FM’s ratings:
- Premise 7
- Prose 9
- Plot 8
- Characters 8
- Overall 8
Comments
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- but try to keep it under 3000 words!)
A lot of fun –
but the premise isn’t really the premise. According to the title,
this story is about a royal personage (Duke’s sister; 34th
in line for the throne in England) who is asked by the Queen to spy
on another royal personage. This does occur, but only as a
side-plot. The actual plot is a murder mystery involving the murder
of a blackmailer who is trying to capture the “spy’s”
birthright, namely the ancient Scottish castle that her brother
inherited – in what is apparently a perfectly legitimate claim!
Has the author confused herself? No matter. The witty prose and
highly appealing heroine more than make up for the confusion. The
prose is, in fact, so lively that we forget to pay attention to any
weaknesses in plot and premise. There is a lot of incidental
information about how the royal class lived in 1930’s England,
including the fact that our heroine is so used to having servants to
do things for her that she never learned how to light a fire in the
fireplace! But told from the royal perspective, we don’t feel any
disdain for this dependence on “The Help.” A unique kind of
story that makes us want more.
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