Royal Blood (A Royal Spyness Mystery)

Enjoy these stories. Fun easy entertaining read. Good series to go from one adventure to the next with comfortable characters for a light read before bedtime. Very enjoyable.

As 34th in line to the throne, Lady Georgiana does perform the occasional royal duty, but never anything particularly glamorous. But that changes when the Queen asks Georgie to represent the royal family at the wedding of a Romanian princess. With a totally unqualified (but willing to work for next to nothing) maid in tow Georgie sets off for Transylvania. At a banquet prior to the wedding, a guest collapses and it is soon discovered that he was poisoned. Georgie has her hands full in this 4th installment in the Royal Spyness series. A creepy castle, vampire sightings, a bumbling maid and now a dead body. But with the help of the enigmatic Darcy O'Mara, Georgie stands a good chance of discovering who the murderer is and getting out of Transylvania in one piece! This was an entertaining story with a lot of humor and some memorable characters. I don't always like a first person narrative, but having Georgie tell "her" story made me feel like I was listening to a friend tell me an amusing anecdote about a family wedding. Just about all the series regulars make at least a cameo appearance and the character of Georgie's chaperone was perfectly described and was a fun addition to the "cast". The mystery was typical "cozy" fare - pretty much just window dressing leaving the characters and domestic details to carry the storyline. Fine with me; that's what I read a "cozy" for, after all. Bottom Line: This series is centered around a "minor" member of the British royal family, Lady Georgiana Rannoch. Georgia is twenty-something, single and perpetually broke. The setting is pre-WWII London (though this entry takes place primarily in Transylvania), and is full of royal gossip, glamorous people and settings that reflect the social ambience of the time period. Good fun. No strong language or sexual content. Book One: Her Royal Spyness (A Royal Spyness Mystery) Book Two: A Royal Pain (A Royal Spyness Mystery) Book Three: Royal Flush (Royal Spyness Mystery) Book Four: Royal Blood (Royal Spyness Mystery) Book Five: Naughty In Nice (Lady Victoria Georgiana Charlotte Eugenie)

Next to Georgette Heyer’s Regency romances, Rhys Bowen’s Royal Spyness mysteries are my go-to books for the light reading I require after too many of the serious & sometimes taxing books that I tend to enjoy. For those who don’t know her, Lady Georgiana Rannoch is a member of the British Royal Family, 34th in line to the Crown. As a result of her father’s gambling addiction, her family has been placed in reduced circumstances, & Lady Georgiana finds herself trying to make her way in the world of the early 1930’s that’s economically unfavorable to impoverished female aristocrats living on their own & has even been known to crash parties & social gatherings in order to get a good meal! Determined to marry only for love, she develops various schemes to keep her head above water, none terribly successful, & frequently finds herself being dispatched by Queen Mary, who has no idea of the difficulty of Georgie’s life, to carry out certain (often unpleasant) social duties which invariably lead to her being involved in some criminal investigation or other, frequently as a suspect. This time she’s been requested to represent the royals at a royal wedding in Transylvania to be held at an ancient & remote gothic castle. Much of the humor is in the ingenuity Georgie shows in the attempt to disguise her poverty, this time when tasked to acquire a lady’s maid of which she has no means of hiring, resulting in the completely incompetent Queenie, who is someone we southerners refer to as a “hoot”. On her arrival, her first glimpse of the castle reveals a caped figure climbing it’s outer wall, then seeming to disappear. Then on her second night there a prominent guest drops dead during the after-dinner toasts, appearing to have been poisoned. Naturally there are mysterious goings-on at every turn; Georgie glimpses the bride with what seems to be blood on her mouth & hands, is visited in the middle of the night by a sharp-toothed man who appears identical to the (ancient?) portrait on the wall who then mysteriously fades into the darkness…many other bumps in the night…all greatly tongue-in-cheek & great fun. Looking forward to needing to read the next in the series!

Following this series has been fun and my love of England a royalty puts me in a world I love. Best mystery so far in series on to book five.

英国王妃の事件ファイルの４作目。日本語訳が出るのを待てずに読みました。 英語はさほど難しくないし、お馴染みのメンバーが出てくるので、 今までの作品を読んでいれば、すんなりストーリーに入れると思います。 今回はヨーロッパの王族の結婚式に、花嫁が同級生ということもあり イギリス王室を代表して出席することなったジョージーの冒険です。 吸血鬼伝説のある国の城に、式の前から各国の王族たちが集まりますが 雪にとじこめられて孤立した状態で怪しい出来事が多発。 ジョージーの身にも、災難が何重にもなってふりかかりますが、 冷静さを失わず、侮辱されたら逆に王族としての威厳を見せつけ 持前の行動力と勇気と頭脳を使って、事件を解決しようとする姿が健気です。 ダーシーと一緒に行動することも多く、ほのぼのする場面がいくつも。 ジョージーの将来の方向も、ある事件により定まってきた気がします。 また、"Royal Blood"というタイトルをつけた意味も後半で実感し、 王族たちの生き方に感動すらしました。 今まで４冊読んできた中で、一番内容が濃く、面白いと感じました。 ********************************** 2015年4月に邦訳が出ました。 『貧乏お嬢さま、吸血鬼の城へ』というタイトルです。

I love all of the books Rhys has written. Especially Her Royal Spyness and the books about Molly’s adventures. KMB

Ich liebe die Art und Weise wie Rhys Bowen schreibt und bin noch nie enttäuscht worden. Auch diesmal hat sich der Kauf des Buches wieder gelohnt. Selbst wenn Rhys diesmal einige Anleihen bei bekannten Vorbildern nahm, so war die Lektüre wie immer kurzweilig, voller Witz und Charme und durchaus spannend. Die Protagonistin wird 1932 von der Königin als Vertreterin Englands zu einer royalen Hochzeitsfeier nach Transsylvanien geschickt. Ausgerüstet mit einer völlig unbedarften Dienerin und begleitet von 2 Aufpasserinnen britischster Prägung landet sie in einem Schloß an dem Graf Dracula seine Freude gehabt hätte. Natürlich geschieht ein Mord, alle Beteiligten sind wegen Extremschnee im Schloß gefangen und daraus begeben sich allerlei durchaus amüsante Verwicklungen. Darcy, der angehimmelte Mann unserer Heldin taucht unvermittelt ebenfalls noch in dem Schloß auf und verleiht dem ganzen auch noch die notwendige romantische Komponente. OK, die Auflösung des Falls war auf den letzten gut 50 Seiten dann doch verhersehbar, aber die Autorin schafft es spielend den Leser trotzdem noch zu fesseln, denn sie hat immer noch 1,2 kleine Überraschungen im Petto. Kaufen !

Not as good as her other books in the series. The author does tend to go on a bit too much in all her books but they are entertaining nonetheless. I skipped quite a few pages in Royal Blood

J’ai passé d’excellents moments à lire cette série. J’ai admiré l’imagination sans limites de Rhys Bowen qui, pour chaque histoire de la série, a su situer ses personnages dans des environnements différents et inventer des crimes également différents à chaque fois. Le suspens est toujours garanti jusqu’au dénouement. J’aime beaucoup aussi son sens de l’humour et son style alerte. Les personnages principaux sont très attachants que ce soit la protagoniste Georgie, son amoureux Darcy, son grand-père cockney, son amie Belinda, même sa mère egocentrique ou son horrible « bonne » Queenie, tous sont extrêmement divers tant psychologiquement que physiquement. On ne s’ennuie pas un instant à les observer évoluer dans l’univers de Georgie