Queen of Hearts

Queen of Hearts is 8th in the Royal Spyness Series by Rhys Bowen. This book won an Agatha Award in 2015 for Best Historical Novel.

I had never read any of these books but chose it as one of my pics for our June Mystery Book Club. We read books from this year's Stop Your  Killing Me list. (http://www.stopyourekillingme.com/Awards/Agatha_Awards.html)

This series features Lady Georgiana Rannoch, 35th in line for the British throne. She is a young woman, not yet married, and has to spend her days doing what is proper for a person in her position. Her young man is Darcy who is frequently traveling and does some sleuthing for Scotland Yard. She stumbles upon mysteries in each book.

Queen of Hearts takes place in 1934, after the depression. Georgiana is staying with a dowager duchess and her two sisters and is quite bored. She is soon rescued by her mother, an actress and former duchess. She wants Georgiana to accompany her to Reno, Nevada to get a quick divorce from her current husband so she marry her present love interest.

They set sail for New York along with their lady's maids. Georgiana's maid is Queenie. Queenie provides the humor in the story. She is not really keen on doing what a lady's maid should, preferring to sleep late, eat her meals with the family, go here and there whenever she wants. On the ship, they meet many celebrities including Cy Goldman, movie producer. He persuades Georgiana's mother to be in his next movie. Wallis Simpson and Charlie Chaplin also put in appearances.

Georgiana sees what appears to be someone fall overboard on the ship one night. Also another guest on board reports a ruby missing. After the search for both a missing guest and the ruby, they land in New York. After a humorous stop in Reno, they end up in Hollywood and eventually Cy Goldman's mansion that has been furnished with items from castles in Europe. He has invited the cast to stay at his place for the weekend.

Of course this doesn't go as planned what with all the big egos and affairs amongst the guests and someone ends of dead.

I really enjoyed this book and will go back and read the others in the series. It made me think of the movies Clue and And Then There Were None because of all the secrets so many of the characters had and the predicament they all end up in. Very entertaining and a quick read.