Royal Flush (Royal Spyness Mysteries, No. 3) [Bargain Price] [Hardcover]

Rhys Bowen (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 7, 2009

A Royal Spyness mystery starring Lady Georgiana, thirty-fourth in line for the throne-and the mystery world's favorite penniless heiress. With its posh clientele in the country for the summer, Georgie's housecleaning business has fizzled. So she tries hiring herself out as a dinnerand- theatre companion. But her first client has quite the wrong idea. To avoid further scandal, Georgie's shipped home to Castle Rannoch, where her summer plans include honoring a promise to Her Majesty to keep Castle Rannoch's divorcée houseguest from seducing the Prince of Wales. She's also been coerced into helping Scotland Yard with a top-secret mission-namely keeping an eye on the shooting party at Balmoral and preventing someone from shooting the Prince. And Georgie must manage all this without strangling her odious sister-in-law Fig or spineless brother Binky.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Set in 1932, Bowen's winning third Royal Spyness whodunit to feature Lady Georgiana, a great-granddaughter of Queen Victoria and 34th in line to the English throne (after 2008's A Royal Pain), will please fans of romantic, humorous historicals. Georgie makes an ill-advised attempt to start her own business, before discovering, to her embarrassment, that her definition of a female escort is not the same as that of her clientele. Fearing scandal, the authorities send her off to the family castle in Scotland, where a shooting party that includes the prince of Wales is in residence, with a brief from the Home Office to keep her eyes peeled for threats to the Crown. A series of serious accidents suggests that someone is targeting members of the royal family. The violence soon escalates to murder. The secret behind the attacks has been employed by such other mystery writers as David Dickinson and Robin Paige, but Bowen, who's won both Agatha and Anthony awards, puts a fresh slant on it. (July)
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From Booklist

Even though Lady Georgiana is only thirty-second in line to the British throne, one would expect her to possess something other than her good name. Alas, this is not the case, and when a scheme to drum up money by being a suitable dinner companion for male travelers goes terribly wrong, she hightails it up to the family home in the Highlands. There, she finds the castle full of guests (including Wallis Simpson), who make up part of a shooting party at nearby Balmoral. But the grouse aren’t the only ones in danger as guests keep turning up injured (including one hapless woman who’s knocked about by the castle’s old plumbing while she is on the “throne”). Is there a plot afoot to do in members of the royal family? As in previous entries in the series, Georgiana makes a superb sleuth, but much of the fun comes in the contrast between impoverished Georgie and the royal life of which—financial circumstances notwithstanding—she is still a part. Also intriguing is the aptly named Darcy O’Mara, the lady’s love interest. Just what are his intentions? --Ilene Cooper

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Berkley Hardcover (July 7, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 042522788X
• ASIN: B002XULXWE
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #896,470 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Rhys Bowen's books have been nominated for every major mystery award and she has won thirteen of them to date. She currently writes two historical mystery series, each very different in tone. The Molly Murphy mysteries feature an Irish immigrant woman in turn-of-the-century New York City. These books are multi-layered, complex stories with a strong sense of time and place and have won many awards including Agatha and Anthony. There are 10 book so far in this series plus the free Kindle story, The Amersham Rubies--a great way to introduce new readers to Molly's spunky personality.

Then there is Lady Georgie, Rhys's latest,and very popular, heroine. She's 34th in line to the throne of England, but she's flat broke and struggling to survive in the Great Depression. These books are lighter and funnier than Molly's adventures. They poke gentle fun at the British class system--about which Rhys knonws a lot, having married into an upper class family rather like Georgie's, with cousins with silly nicknames,family ghosts and stately homes. The fifth book, Naughty in Nice, is in stores now, and watch out for a big Christmas book in time for the 2012 holidays.
This year the series received the Readers Hoice Award for favorite mystery series.

Rhys was born in Bath, England and spent a lot of time growing up in Wales with her Welsh relatives. Those childhood experiences colored her first mystery series, about Constable Evans in the mountains of Snowdonia. 10 books including the Edgar nominee Evan's Gate. She has lived in Austria, Germany and Australia, but has called California her home for many years. She now escapes to a condo in Arizona during those cold California winters. When she's not writing she loves to travel, sing, hike and play the Celtic harp.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Uneasy lie the heads close to the Crown, July 19, 2009

By 

S. Saunders (Rocky Mountains USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Royal Flush (Royal Spyness Mysteries, No. 3) (Hardcover)

Twenty-something Lady Georgiana ("Georgie" to family and friends) is thirty-fourth in line to the British throne during the summer of 1932. The younger sister of the Duke of Rannoch (aka Binky), Georgie is also quite impoverished and has not yielded to efforts to marry her off to undesirable men of appropriate rank.

As the story opens, she's living alone (no servants) in the family's London house, somewhat at loose ends in the August heat, a situation not improved by her lack of money. Her annual trek to visit the Royal family at Balmoral is two weeks away.

A visit with her glamorous socialite friend Belinda gives Georgie an idea for a money-making scheme. But alas she's too naive to know what her innocently-intended ad in the Times for upper-class "escort" services means to the men who read it and call her. Saved from disaster by the handsome enigmatic young Darcy, she's packed off by Scotland Yard to her Rannoch family estate in Scotland, with a secret assignment: to keep an eye out for attacks on members of the royal family. Balmoral is practically next door and some odd things have occurred.

She finds her brother Binky laid up with a nasty foot injury and her sister-in-law struggling to cope with a a houseful of American guests - including Mr. and Mrs. Ernest Simpson - who are being entertained by the Rannochs as a favor to the Prince of Wales. From the first moments, Georgie's visit home is anything but restful. There are close calls, physical danger, off-putting strangers who want to get close to her, several encounters with the attractive Darcy, and murder.

This story deftly blends fast-paced action, romance, and insight into Georgie's character, with bits of British history. The handful of continuing series characters are well-drawn, including Georgie's commoner grandfather, her awkward sister-in-law and clueless brother, her glamorous friend Belinda and her elegant, distant mother (who bolted with a lover when Georgie was a tyke, leaving her to be raised by her father).

This was a fun and engaging read from start to finish.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Lady Georgiana Returns Home, September 1, 2009

By 

Mark Baker (Santa Clarita, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Royal Flush (Royal Spyness Mysteries, No. 3) (Hardcover)

Lady Georgiana is having a hard time in London. Thanks to the summer heat, she's finding few takers for her house cleaning service. But she things her friend Belinda has just handed her a winning meal ticket - dinner companion for out of town men. But advertising it as an escort service proves to be disastrous, and it is strongly suggested that Georgie return home to Scotland avert a royal scandal.

To her surprise, Georgie is greeted at Castle Rannoch with open arms. Her sister-in-law, Fig, is being driven crazy by a house full of demanding Americans. Since Her Majesty requested a place for them to stay, Fig can't demand they leave. So she enlists Georgie's help in running them off.

But the more pressing matter is the accidents that keep happening to the royal family. It looks like someone is trying to kill off the heirs to the throne. Worse yet, it might even be someone from the upper class. Georgie sets out to figure out who it is before things turn deadly. Can she do it?

This is another delightful romp from the pen of Rhys Bowen. The cast of characters is sharply drawn, and I had to laugh at the way Georgie described them at times. I got interested enough in 1930's England to see how many of these characters are real.

The book is always entertaining with the memorable characters. The plots a little slow in the first half, but it really picks up steam in the second, providing us with a memorable climax.

This is a fun, lighthearted mystery. If you need a smile of your face, you've come to the right place.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Scotland, Mystery, and Danger, September 18, 2009

By 

Rev. A. Trethowan (Perth, Western Australia) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Royal Flush (Royal Spyness Mysteries, No. 3) (Hardcover)

The setting in the Highlands is beautifully described, the large list of characters very inyeresting in their variety, and some of them clearly very well researched. The mystery is beautifully constructed; the danger at times very real; and the touches of wit sometimes absolutely hillerious. Lady Georgiana Rannoch {Georgie to her friends} is in her ancestoral element in many ways including the danger she is either involved with or comes close to. In this third Her Royal Spyness novel the main characters are well developed and accurately fitted into the British social situation of the mid 1930's. It is clearly a well researched novel. I found it also a very enjoyable read with many amusung moments amongst the suspense. It was a book I found hard to put down.

Tony Trethowan