After attempting several jobs and failing at those, she finds a dead body in her bath and she turns to sleuthing. She flees to London to make her own way in the world. She does what any self respecting young woman would do. And Georgie calls him “a cold fish with staring eyes, a limp handshake and a look that indicated a perpetual bad smell under his nose.” So definitely a frog.

And this prince is definitely a frog, not one that you’d want to end up with. She finds out that the Queen has requested her brother and sister-in-law to hold a house party with the intent of matching her to a European prince. But she hasn’t received any suitable marriage proposals, which in that day and time was not a good thing. Lady Georgie is 21, and she’s been to finishing school and completed her season. The book opens in Scotland at this drafty family castle. It gives you the fact that Georgie is dealing with the downsides of being a royal and that she’s a minor royal. “There are two disadvantages to being a minor royal.” Which I think is a great opening. It’s amazing how many blurbs give away key plot points. I had to chop out some stuff because I didn’t want to give anything away. So that’s an abbreviated version of the blurb. Now, her most important job is to clear her very long family name.” But then an arrogant Frenchman winds up dead in her bathtub. But when her brother cuts off her allowance, she leaves Scotland for London. She’s thirty-fourth in line for the English throne. “It is an Agatha Award winner, and it’s the debut of a 1930s London mystery series featuring Lady Georgie, daughter of a Duke. Here’s a little bit about Her Royal Spyness.

So hopefully as we talk about the first book, we will not spoil anything that will happen later on in the series. And we have the #nospoilers motto on the Mystery Books podcast. That’s why we’re doing the first book most of the time. And with ebooks now, it’s easy to find the first book in each series. Most mystery readers prefer to do that if possible. And the reason for that is because most mystery readers like to start at the beginning, even if you don’t have to read a series in order. We’ve done a couple of episodes now, and I’m trying to go back to the first book in each series. Now, you might notice that I’m talking mostly about first in a series books. So if you like this type of book, you have a good long series to dig into. Number fourteen just came out, and I believe number fifteen is on preorder. Her Royal Spyness was published in 2007, and it’s a long series. If you love Downton Abbey and Miss Fisher, this episode is for you. And this is season one, episode six, and it’s all about Her Royal Spyness by Rhys Bowen. Welcome to Mystery Books podcast, where we talk about mysteries in all of their forms from classic golden age novels to contemporary cozies.

Royal spyness series in order