Module 1: Mystery: Malice at the Palace

Bowen, R. (2015). Malice at the palace: A royal spyness mystery. New York City, NY: Berkley Prime Crime. 978-0-425-26038-8.

Summary:

Photo taken by me.

Lady Georgiana Rannoch (Georgie) has returned to London in Malice at the Palace, the ninth in the Royal Spyness series by Rhys Bowen. At tea with her semi-distant relative Queen Mary, Georgie is asked to escort Princess Marina --Prince George’s wife-to-be-- around London and to make sure she doesn’t learn of Prince George’s playboy relationships. Georgie consents and moves into Kensington Palace, where, several nights later, she stumbles across the dead body of Bobo Carrington, a woman-about-town and one of Prince George’s former flames. Who killed Bobo? Why did they kill her? And why did they leave her body in the courtyard of Kensington Palace? Detective Chief Inspector Pelham and Sir Jeremy ask Georgie to discreetly look into the crime so that the matter can stay out of the press and Prince George’s nuptials can continue without scandal. After some ingenious sleuthing, some subtle questioning, some rather innocent breaking-and-entering, a dinner with matronly great-aunts, a few outings to keen nightclubs and soirees, some clumsy accidents, some protective ghosts, and some kissing with dreamy Darcy O’Mara, Georgie discovers that Bobo Carrington’s real name is Kathleen Boyle, formerly of Ireland. That previous summer, she had had a baby with an unknown father. Despite the absence of family money and a sugar daddy, Bobo was incredibly rich because she learned the secrets of rich and important men, whom she then blackmailed to keep their secrets safe. One of these men was Major Gerald Beauchamp-Chough, the man-in-charge at Kensington Palace. His secret: he’s homosexual. Why he doesn’t want his secret getting out: he’s up for a promotion to colonel. Why he kills Bobo: he doesn’t want his secret getting out and he can’t pay her bribe because his army salary is measly.

As a Genre Example:

As explained in both the ALA textbook and the module notes, Malice at the Palace is a Mystery in the Amateur Detective sub-genre and Cozy sub-sub-genre. The case is a puzzle for Georgie to solve. Georgie doesn’t have any formal detective training, but her grandfather was on the police force and her boyfriend is in the secret services department. Georgie investigates parallel to the police’s investigation because she can be more discreet in her questioning. The body is found, but it is killed offstage, and there is no blood in the entire book. Georgie is a female protagonist, who is quite quirky, as is her maid Queenie. There isn’t really a sense of community, although different characters belong to different communities: the royals and their sense of duty (minus David, Prince of Wales), the up-and-coming artiste types who like bacchanalian parties and sex, and the poor aristocracy who have titles and big manors but little to no money. Georgie is able to move amongst all three communities with little-to-no-problems, which also makes her a helpful sleuth for the police who often ask for her help in solving cases.

Evaluation:

I give Malice at the Palace 3/5 stars: it was good enough, but not captivating to my reading interests. I loved all the 1930’s slang: “Bob’s your uncle” and “ducks” as a commoner’s term of endearment. These little diction tidbits add so much authenticity to a story. I also appreciated Bowen’s historical note at the end. After reading a historical fiction novel, I want to know what’s true and what’s fiction. Bowen’s short note cleared it up in a very succinct manner. I didn’t like how the ghosts save Georgie from Major B-C. It just seemed too convenient, and I had to stop rolling my eyes to focus on the words to finish the story. Georgie was an okay protagonist. Everything is a little too neat: she’s the only of her friends who doesn’t have sex before marriage, she and her maid Queenie are clumsy, she just happens to stumble across helpful clues, etc. For RA purposes, of course, I understand that this “neatness” is all just part of the cozy mystery suspension of disbelief. As such, I would recommend the Royal Spyness series to readers who want a jaunty, easy read-- those who don’t read too much into helpful coincidences that help the story end with all the i’s dotted and t’s crossed.

Reader's Advisory:

Because the Royal Spyness series takes place in 1930’s UK, some fans of Historical Fiction will like the series. It may seem like these books would fit in with fans of Gentle Reads, but our textbook defines gentle reads as those that don’t include profanity or explicit sex or violence and adhere to conventional values and happy endings (Saricks, 2009, location 2487). Because Malice at the Palace includes references to drugs, parties, sex-before-marriage, abortion, and blackmail, it would not be the best fit for Gentle Reads fans.