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Showing posts with label Royal Spyness Mystery. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Royal Spyness Mystery. Show all posts

Friday, June 14, 2013

Audible Review: A Royal Pain: A Royal Spyness Mystery by Rhys Bowen

This is a fun, light historic mystery.
A Royal Pain: A Royal Spyness Mystery 
Author: Rhys Bowen
    UNABRIDGED
       Narrated by Katherine Kellgren
        Series: Royal Spyness, Book 2


    LENGTH      8 hrs and 57 mins
    RELEASE DATE      08-03-10
    Program Type      Audiobook
    PUBLISHER      Audible, Inc.
Genre: Cozy Mystery, Historical
My Rating: 4.25 of 5.0


Publisher's Summary

The Queen of England has concocted a plan in which penniless aristocrat Lady 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 Hannis' unwitting involvement with the Communist Party. It's enough to drive a girl crazy.

Listen to more Royal Spyness mysteries.
©2008 Janet Quin-Harkin (P)2010 Audible, Inc.


Review:
The Queen doesn’t realize the lack of Georgie’s fiances when she asks her (a cousin) to play hostess to a Bavarian Princess. The Queen is trying to get her son to change his affections from an older, married American woman to a proper person of worth. Georgie has to recruit her father and his friend to masquerade as butler and cook and she even coerces a friend to serve as a maid.

Princess Hanni arrives with her companion, a haughty Baroness. Princess Hanni, although supposedly taught at a convent, picked up English slang from watching gangster movies, plus she is extremely ‘man’ crazy. Georgie has her hands full pretending to maintain a proper household, discouraging the Baroness from inspecting things too closely and curbing the Princess’s slang and tendency to shoplift and chase after handsome men.

Georgie and Hanni almost become involved in a Communist protest at a visit in the park. They meet several handsome men, including the dashing Darcy who has already attracted Georgie even though she believes he is searching for an heiress. Georgie takes Hanni to a ‘Bohemian’ party of commoners. Hanni is thrilled to meet more handsome men, and to run into Darcy again. Unfortunately the evening is cut short when one of the young bucks tumbles through the balcony railing. Darcy manages to whisk Georgie and Hanni away before their attendance becomes fodder for the papers. But Georgie still has to face questioning by the police who are concerned about her presence at another death.

A few days later Georgie helps Hanni get to a private assignation with a young man who works at a bookstore in a seedier side of town. Georgie follows Hanni upstairs only to discover the young man, a Communist sympathizer, with a knife in his back!

The Queen decides that, while taking Hanni to a country party before an international incident arises, Georgie must also make time to investigate the murder(s). Darcy seems to always be in the wings-- or alley as the case may be–to come to Georgie’s aid. This is pleasing although perplexing particularly when Darcy begins to show additional attention to Hanni, making Georgie regret her decision to put off Darcy’s earlier advances.

There is more intrigue and killing before Georgie uncovers the bigger plot. She has to force her way to a last minute rescue and again Darcy is there to jump in front of the bullet. Georgie makes rash promises to Darcy hoping he won’t die.

Georgie’s dry humor and banter are very enjoyable. This is the second of the series that I have listened to and the stories are light, quick and fun listening.

AUDIO NOTES:  Katherine Kellgren does a really nice job with the narration, adding the different accents and emotions. Her delivery is smooth and enhances the easy story line making these fun to listen to.

This is a selection from my Audible Library.

Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Audible Book Review: Her Royal Spyness by Rhys Bowen

This was a fun listen even though I felt that some of it was far-fetched.


Genre: Cozy Mystery
My Rating: 4.25 of 5.0

        
Publisher's Summary

 Georgie, aka Lady Victoria Georgiana Charlotte Eugenie, cousin of King George V of England, is penniless and trying to survive on her own as an ordinary person in London in 1932.

So far she has managed to light a fire and boil an egg... She's gate-crashed a wedding... She's making money by secretly cleaning houses... And she's been asked to spy for Her Majesty the Queen.

Everything seems to be going swimmingly until she finds a body in her bathtub... and someone is definitely trying to kill her.


Review:
Lady Victoria Georgiana, aka Gerogie, is a cousin of the King and in line ... about 34 people back... to become ruler. Unfortunately her family has been impoverished by her father’s reckless habits. Although Georgie is close to her brother, Binky, the Duke, her sister-in-law is ready for her to be married off and move out.  When Georgie’s eavesdropping reveals that the Queen wants her brother to host a party to push her toward’s one of the lesser impressive Princes, Georgie decides to escape their Scottish Castle to run off to London.

Georgie sets off without servants for the trip or the London home.  She quickly realizes she is in trouble since she doesn’t know how to cook or even light the fire.  She visits her commoner grandfather who is willing to show her some basic survival skills.

Georgie meets a handsome, penniless Irishman rogue, Darcy, who begins to encourage her to join him in party crashing as she adds prestige to his charm.  Her man hungry best friend, Belinda, suggests Georgie might have an extra good time with Darcy but her childhood step-brother, playmate, Tristan, keeps warning her away.

Georgie is determined to make her own way and works hard to try to find a job she can handle, even if it means cleaning other people’s houses under an assumed identity. Exposure of that venture would be disastrous to the family reputation. Binky comes to town to meet with a Frenchman who claims their father lost the family estate in a game of chance. This is distressing enough but matters become worse when the man turns up dead in the bathtub. As the days go by and Georgie narrowly escapes several ‘accidents’ she begins to suspect that someone is trying to kill her in addition to framing her or her brother for murder.

Georgie has already been given a spying assignment by the Queen so it is not too surprising when Georgie finally becomes angry and frustrated enough to charge off on her own to try to find the culprit responsible for the attacks on her.  Of course that only jumps the fat from the pan to the fire.

The narrator, Katherine Kellgren, does a charming job with the British and Irish accents, wonderfully intoning the British aristocracy and the Irish irreverence. There is a lightness to the reading that enhances the fun dialogue.

Even though I thought that some of the actions were less than plausible, I enjoyed the mystery and the fun characters. This was the first book I read by Rhyes Bowen but it won’t be the last. I want to know more about Georgie’s escapades and will read more in this series.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I will add this to my TBR, Mystery and Audio Challenge Lists.

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