June 10, 2013
Set in 1934, Bowen’s rollicking seventh Royal Spyness mystery (after 2012’s The Twelve Clues of Christmas) finds Lady Georgiana Rannoch, a distant cousin of George V, typing up her mother’s life story. But once Mummy decides her memoirs are too scandalous for publication, Georgiana must seek new employment. With options limited, she writes Queen Mary, who rewards her with a royal audience and a business proposition. The son of the dowager Duchess of Eynsford, a friend of the queen’s, has not produced an heir, and the future of the family hinges on a newly discovered relation, Australian Jack Altringham. But Altringham, an uncouth sheep farmer, needs help acclimating to British high society, which is where Georgiana comes in. Inevitably, a murder crosses her path, and the quasi-royal again gets to show off her detecting chops. The appealing lead and breezy prose will remind many of James Anderson’s period mysteries featuring the Earl of Burford. Agent: Meg Ruley, the Jane Rotrosen Agency.
July 15, 2013
Grooming an Australian heir to a dukedom turns into a murder investigation for a very minor member of the royal family. Although Lady Georgiana Rannoch is 35th in line for the throne, she's constantly struggling to survive. After her flighty actress mother leaves her in the lurch to spend some time with her latest lover, Georgie's note to the queen produces a job she seems well-suited for. The queen's friend Edwina, the Dowager Duchess of Eynsford, has discovered that Jack, the only heir to the dukedom, was brought up on an Australian cattle station. She wants Georgie to come to Eynsford and help smooth off his rough edges. The estate is magnificent, the food is extravagant, but the present duke, Cedric, a nasty piece of work who's more interested in young men than in siring an heir, refuses to help any of his family members. In addition to her two odd sisters, Edwina is also housing her daughter Irene and her children--Sissy, Nick and Katherine--whose father was a Russian count. Cedric not only refuses to pay for the children's education and an operation that might restore Sissy's ability to walk after a riding accident, but is also tearing down estate cottages to build a theater and threatening to adopt his valet as his heir. Jack, who arrives escorted by Darcy O'Mara, the man Georgie would like to marry if they can ever raise the money, considers the whole class system nonsense and would rather be back in Australia. When Georgie finds Cedric with Jack's knife in his back, she's certain that he's innocent of the crime. But getting the police to agree promises to be a difficult task. Bowen's seventh Royal Spyness mystery (The Twelve Clues of Christmas, 2012, etc.) is loaded with country-house charm and capped by an unexpected denouement.
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August 1, 2013
Once again, Lady Georgiana Rannoch must use her wits when Jack, a young heir from Australia, needs her help. He's been accused of murdering a duke, and things quickly tumble apart from there. This is the seventh entry (after The Twelve Clues of Christmas) for the lauded series, set in 1930s England.
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September 1, 2013
The seventh in the Royal Spyness mystery series finds Lady Georgiana Rannoch, second cousin to King George V and thirty-fifth in line to the throne of England, facing the prospect of having nowhere to live. Then she catches a break. The dowager Duchess of Eynsford has uncovered a long-lost relative, an Australian, who, if he can be civilizedin the preWorld War II era, the British still viewed Australia as an upstart colonycould carry on the family title. The Queen asks Georgiana to go down to Kent, where she'll stay at the duchess' family estate and introduce the young, rough-around-the-edges Australian, Jack Altringham, to genteel society. Problems arise when, almost immediately after Georgiana's arrival at the estate in Kent, Cedric, the Duke of Eynsford, is murdered, apparently with Jack's knife. Like an Agatha Christie novel, the tale is leisurely paced, introducing the cast of characters, establishing their various relationships, then finally introducing the crime (the murder occurs about halfway through the book). A nice entry in this popular series, a favorite among British-cozy fans.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)