NAUGHTY IN NICE
by Rhys Bowen
Nice is nice if you’re not a murder suspect.
Lady Georgiana Rannoch is about to be banished from her London home to the family castle in Scotland when Her Majesty the Queen saves her by paying her fare to France in the hopes that Georgie, an experienced sleuth (Royal Blood, 2010, etc.), can retrieve a valuable snuffbox the Queen suspects has been stolen by the nouveau riche Sir Toby Groper. Georgie’s brother and his tiresome wife Fig are staying with her relatives, who relegate Georgie to a camp bed in the library. Luckily for Georgie, she’s already met a distant relative and Coco Chanel on the Blue Train. The good news is that Chanel wants Georgie to model for her. The better news is that the ladies are staying with Georgie’s much-married mother, who’s left her boring German lover behind for some quality time in her Nice villa. Now for the bad news. When Georgie falls off a catwalk, she loses the valuable necklace lent by the Queen and now has two priceless items to recover. Ensconced in her mother’s villa, which overlooks Groper’s home, Georgie spots his body in his swimming pool and is promptly arrested by the French police. Luckily, her latest beau, the Marquis de Ronchard, provides a lawyer and bail so that Georgie can continue her hunt for the killer. Georgie’s latest adventure is charming and lighthearted as ever, though the 1930s setting carries ominous hints of the future.