Book Review

Her Royal Spyness by Rhys Bowen

This review is for both the narrative and the audiobook performance of Her Royal Spyness. I’m continuing my streak of listening to historical mysteries while I walk the dogs each day, and I’m switching between series so I don’t burn out on the patterns and familiarity of a particular author or character. Her Royal Spyness was recommended to me most vociferously after Amanda’s and my recent podcast (episode 292) about audiobooks when I asked for advice on what to listen to next, and of course, not that I ever doubted, every person who suggested it was entirely right. It’s luscious.

Georgie, aka, Lady Victoria Georgiana Charlotte Eugenie, is 36th in line for the throne currently held by Queen Mary, and as such has Expectations to Uphold. Unfortunately, she has zero money with which to meet those expectations. Her half brother has cut off her allowance and her dreadful sister in law reminds her constantly that she lives with them only because of their generosity. When Georgie overhears the two of them discussing a house party wherein Georgie will be matched with an even more dreadful potential match at the request of the queen, she books it to London after lying about a friend needing help with a wedding.

Georgie finds herself in a cold London home with no servants, unable to light the boiler for hot water or light a fire for warmth. However, Georgie’s character is warm and kind, and friends from her school days and coming-out balls soon find her in London. She learns about crashing parties for food, hiding her identity long enough to secure a day’s wage, and discovering how much the queen knows and how fast she knows it. The first third or so of the book (it can be difficult to tell with audio, so my estimations may be off) is about Georgie learning how to care for herself independently, while also struggling against the limitation placed upon her by her lack of funds, lack of husband, and inability to get a job as herself – royals do not work, and for her to do so as herself would be terribly scandalous. She could become a lady in waiting to an elderly relative of the Queen’s, or she could make a somewhat advantageous marriage to someone who would make sure her fire was lit and her water was hot, but Georgie knows enough about herself, the world, and her capabilities to know she wants to make choices for herself, as difficult as that may be.

Then Georgie’s brother shows up suddenly, and she learns that their late father had gambled away their family estate in Scotland to an odious Frenchman who has arrived to claim his debt. Her brother, who goes by Binky, is largely useless in this situation, so Georgie has yet another problem to solve. It’s a bit of a theme, really: men create problems and limitations that the women have to stay within while solving everything to everyone else’s comfort and satisfaction.

Then a summons from the queen requires Georgie to attend a different house party to spy on the royal heir and his married American paramour (you know how that story turned out). Basically, everyone wants something from Georgie, and there are precious few people on whom she can rely for help, among them Belinda, her best friend from school, and Darcy O’Mara, an Irish man she meets in London who is in a similar predicament: ancestrally noble family, no money to speak of.

The audiobook narrator, Katherine Kellgren, is terrific. She deploys distinct voices for each character and manages to convey action scenes and quieter moments with the right amount of vocal tension. The performance includes different vocal styles, accents, and voices to keep each character distinct, and none of them were grating. The ones who were ridiculous were very ridiculous, and it was fascinating to listen to. There’s even a bonus extra online: a conversation between Rhys Bowen and her characters as narrated by Ms. Kellgren.

Back to the story: as Georgie tries to set up her life at 28, not sure who she is or what, if anything, she is qualified to do, the mayhem around her increases. Mysteries pile onto one another, growing larger and more important, as the novel continues. How is Georgie going to care and feed herself? What will she do for money if she cannot work? Where will she go if Fig, her sister in law, has her leave their London home?

And then a dead body is found in her brother’s bathtub and that becomes the biggest mystery: who did it, and why leave the body in the duke’s bathtub?

By the end, unfortunately, it seemed very obvious to me who the killer was, and who might be trying to frame Georgie and Binky. Moreover, after the big reveal, the story didn’t seem to hold up for me. I’m trying not to spoil the details, but the structure of the mystery was not as sturdy once I thought about it. There was knowledge that was revealed at the very end that I felt surely would have been realistically more commonly available information. (I’m being vague and I apologize.)

The allure of the story wasn’t the mystery so much as it was Georgie and her friends. I loved her ingenuity and her way of managing people and situations, her determination and her sense of humor, and especially her friendships. Her management of her status/income disequilibrium created a tension that ebbed and grew from scene to scene, and it was fascinating and very fun. I’m certainly going to listen to the next one, and the rest of the series.

This book is available from:
  • Available at Amazon
  • Order this book from apple books

  • Order this book from Barnes & Noble
  • Order this book from Kobo
  • Order this book from Audible

As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
We also may use affiliate links in our posts, as well. Thanks!

Her Royal Spyness by Rhys Bowen

View Book Info Page

Add Your Comment →

  1. Riley says:

    !!!! I picked this book up at Fields for five bucks when I was sixteen and I’ve loved the series ever since. I was so excited to see it featured here and relieved it got a good review. I’ve been wanting to get the audiobooks ever since I first listened to that character interview, so this just adds fuel to the fire.

    My favourite part from the latest book (not really a spoiler, but spaces added just in case anyone would rather avoid them, also politics):

    Two separate people (one pro- and one anti-Hitler) refer to him as wanting to, direct quote, ‘Make Germany great again.’ I just about choked reading it.

    Rhys Bowen’s Molly Murphy mysteries are pretty great too, imo. I haven’t managed to read her Evan Evans series yet, but I very much want to. (I’ve also successfully gotten my grandmother into the HRS series. XD)

    Idk if this is coherent, but it is VERY late at night here. Good book/good review squee complete.

  2. MirandaB says:

    I’ve read the series and have to say that while it started at a B+, it’s down to at least a C if not a C-. I’m still reading it, but it’s a ‘wait until it shows up at the library’ status. I’m not a Darcy fan because he’s just kind of there and the plots get more ridiculous as they go.

    OTOH, I love Queenie.

  3. KateB says:

    I read the first two books a few years back, with the full intention of making the series my new fluffy mystery series reads, but something about the historical inaccuracy of Book 2 put me off. I remember being quite upset at the time but, ughhhh, now I can’t remember what it was!

  4. Ellie says:

    I read the first one. I liked it, but not enough that I’ve kept reading. I just don’t think it’s worth $8 per book. That said, if Book 2 or another early one ever went on sale I would probably buy it and try to continue. I like the Victoria Thompson Series much more, although the mysteries are equally unsturdy. I think I just like the characters and the setting / world better. Have you read any of the Nero Wolfe books? While they were not written as historical, today they read that way since the first one it was written in the 1930s in the last in the 70s. They are my favorite.

  5. Chloe Rainwater says:

    I like the Royal Spyness series but I think it’s one of those that the more you read, the more you like it (excepting the LA one, which I thought was terribly disappointing). And I am at the point that I feel like my response to the Darcy/Georgie thing is “Alright already.” I do love her characterization of Wallis Simpson and anytime that Wallis and Georgie’s mother are in the same place, it’s good stuff.

  6. mel burns says:

    The Lady Darby mysteries are good and I really enjoyed the audio of Andrea Penrose’s Murder on Black Swan Lane. The Lady Sherlock series narrated by the incredible Kate Reading is terrific as is Davina Porter’s reading of the St. Cyr mysteries, though Ms. Harris murders to many women and children and the last book seemed “dialed in” much to my disappointment.

  7. SB Sarah says:

    @mel burns: Yes, I agree re: st. Cyr. I just started the first one, and there’s already been three accounts of rape and assault, plus a few murders including the one being investigated in the present, and I think I have to stop.

  8. Cathy says:

    I like this series very much, but agree with Chloe that the whole Darcy thing needs to resolve itself. I just won an ARC of the next book (“Four Funerals and Maybe a Wedding”), but haven’t read it yet. If Georgie and Darcy don’t figure things out this time, I will stop reading. Of course this is 11 books past where Sarah is, so she has a long way to go before the relationship fatigue sets in and there is plenty of fun along the way.

    These books are really more for the characters and the silly situations than the mysteries though. None of them are particularly complex puzzles. I think of them as cozy mystery meets 1930s screwball comedy.

  9. PamG says:

    I read the first and possibly part of the second book in the Royal Spyness series as well as the first book in the Molly Murphy series. I didn’t care for either. As I recall, they both came across as kind of bland. Royals are not my catnip and I found some of Georgie’s issues kind of cringy. The Molly Murphy mysteries are darker and deal with turn of the century social issues. My problem was that none of it was new information or treated in a non-standard way–NY working class immigrant setting, yet kind of generic.

    Wierdly, I really liked and read all of her Evan Evans series. Evans is a small town constable, not your usually Detective Inspector Mucky-Muck, and he was an extremely sympathetic character with a nice love story. Also, a village mystery in Wales–yum!

  10. EllenM says:

    I actually had to stop reading the first book at this line early on: “were a native of some dark corner of the colonies to strip off his loincloth and dance, waggling his you-know-what with gay abandon, not so much as an eyebrow twitch would be permitted.”

    I almost cringed my head back into my thorax. I know this kind of casual racism and petty dismissal of colonized nations as “backwards” and “dark” (yikes) was probably “period-appropriate,” but that doesn’t mean I want to read an entire series with a casually racist main character.

  11. SB Sarah says:

    @EllenM: Good heavens, I’m surprised and embarrassed at myself. How did I miss that? Did I tune that out? Either way, I’m aghast at myself for not catching that.

  12. Susan says:

    I have this book on audio (probably picked it up on sale) but haven’t listened to it. I did get pretty far reading the series it really started to pall and I finally tossed it in since I didn’t think I was getting enough bang for the buck. Literally. If the books go on sale, maybe I’ll jump in again just to see how things turn out, but they just got too “same old, same old” for me to justify the price. Ditto for the Molly Murphy series.

    Some of the historical mystery audio series I’ve enjoyed are those by C.S. Harris, Andrea Penrose, Deanna Raybourn, Sherry Thomas, Tasha Alexander, Jacqueline Winspear, Alan Bradley, among others. I can definitely see how the Harris books would be too dark and violent for you, SB Sarah, but maybe some of the others would work (if you haven’t already tried them out).

  13. Ellie says:

    Alan Bradley – 100% on board with all things Flavia de Luce. I cannot recommend them enough.

  14. Jazzlet says:

    I started the first Molly Murphy but didn’t get that far, I wasn’t sure if it was the book or my terrible bout of ‘can’t finish-itis’.

    I love the Jaqueline Winspear books, really excellent.

  15. kitkat9000 says:

    I was never able to finish HRS even though I checked it out from the library 3×. Despite having it in my possession for 27 weeks, I just couldn’t get into long enough to finish it. Never bothered trying again.

    I love C. S. Harris’ Sebastian St. Cyr novels. I think because I spent so many years (teens through early thirties) reading every type of mystery, my gore tolerance is higher than most. As to the overt victimization of women? Kinda goes with the territory. It’s only been the last few years where I’ve even begun to question it.

    Another excellent series is the Inspector Ian Rutledge novels penned by an American mother-son pairing under the name Charles Todd. He’s a WWI vet who goes back to his Scotland Yard job after the war. He’s plagued with PTSD and (personally) haunted by his dead sergeant Hamish. Can’t recommend these enough. They also write about a nurse, Bess Crawford.

    But again, ymmv, and the flashbacks to WWI trenches & battlefields may not be your cuppa. However, they are more historically accurate.

  16. Gwen says:

    I wouldn’t have continued this series if I hadn’t tried the audio. The narration turns the writing charming and madcap.

    (I glommed the Ian Rutledge series – it’s definitely darker. In the end, I was disappointed that Ian seemed stuck. Probably accurate for reality though. And of course with glomming we notice all the repeated phrases and scenes.)

  17. Christa says:

    I don’t think I would have read the books. But I came to Her Royal Spyness on audio, and the narration is what makes me love them. I have listened to them all, but don’t know if I will continue now that Mrs Kellgren is lost to us.
    This was a comfort read and palate cleanser for me, something fun for in between other books. I am not a mystery reader, so that part was not very important to me.

  18. I’m another who attributes my pleasure in this series to the audiobooks, and who is so over the ongoing Darcy issues. I stopped reading the Stephanie Plums when I finally hit book #whatever and wanted to throw the book across the room because seriously, the whole ‘scared of guns” schtick was so damned old. I wanted her to grow, or at least realistically recognize her life depended on it, and for her fun ditzy character to evolve into another way to demonstrate itself.

    Another HUGE vote for Alan Bradley’s Flavia as audiobook.

    And I just finished listening to the Mitford Murders, and I am going to like this series, as well. The notorious Mitford girls are children [the oldest, Nancy, is 16] in this book but the main character is the 18-year-old who becomes their nanny’s helper while hiding from her evil uncle. Based on a real unsolved murder, too.

Add Your Comment

Required fields are marked *

You may use these HTML tags and attributes:
<a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>

*


This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

↑ Back to Top