In this installment Georgie returns to her home in Scotland to join a house party and keep an eye on the royal party, as members of the royal family keep narrowly missing deadly mishaps. Same format as before-embroiled in mystery, marvelous historical detail, a little romance and adventure.
Archive for British
Royal Flush (Her Royal Spyness #3) by Rhys Bowen
A Royal Pain (Her Royal Spyness #2) by Ryhs Bowen
In this installment Georgie begins a housecleaning service, difficult to juggle when she’s also hosting, at HRM’s request (command) a Bavarian princess who seems hell bent on getting into loads of trouble. There’s also a couple of suspicious deaths, including one at a swanky party (so Noel Coward that he himself is there) and Georgie is all caught up in it.
Just as delightful as the first!
Her Royal Spyness by Rhys Bowen
This is the first in a terrific light historical mystery series. This first volume has a lot of set up of how Lady Georgiana finds herself in London. You see, she usually lives in Scotland at the family home, where her brother is the Duke. She is 34th (I think?) in line to the throne, so is part of the Royal Family and of that class. So it’s a total drag then that she and brother are quite poor. She certainly can’t work, because her class does not do that. She can’t ask the Queen for a handout, because that’s poor form, too. She decides to at least try to make it on her own in London (at the family home, where she must live without a maid).
When a dead man is found in her bathtub it’s hard to keep a low profile, especially since her brother is the most likely suspect. She endeavors to solve the mystery, all while keeping the royal name untarnished.
In addition to this being funny and Georgie being a likable character, I absolutely loved the historical detail. I usually read British historicals set during the Regency, so the 1930s is a new era for me and it was filled with all the things you might expect, as well as some you don’t. For example, it never occurred to me that people were riding the Underground in the early 30s! Also, there is quite a bit in all the books I’ve read thus far (the first three) about Wallace Simpson and Edward, and the angle on it is very different from anything romantic I’d ever read before.
Swept Off Her Feet by Hester Browne
I loved the Little Lady Agency books and was delighted when I saw this on the picked over shelves at Borders in its final days. The premise is that Evie Nicholson works for an antiques buyer and heads off to her sister Louise’s boyfriend’s Scottish estate to appraise the contents of the neighbor’s house (they need to sell some stuff to pay for upkeep, don’t you know.) Handsome men ensue. There were two interesting things about this book that I loved and gave it a lot interest and appeal.
The first is that Scottish dancing is a central part of the story. Evie and her sister are terrible dancers, but Evie is pressed into subbing for her sister at a big fancy annual gala where she will need to correctly dance some crazy Highland dances. After reading all about them I went straight to YouTube to view videos of these dances. And I dearly wished that I was part of something so steeped in tradition. <sigh>
The other is that Evie’s quirky character trait is that she is kind of a crappy antiques buyer because she looooooooves the past. Is simply in love with daydreams and stories of what role an inanimate object might have played in someone’s life. Getting to stay in the old castle practically makes her swoon. I loved every one of her little daydreams because I am the same way and it all seemed totally reasonable to me. How could you not descend the staircase in a castle without imagining yourself in the splendor candlelight with handsome Duke waiting for you? How could you not look at an old writing desk without imagining what letters might have been written on it?
The romance angle of this actually kept me guessing a bit. I felt like I knew who she was meant to end up with, but kept doubting it. So good for you, Hester Browne!
Started Early, Took My Dog by Kate Atkinson
I really enjoyed this mystery, which I thought of not so much as a traditional mystery, but more of a story that had two mysteries to be figured out. Jumping back and forth between 1975 and now the cast of characters is a group of policemen/detectives and a policewoman, Tracy. Every part in 1975 I pictured in my head just like the show Life on Mars, and in fact that was eventually remarked upon by one of the characters in the present day. The tangled up mystery involves some kind of covered up terrible secret from the 70s. Now those policemen are elderly, but they’ll do what it takes to keep a cover-up covered up. Tracy has had a respectable career, but in one unexpected rash moment she finds herself on the other side of the law. Trying to figure out a different mystery is Jackson Brodie, a former private investigator, haunted by his sister’s death back in the 70s (this book makes me believe that women were raped and murdered constantly in the mid-seventies in England),he is searching for a client’s roots and ends up involved in everything. I’ve never read anything else by this author, but I could tell that there were past books featuring Jackson (and there are apparently three others), and I’m definitely interested in reading more.
This was the sort of mystery I like-winding and tangled, but I didn’t feel like I needed to solve it. It also had a air of sadness to the story that made me wish I hadn’t stayed up past midnight finishing it because then I was left alone in the middle of the night thinking sad and heavy thoughts about my children.
Definitely recommended!
The Tower, The Zoo, and The Tortoise by Julia Stuart
I feel like I’ve been reading this book forever. I have read 2 or 3 other books during the course of this one. It is a charming, quirky, but slow novel. It got a great review in EW, which surprises me because I do not see this having mass appeal. That all sounds very negative, but I don’t mean it to be. There is tender emotion in this story behind the eccentric characters and oddly formal and repetitious (by that I mean certain phrases repeated often) writing style. satisfying. The characters in the novel are each little pictures of human eccentricities, and surely the Tower itself is a main character in this story. At its heart are a couple, Balthazar and Hebe Jones. He is a Beefeater (Yeoman Warder) and they, like the other Beefeaters, live at the Tower of London. Here is where I wish there was a map. I also need to know more about this. According to the book it seems that there are lots of families living at the tower, each in their own building, and they seem to have their own community. Living right there in the historic tower (with circular walls!) where prisoners were held, English history abounds, and ghosts haunt! It’s super fascinating. Hebe and Balthazar are a sad couple, once madly in love, driven apart by the death of their only and beloved son, Milo. Hebe works at the London Underground Lost Property office. I loved these scenes the best– Hebe and her friend and co-worker, Valerie, settled in amongst a great variety of lost articles, diligently working to find the owners, even years after things have turned in. Indeed, they are like librarians or detectives in all that they do!
The quiet sad life of Balthazar changes when word comes from the Palace that animal gifts given to the Queen will now be housed at the Tower in a Royal Menagerie and that Balthazar will be the new Zookeeper.
I enjoyed this story very much, especially its satisfying ending.
Holly’s Inbox by Holly Denham
Frothy good fun. Nothing like a 4 or 5 hundred page book that flies by because the actual amount of text on each page is not that much. In fact here is what I wrote in an email to a friend: “instead of reading a 600 page disappointing book (Anthology)I started a 600 page book Saturday night and finished it this morning. It was delightful and could be read that quickly because there was literally about half a paragraph of text per page: HOlly’s Inbox by Holly Denham. A story told in emails. Fun and quick.”
Holly gets a job as a receptionist at a very corporatey building. She makes friends with the other receptionist and they are united in their hatred of several of the people upstairs. Holly has connections to several of the characters in the story, though you are not exactly sure how or why until more details come out.
There is romance, back story, hilarity-all the things I expect from a nice British contemporary book.
The Courtyard by Marcia Willett
This was a typical Willett-makes it seem like England is stuck in the 1940s (sample comment to heavily pregnant woman, encourages her not to cry too much for fear of hurting the baby, instead sit down and have a glass of bourbon.) It’s a modern portrayal of a titled landowner who has tenants and develops part of his property into houses that he sells,but then everyone becomes a tight knit little community. This was intriguingly “historical” in that it was set in a very specific time-the 1980s and just after the Falklands War. It seemed to be set in this time so that everything could tie in to the dreadful real estate market.
There was a lot going on in this:Nell’s dreadful marriage, her husband John couldn’t make it out of the Navy, she doesn’t work, but her 8 year old is off at boarding school, he ruins their finances and lives. Nell’s marriage really is such a mess, but it was a bit maddening to read about John financially ruining them while she just stood by and wrung her hands for fear of offending him. Then we have Nell’s elderly friend who is a cousin to the guy who owns the Courtyard. She is genteely impoverished and gone to live at his estate. He is married to a scheming awful woman who is set up as so immoral and horrid that when the book tries to show you that she has changed and developed empathy for others, well my feelings could not be turned.
I like Willett, but this one was a wee bit draggy.
Seducing an Angel by Mary Balogh
The widow Cassandra has a big problem-she is responsible not only for herself, but also her companion and her all around housekeeper, and the housekeeper’s illegitimate child and she is practically destitute. With no family to turn to, a stepson who has made it impossible to get her due after her husband’s death, things do not look promising for her. Oh, and there’s the pesky rumor that she killed her husband with an axe. What’s a woman to do? Become a mistress, clearly. You know, I write that rather flippantly, but the truth is, and it is quite clear, that in that day and age, in that society with all of its rules and regulations, Cassandra truly had no other choice. What work could a lady do? How could she get any money? What rights did she have? Cassandra chooses as her target the angelically handsome Stephen, the unexpected Earl of Merton (he did not know he was in line for the title and was surprised to become earl at age 17.) Unfortunately (?) for her the earl is not only principled, but also quite attracted to Cassandra. And then there are many pages of what is oh so common in a Regency novel-the two people love each other but pretend not to because “it can never be!” but everyone knows it really can be. There is a lot of winning in romances “I’m going to win her over” “I’m going to win our fight”
This wasn’t my favorite Balogh, but I did enjoy it and have really been enjoying my return to the Regencies.
Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand by Helen Simonson
The first thing I just noticed as I searched for the cover, is that it has been changed from the prepub cover (which is the version I read) and thank goodness. This is coming out in March, so you may have to wait a bit to read it, but please don’t forget about it because this was a charming novel.
First, a word about one of my book prejudices. I tend to not care so much for romances between older people. I know, I’m ageist. That said, I thought this was an absolutely lovely novel, with a quiet wit, and the romantic feelings between Major Pettigrew, a widower, and Mrs. Ali, a widow, seem so authentic. The feelings have for their dead spouses are addressed and it is extremely sweet to see them finding a way to have love in their later years. (Which, by the way, they are really not so elderly at all. I think they are in their 60s.)
There is a lot going on in this story: Major Pettigrew’s growing feelings for Mrs. Ali, an English born Pakistani shopkeer; the subtle prejudices of the village towards her; the Major’s devotion to protocol, manners, and tradition; the local gentry’s plans for the village; Mrs. Ali’s late husband’s family’s meddling and cultural conflicts; the Major’s dreadful city slicker, crass son; and at the crux of many of these things…a pair of antique family heirloom hunting guns that the Major is determined stay together.
How does it all come together? Very nicely, with a bit of action, a bit of romance, a bit of dry British humor. I really enjoyed this and recommend it whole heartedly!
