RogerBW's Blog

Royal Flush, Rhys Bowen 21 October 2022

2009 mystery/thriller, third in its series. Georgiana Rannoch, 34th in line to the throne, travels to Scotland to try to find out who's trying to arrange "accidents" for various of the Royal Family…

This is very much the book I expected it to be. Which isn't a bad thing, but I do like to be a little surprised as part of my entertainment. Very much as with the previous books, Georgie keeps an eye on events without actually doing much, tries to work out what's going on, and drifts slowly closer to the unsuitable man who is clearly her destined partner.

I did enjoy the (plausible for the period) characters involved in aviation and water speed record attempts, and a different twist on a certain historical conspiracy theory, but somehow it all felt a bit predestined. Some of that's inevitable: the setting is meant to be something like the real world, so we know that for example That Simpson Woman will not be sent away by David (the future Edward VIII). But I think that's a reason to try to push harder for uncertainty in other matters; but, well, this is a mystery of sorts, and it's going to have a happy ending, and the reader's sense of inevitability is of course not shared by the characters. It's an awkward feeling.

It's all right. But if it had been the first book I read I probably shouldn't have bothered with another; this one's really nothing special.

[Buy this at Amazon] and help support the blog. ["As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases."]

Previous in series: A Royal Pain | Series: Her Royal Spyness | Next in series: Royal Blood

  1. Posted by John P at 11:00pm on 23 October 2022

    I seem to remember seeing a ZX80 game advertised called "Royal Flush". It was about fixing the palace plumbing ...

  2. Posted by RogerBW at 10:03am on 25 October 2022

    There is an attempted murder by plummeting toilet tank in this book, but I don't think it's a deliberate connection.

Comments on this post are now closed. If you have particular grounds for adding a late comment, comment on a more recent post quoting the URL of this one.

Search
Archive
Tags 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s 3d printing action advent of code aeronautics aikakirja anecdote animation anime army astronomy audio audio tech base commerce battletech beer boardgaming book of the week bookmonth chain of command children chris chronicle church of no redeeming virtues cold war comedy computing contemporary cornish smuggler cosmic encounter coup covid-19 crime crystal cthulhu eternal cycling dead of winter doctor who documentary drama driving drone ecchi economics en garde espionage essen 2015 essen 2016 essen 2017 essen 2018 essen 2019 essen 2022 essen 2023 existential risk falklands war fandom fanfic fantasy feminism film firefly first world war flash point flight simulation food garmin drive gazebo genesys geocaching geodata gin gkp gurps gurps 101 gus harpoon historical history horror hugo 2014 hugo 2015 hugo 2016 hugo 2017 hugo 2018 hugo 2019 hugo 2020 hugo 2021 hugo 2022 hugo 2023 hugo 2024 hugo-nebula reread in brief avoid instrumented life javascript julian simpson julie enfield kickstarter kotlin learn to play leaving earth linux liquor lovecraftiana lua mecha men with beards mpd museum music mystery naval noir non-fiction one for the brow opera parody paul temple perl perl weekly challenge photography podcast politics postscript powers prediction privacy project woolsack pyracantha python quantum rail raku ranting raspberry pi reading reading boardgames social real life restaurant reviews romance rpg a day rpgs ruby rust scala science fiction scythe second world war security shipwreck simutrans smartphone south atlantic war squaddies stationery steampunk stuarts suburbia superheroes suspense television the resistance the weekly challenge thirsty meeples thriller tin soldier torg toys trailers travel type 26 type 31 type 45 vietnam war war wargaming weather wives and sweethearts writing about writing x-wing young adult
Special All book reviews, All film reviews
Produced by aikakirja v0.1