2010 mystery/thriller, fourth in its series. Georgiana Rannoch, 34th
in line to the throne, is sent to the wedding of Maria Theresa of
Romania to Prince Nicholas of Bulgaria (after all she was at school
with "Fatty Matty").
As usual, there are some historical slippages; King Michael of
Romania appears to be rather more than the eleven years old he should
be in 1932, not to mention that his father Carol II is actually on the
throne then, and there's no mention of Boris of Bulgaria at all. I
know, reality needs to be flexible to have royal personages at the
right sort of age, but this all stresses reality rather harder than
simply inventing an extra cousin for Victoria did, and the boundaries
between the history we know and this slight alternate seem to wobble
about rather and leave me on uncertain footing.
Anyway, the wedding is to take place in Bran Castle in Transylvania,
so there's the whole vampire thing as well, which doesn't help when
someone's seen scaling the sheer icy castle wall. Nor when a very pale
young man surprises Georgiana in her bed. Nor when Maria Theresa is
found with a bright red sticky mouth… And Georgie's dissolute mother
is there, and her friend Belinda, and everyone's playing musical
beds…
"Men only have two thoughts in their heads and those are killing or
copulating."
"I'm sure there are plenty of men with finer feelings, who are
interested in art and culture."
"Yes, darling, of course there are. They are called fairies. And
they are quite adorable—so witty and fun to be with. But in my long
and varied life I've found that the ones who are witty to be with
are no use in bed, and vice versa."
But also the senior Bulgarian general drops dead in the middle of a
drunken rant, and it looks very much like poison. Not that anyone's
likely to miss him, though he was politically important, but now we
know there's a poisoner in a snowbound castle. And there's a Romanian
secret policeman, who's treated by characters and narrative alike as
though he were the obvious villain, but actually raises some rather
good points about abuse of royal privilege…
Most of this is quite fun, but it was rather spoiled by the comic
relief, such as Georgianna's preternaturally stupid and incompetent
maid, who appears set to be a recurring character. Georgie herself is
too ready to indulge her vampire fantasies rather than think of
possible mundane explanations for things. And while there are some
reasonable doubts about her possibile relationship with obvious
destined beau Darcy (he isn't the type to settle down to quiet
domesticity even if they could afford to), the tracks that are
bringing them together are increasingly obvious.
Not really sure why I keep reading these. No idea whether they're
going anywhere interesting. May find out, eventually.
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