On the HahaFiction shelf
Her Royal Spyness
Royal Spyness · Book 1 · 2007
Lady Georgiana has a place in the royal succession and almost no money. She leaves Scotland to make a living in 1930s London, where work proves harder to find than family obligations. A Frenchman's body in her bathtub gives her another urgent problem: clearing her family of murder.
From the publisher’s blurb
“Now her new job is to clear her long family name…”Read the full description at Berkley, publisher description
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What makes it funny?
Georgie's education has prepared her to curtsy and marry well. It hasn't prepared her to survive a cosmetics-counter job, which lasts five hours, or to explain why a royal relation is cleaning houses for money. Publishers Weekly highlights these mishaps and the eccentric relatives who complicate her new independence.
The comedy at work
Bowen makes social rank a practical nuisance. Georgie has to earn her own living while protecting a name that makes ordinary employment awkward, so she keeps her housekeeping discreet even as the Queen gives her spying work.
Try this if…
Historical cozy readers who enjoy social embarrassment alongside amateur detection have plenty to work with here. Readers in humorous-mystery discussions recommend the Royal Spyness series for its female sleuth; the first book establishes Georgie's attempt to live on her own terms.
Good to know
The murder case shares space with a royal spying assignment and Georgie's attraction to an unsuitable minor royal. The comic struggles with money and family are part of the appeal alongside the investigation.
More funny amateur sleuth
Sources & further reading
- Bibliographic listing
Book information
- Author series guide
Author commentary
- Publishers Weekly review
Review
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Publisher
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Reader discussion
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