Royal Flush (A Royal Spyness Mystery)

One of my favorites of this series- such a comfort book! I also always buy the worst condition books because they’re cheapest, and it came in beautiful condition.

I tried to start reading this paperback and found that the first 50 or so pages are not readable. The right-hand pages have the first few letters of every sentence jammed into the gutter so far that you can't read it. Not happy.

I really love this series and I think this was the best of them all. Lady Georgiana is thirty-fourth in line to the throne but her family has very little money. Georgie has been living alone in her family home in London, but now it is summer and her secret (secret because if the Queen found out, Georgie would be shipped off to marry a foreign prince) maid service business is quite slow. Georgie's friend Belinda sets her up on a date with a man from out of town who is looking for a dinner companion. This gives Georgie the idea to start a new business, and she puts in add in the paper offering escort services. However, the naive Georgie did not realize what kind of men that would attract. She is saved by Darcy O'Mara, the penniless lord she has a sort-of relationship with. The Home Office discovers what Georgie has done and they ship her back to Scotland, to avoid any scandal for the Royal Family. But Georgie discovers the real reason; someone may be out to harm members of the Royal Family and the police think it is an inside job. Who better to look for clues than Lady Georgie, as the Royal Family is vacationing near her family's castle. This series is full of great characters. We see more of her long-suffering sister-in-law Fig and brother Binky. Fig is at her wits end as she has a houseful of unwanted American guests, including Wallis Simpson, the married lover of the Prince of Wales. Georgie's mother, who fled castle life when Georgie was two, to marry many other rich men, is also present and the bickering between her and Wallis is very amusing. Darcy pops up in Scotland, mysterious as ever. There is also a female daredevil pilot and Georgie's loud Scottish cousins. I can't wait for the next book to be released, this is a fun, delightful series. my rating 4.5/5

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

ROYAL FLUSH provides a satisfying 'Royal Spyness' mystery with a feisty heroine in a return of Lady Georgiana, 34th in line to the throne and a penniless heiress. Her idea to hire out as a dinner-and-theatre companion results in a change in summer plans and a secret Scotland Yard mission in this zany first-person mystery spoof.

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.

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, waiting for her annual trek to visit the Royal family at Balmoral which 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.