Royal Flush

Yesterday I read Royal Flush by Rhys Bowen. It's the third in the Royal Spyness series about Lady Georgiana (Georgie), the 32nd in line to the British throne. Georgie is broke and not trained to do anything in an era where women of her class were not expected to work (the 1930s). In the first books, she did a little spying for the royals. In this one, she is recruited by the Special Branch to go to Scotland where the royal family is staying (Balmoral) to find out who is causing accidents to the royal family. She stays in her ancestral home with her brother and sister-in-law (whom she dislikes.) Accidents keep happening but Georgie manages to solve the case.

The book is full of fun incidents: flying, meeting people that we recognize (e.g., Mrs. Simpson and the royal children,) and trying to get the detestable Americans out of the house. Despite that, I didn't like it quite as much as the first two in the series. There were a lot of people and I found it a bit hard to keep track of who was who. The mystery was pretty obvious and Georgie didn't have to do a lot of detective work to solve it. But you don't read this series for the mystery; you read it for the atmosphere of the 30s and the royals and the incongruity of being royal but without money.

I'd recommend it if you liked the first two.