Book review: Her Royal Spyness by Rhys Bowen

Ok everybody, you know the words to this one: I picked up this British cozy mystery at the thrift store. It was intriguing because the heroine was royalty (daughter of a duke) and in line for the throne, but she's also a spy. Summary from the back of the book:

My ridiculously long name is Lady Victoria Georgiana Charlotte Eugenie. [Despite being] thirty-fourth in line for the throne, I am, as they say, flat broke. When my brother, Binky, cut off my meager allowance, I bolted from Scotland--and my engagement to Fishface (I mean, Prince Siegfried)--for London, where I have:

a) built a fire in the hearth--entirely on my own, thank you very much

b) fallen for an absolutely unsuitable Irish peer

c) made a few quid housekeeping incognita, and 

d) been summoned by the Queen herself to spy on her playboy son.

Less than thrilled with this last bit, I'm wondering what to do when an arrogant Frenchman--who was trying to swipe our family estate!--winds up dead in my bathtub. Now, my new job is to clear my very long family name...

A note of clarification: Georgie did not leave Scotland because her brother stopped giving her an allowance; she bolted because the Queen "requested" her brother and his wife host a party where Prince Fishface would attend, with the aim of getting Georgie engaged to him. Georgie was like hell no and peaced out. Also, for the "fallen for [...] an Irish peer" part, she was just attracted to him but felt he was too dashing and handsome for her to trust. They do get closer as the book goes on. Also, "family name" refers to the surname, such as Windsor, not her super long name with all the middle names. I mean. That's elementary stuff. 

 Ok, so despite the silliness of the title (it sounds like a middle-grade book about a princess who's a spy), I enjoyed this book. I did feel that there were probably quite a few anachronisms (it's set in the early 1930s), such as Georgie's worldly friend talking about sex all the time, and Georgie being close to her Cockney working-class grandfather and being willing to clean despite being nobility, and errors with all the royalty and peer stuff, but luckily I don't know a huge amount about that, so I was able to enjoy the book. I felt that Georgie did too much sighing out loud for a Lady, but whatever. There were a lot of characters, but I didn't really have any trouble keeping them straight.The mystery was pretty good and kept me guessing, although I had my theories.

I'd recommend this book to anyone who likes cozy mysteries set in the British Isles, or historical fiction in the same location about royalty and gentry, but not to anyone who's really studied this, because I feel that the errors and anachronisms would make them pitch a fit. I'm going to try to track down the others from the library (it's the first in a series).

Score: 4 out of 5 stars
Read in: April 17
From: thrift store
Format: paperback
Status: probably giving away