The Twelve Clues of Christmas (A Royal Spyness Mystery)
Here’s a very cheeky cozy that both celebrates and satirizes the conventions of the English country-house mystery. Bowen sets her latest in the depths of the Depression, allowing hints of hard times to seep into even her upper-class milieu. Lady Georgiana Rannoch, the heroine of the Royal Spyness series (this is the sixth entry), is in line for succession to the throne. But she’s thirty-fifth in line, enough to get invited to the occasional royal party but not enough to pay the rent. She’s about to be evicted by repellent relatives from her family home, Castle Rannoch, in Scotland, when she sees an ad in The Lady asking for someone of “impeccable background” to supervise festivities at a country house in a tiny English village, Tiddleton-under-Lovey. The villagers seem to be accident-prone: one falls out of a tree and dies; another drowns; another is asphyxiated, prompting Lady Georgiana to turn from games-mistress to investigator. Bowen, who has won both the Agatha and Anthony Awards, gives us another tongue-in-cheek romp. With Christmas recipes and instructions for traditional games at book’s end. --Connie Fletcher--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.