The latest historical crime novel in the Royal Spyness Series by Rhys Bowen, set at an English country house, will entertain for sure. Her ‘Royal Spyness,’ Lady Georgiana Rannoch is invited to Cornwall by her good friend, the unmarried, stylish Belinda Warburton-Stoke. The cottage Belinda has inherited turns out to be unsuitable for two ladies to stay in, so they are taken as guests by Rose Summers, the new mistress of Trewoma Hall. But what happened to THE LAST MRS. SUMMERS?

Among local fishermen, ne’er do-wells like Belinda’s Uncle Francis and possible smugglers, the calmly organised housekeeper Mrs. Mannering, and inquisitive shopkeepers, the village has interesting characters and activities. Trewoma Hall is now owned by Rose and husband Tony Summers, but Tony previously married the last of the original family, Jonquil, who sadly died in a cliff fall within a year of their wedding. Rose has begun to suspect that this was not accidental. Lady Georgie has no intention of investigating anything but building works for Belinda’s cottage. Then a ghastly event occurs overnight in the large, half-empty house. Georgie, whose new husband Darcy is abroad on government business, has no option but to investigate by herself or see Belinda tried for murder.  

I enjoyed many facets of realism; the new sports motor Belinda drives with its windy effect on hairstyles, or a raised roof against the rain. The long, drawn-out wait for a police inspector to arrive down from London, given the inability of local officers to conduct an investigation of this nature. Various types of meals, and the struggle with everything from heating rooms to lighting oil lanterns. How society folks entertained themselves in days before television, how urgent messages went by telegram, and Germany was still suspect after the Great War, but German upper crust people were nobility.

The story reads splendidly easily and becomes quite addictive as we try to second-guess motives and means. I thought of a scenario that didn’t occur to Georgie – that someone intended killing Belinda and stabbed someone else in her room in the dark – but nobody, oddly, thought Belinda might have been in danger. Rhys Bowen has now written so many of Georgie’s adventures that a new reader may be wary, but the cast list is short in this episode so anyone can jump in easily. Try the fourteenth mystery in Rhys Bowen's series, THE LAST MRS. SUMMERS, and you will be hooked. Good show, Georgie!

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