The Twelve Clues of Christmas (Royal Spyness Series #6)

by Rhys Bowen

Overview

In the sixth mystery in the New York Times bestselling Royal Spyness series, Lady Georgiana Rannoch cannot wait to ring in the New Year—before a Christmas killer wrings another neck…
 
Scotland, 1933. While her true love, Darcy O’Mara, is spending his feliz navidad tramping around South America and her mother is holed up in a tiny village called Tiddleton-under-Lovey with droll playwright Noel Coward, Georgie is quite literally stuck at Castle Rannoch thanks to a snowstorm.
 
It seems like a Christmas miracle when she manages to land a position as hostess to a posh holiday party in Tiddleton. The village should be like something out of A Christmas Carol, but as soon as she arrives things take a deadly turn when a neighborhood nuisance falls out of a tree. On her second day, another so-called accident results in a death—and there’s yet another on her third, making Georgie wonder if there's something wicked happening in this winter wonderland... 

Includes an English Christmas companion, full of holiday recipes, games, and more!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780425252345
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	11/05/2013
Series:	Royal Spyness Series , #6
Pages:	352
Sales rank:	88,446
Product dimensions:	4.10(w) x 6.70(h) x 1.10(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Rhys Bowen, a New York Times bestselling author, has been nominated for every major award in mystery writing, including the Edgar®, and has won many, including both the Agatha and Anthony awards. She is the author of the Royal Spyness Mysteries, set in 1930s London, the Molly Murphy Mysteries, set in turn-of-the-century New York, and the Constable Evans Mysteries, set in Wales. She was born in England and now divides her time between Northern California and Arizona.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

Praise for The Twelve Clues of Christmas

“The Twelve Clues of Christmas is yet another brilliant novel from Rhys Bowen.... Like all of Rhys’s books, this is so much more than a murder mystery. It’s part love story, part social commentary, part fun and part downright terrifying. And completely riveting. I adore this book and can hardly wait to give it to all my family and friends for Christmas! For all who love the season, and a great murder mystery, this book is perfect.” —Louise Penny, author of The Beautiful Mystery

"Lady Georgiana's sixth outing...offers another witty and thoroughly enjoyable mystery with a dash of romance."—Library Journal (starred review)

"Bowen's sixth whodunit featuring the irrepressible Lady Georgiana...may be her best yet...Bowen blends zany humor with fair-play detection as well as any author of traditional mysteries."—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

Praise for the Royal Spyness Mysteries:

“Wonderful characters…A delight.”—Charlaine Harris, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Sookie Stackhouse Novels

“Hilarious adventure…What an absolute delight! With a witty and clever plot, it’s clear that Agatha Christie is alive and kicking and what’s more, she’s funny!” —Hannah Dennison, author of Thieves! A Vicky Hill Exclusive! Mystery

“Georgie’s high spirits and the author’s frothy prose are utterly captivating.” —The Denver Post

“Whimsical…Bowen successfully melds a whodunit with comedy as few contemporary writers can.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

Editorial Reviews

Praise for the Royal Spyness Mysteries

“Wonderful characters...A delight.”—#1 New York Times bestselling author Charlaine Harris

“An insightful blend of old-fashioned whodunnit, clever satire and drawing room comedy of errors.”—New York Times bestselling author Jacqueline Winspear

“Brilliant...This is so much more than a murder mystery. It’s part love story, part social commentary, part fun and part downright terrifying. And completely riveting.”—#1 New York Times bestselling author Louise Penny

“The perfect fix between seasons for Downton Abbey addicts.”—New York Times bestselling author Deborah Crombie

“Fans of P.G. Wodehouse looking for laughs mingled with some amateur sleuthing will be quite pleased.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Georgie’s high spirits and the author’s frothy prose are utterly captivating.”—The Denver Post

“A smashing romp.”—Booklist (starred review)

From the Publisher

Set at Christmas-time 1933, Bowen’s sixth whodunit featuring the irrepressible Lady Georgiana Rannoch (after 2011’s Naughty in Nice) may be her best yet. Despite her connections (albeit attenuated) to the Crown (she’s 35th in the line of succession), Georgiana finds herself at the mercy of her brother’s ghastly family. Escape comes just in time for the holidays when she answers an advert and is hired to help Lady Hawse-Gorzley with a large Christmas party at Hawse-Gorzley’s home in Tiddleton-under-Lovey, Devonshire. Accompanied by the anti-Jeeves, her bumbling, if endearing, maid Queenie, Georgiana arrives in Tiddleton-Under-Lovey only to find that a series of apparently accidental deaths has begun to plague the rustic community. With one villager dying each day, the amateur sleuth suspects that the accidents are anything but. Bowen blends zany humor with fair-play detection as well as any author of traditional mysteries. Agent: Meg Ruley, the Jane Rotrosen Agency. (Nov.)

Publishers Weekly

It's December 1933, and single, penniless Lady Georgiana Rannoch is facing a bleak winter in Scotland at Castle Rannoch with her brother and dreadful sister-in-law. Seizing on an opportunity to escape, Georgie answers an ad to play hostess at a Christmas house party in a small English village, but the idyllic village soon turns sinister when the villagers begin dying in suspicious accidents. VERDICT Lady Georgiana's sixth outing (after Naughty in Nice) offers another witty and thoroughly enjoyable mystery with a dash of romance. Christmas recipes and period party game instructions are included. [See Prepub Alert, 7/5/12.]

Library Journal

Being 35th in line for the British throne is no sinecure. Lady Georgiana Rannoch, distant heir to the Empire, has resigned herself to a dull Christmas in the family's cold and cheerless Scottish castle with her henpecked brother, his awful wife and her even more repugnant family when an opportunity arises to act as a paid hostess at a house party. Arriving in the picture-perfect village of Tiddleton-under-Lovey, where her actress mother and Noel Coward are spending a working Christmas, she's warmly greeted by the Hawse-Gorzley family, who are providing an old-fashioned Christmas to a wide assortment of paying guests. Georgiana is thrilled to discover that the man she loves, Darcy O'Mara, is the nephew of Mrs. Hawse-Gorzley and is spending Christmas with the family. True, a neighbor seems to have shot himself accidentally while sitting in a pear tree, but it is only when more deaths follow on a daily basis that Georgiana, who is no stranger to sleuthing, takes an interest. The guests are spooked, even though only locals seem to be targeted. The investigating officer calls on Georgiana's grandfather, a retired London policeman who's acting as a butler for his actress daughter, for help with the deaths, which the officer still can't believe are murders, perhaps because he's preoccupied with the convicts who've escaped from Dartmoor Prison. It takes a while for the penny to drop, but Georgiana finally sees a pattern to the deaths, though the clever killer will not be easy to catch. The sixth in Bowen's delightful Royal Spyness mysteries set in the 1930s (Naughty in Nice, 2011, etc.) gives readers a blueprint for an old-fashioned English Christmas, complete with traditional recipes, games, drinks and homicides.

Kirkus Reviews