Pros: well-written; fun to read; excellent characterization; authentic period details; mystery handled well
Cons: none
The Bottom Line: Second in the series, A Royal Pain follows Her Royal Highness, and continues the adventures of Lady Georgiana, impoverished cousin to the Queen and reluctant royal spy.
It has been a couple of months since Lady Georgiana proved her brother’s innocence in a murder case that baffled the inept police in 1930s London. Finances are still tight and with no allowance in sight, Georgie busies herself with the maid agency she has set up, herself acting the parts of both owner and sole maid. But then, her royal cousin, the Queen, foists upon Georgie a Bavarian princess, with a royal command to house and chaperone her.
Now the Queen’s plan is for pretty young Princess Hannelore (Hanni to her friends) to catch the eye of the Prince of Wales who is still dallying with that dreadful and highly unsuitable American woman. But Hanni proves more than a handful for Georgie--for a start, her English seems to have been culled from American gangster movies and Georgie is terrified she’ll call the queen an old broad. Not to mention the fact that she demonstrates an alarming tendency to shoplift at upscale department stores. Worse still, the princess bats her eyelashes at any number of handsome young men, including a commoner who’s a Communist, and even the elusive, yet decidedly delectable, Darcy whom Georgie herself rather fancies.
At a party hosted by the smart set, one of Georgie’s upper-class acquaintances meets with an untimely death. Sooner than you can say ‘what ho’, bodies are dropping like flies. With the bumbling police at her heels, Georgie must keep the princess out of harm’s way, moonlight as a maid and, at the Queen’s especial request, investigate the strange circumstances surrounding the deaths, while trying simultaneously not to be responsible for causing a rift between England and Germany whose relations are tenuous at best in these uncertain times.
Author Rhys Bowen goes from strength to strength in this the second in a new series featuring impoverished aristocrat, Lady Georgiana. While the first book, Her Royal Spyness, took some (enjoyable) time setting up the main character, only getting into the mystery halfway into the book, this time round the murders start earlier on and the body count quickly becomes staggering. The mystery is handled well, and this reader was captivated until the very last pages. Period details—both political and social—are well-depicted, and the reader gets a good idea of the disparity between the classes in London, England, in the years just before WWII.
Despite her privileged background and upbringing, Georgie’s reduced circumstances and particularly her efforts to support herself make her sympathetic. Her relationships with her flighty mother (who makes interesting cameo appearances in both books), and her Cockney grandfather (an engaging secondary character of import) are well-developed and ring true. Most of all, Georgie’s pluckiness (despite her helplessness around the queen and her tendency to be bossed around by her royal cousin) makes her a fine protagonist. While it’s tiresome that her elusive beau, the delectable Darcy, still steps in to rescue her on occasion, Georgie does draw on her own reserves of courage and tenacity when the situation demands, proving herself worthy of not only being a stalwart Rannoch but also a protagonist to root for.
Highly recommended for lovers of ‘cozies’, mystery buffs in general, and Anglophiles in particular.
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