arrested for the murder. 

Georgie knew her brother was innocent and set about trying to prove it. But it seemed as if the murderer may have set their sights on her because she was encountering far too many accidents to just be due her being accident prone.

The party that Georgie was to spy for the Queen turned out to be the setting for her to solve the murder.

I really like this and as many cozy mysteries it does take a while for the mystery to start, however I didn't mind. I like getting to know these characters and the author did such a good job of keeping the story fun and lively that I never found myself even wondering when the mystery would begin. But once it did start it was full steam ahead as Georgie did all that she could to find out who murdered de Mauxville, framed Binky and who was also trying to kill her.

This was so well written and fun to read that it's hard to imagine that this is the same author who co-wrote the Dreamwalker book. That book was so dull, boring and poorly written that I can only wonder how much the author actually contributed to it.

I enjoyed this and I'm looking forward to reading the second book, hopefully it will be just as good as this one.