Royal Blood by Rhys Bowen

A mystery book review by Susan Gillmor

Royal blood is thick on the ground (so to speak) through this fourth installment in Rhys Bowen’s Lady Georgiana Rannoch mystery series. Georgie is thirty-fourth in line to the British throne and penniless when her cousin the Queen summons her to represent the throne at a royal wedding in Transylvania in November of 1932. An important, if not royal, Romanian official drops dead at dinner, and Georgie must find the killer before she ends up in prison - or worse.

Georgie’s retinue for the journey to Transylvania includes her inept maid Queenie, the dour Lady Middlesex and her companion Miss Deer-Harte, and Georgie’s erstwhile beau Darcy O’Mara. The prospective bride, Princess Maria Theresa of Bulgaria, and her groom, Prince Nicholas of Romania are surrounded by crowned and uncrowned blue-bloods from all over Europe as a major snowstorm strands the party at an ancient castle steeped in the lore of vampires and werewolves.

Mayhem, merriment, and murder follow, as if Agatha Christie had teamed up with the Keystone Kops. In quick succession, Georgie finds herself threatened with arrest by the head of Romania’s secret service, her maid disappears, and Prince Siegfried (“Fishface”) renews his loathsome efforts to ensnare her in a marriage of convenience. In addition to the human drama, an air of supernatural menace creeps around the edges of the action: “It must have been a sudden gust of wind that rattled the shutters,” Georgie thinks. “There was no such thing as vampires. Even as I had this thought I felt a waft of icy air strike my face and the curtains moved.”

Royal Blood is snappy and witty, relying on situational and occasionally slapstick comedy, all wielded with a talented and balanced hand. It stays true to the spirit of the series that began with Her Royal Spyness and continues to offer a lighthearted look at England - and in this episode a wider Europe - in the 1930s as it pokes good-humored fun at nobility. (2010; 305 pages)