{"id":852,"date":"2012-11-25T18:45:58","date_gmt":"2012-11-26T00:45:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/?p=852"},"modified":"2012-11-25T18:45:58","modified_gmt":"2012-11-26T00:45:58","slug":"rhys-bowen-the-twelve-clues-of-christmas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/rhys-bowen-the-twelve-clues-of-christmas\/","title":{"rendered":"Rhys Bowen: The Twelve Clues of Christmas"},"content":{"rendered":"<form style=\"float: left; margin-right: 10px;\" action=\"http:\/\/www.cartserver.com\/sc\/cart.cgi\" method=\"post\"> <input name=\"item2\" type=\"hidden\" value=\"s-6313^^The Twelve Clues of Christmas by Rhys Bowen^24.95^1\" \/> <input name=\"add\" src=\"http:\/\/www.auntagathas.com\/americart\/sl-add.gif\" type=\"image\" \/> <\/form>\n<p>This is another fun entry in Rhys Bowen\u2019s delightful Lady Georgie series, about the travails of a young woman in the 1930\u2019s who is 35<sup>th<\/sup> in line to the throne.\u00a0 There are references to \u201cGreat Grandmother\u201d Victoria and the horrors of Mrs. Simpson.\u00a0 My favorite in this series, <em>A Royal Pain, <\/em>involves Queen Mary\u2019s request for Georgie\u2019s help in quashing the romance between Mrs. Simpson and the (then) Prince Edward.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"\/aa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/12cluesofxmas.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-853\" title=\"12cluesofxmas\" src=\"\/aa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/12cluesofxmas.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"226\" srcset=\"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/12cluesofxmas.jpg 150w, https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/12cluesofxmas-100x150.jpg 100w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/a>The tone of these novels is lighter and funnier than Bowen\u2019s Molly Murphy series, but like that series, the action revolves around a strong female lead.\u00a0 Georgie is impoverished and forced to eke out a living in various \u201clady like\u201d occupations, none of them very remunerative.\u00a0 In this novel she is rescued from the gloom of her ancestral Scottish castle by an ad asking for a hostess at a country house party.<\/p>\n<p>This has all the classic British village house party elements, with a super high body count.\u00a0 The murder victims are an array of various villagers, all killed or found dead in odd ways, many of them explainable as accidents.\u00a0 Georgie has good instincts and an uneasy feeling, however.\u00a0 Her sojourn is livened by the fact that her scandalous mother and Noel Coward have taken a nearby cottage, and they\u2019re waited on by Georgie\u2019s beloved (though working class) Grandfather.<\/p>\n<p>Luckily for Georgie the dashing Darcy also turns up \u2013 he happens to be a cousin of Lady Hawse-Gorsley, the hostess for the weekend.\u00a0 As the various guests began to appear \u2013 including, naturally, a colonel who has been stationed in India \u2013 the fun begins.<\/p>\n<p>While Bowen is telling a clever mystery story, she\u2019s also very interested in illustrating the traditions of an old fashioned British Christmas.\u00a0 There were a few games and traditions that were new to me, and I loved reading about them as I dashed through this enjoyable book.\u00a0 Clever Rhys Bowen has included an appendix of recipes, games and traditions at the end.\u00a0\u00a0 All in all, this is pretty much a perfect Christmas read.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This is another fun entry in Rhys Bowen\u2019s delightful Lady Georgie series, about the travails of a young woman in the 1930\u2019s who is 35th in line to the throne.\u00a0 There are references to \u201cGreat Grandmother\u201d Victoria and the horrors of Mrs. Simpson.\u00a0 My favorite in this series, A Royal Pain, involves Queen Mary\u2019s request &#8230; <a title=\"Rhys Bowen: The Twelve Clues of Christmas\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/rhys-bowen-the-twelve-clues-of-christmas\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about Rhys Bowen: The Twelve Clues of Christmas\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[10],"class_list":["post-852","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","tag-historical"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/852","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=852"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/852\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":856,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/852\/revisions\/856"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=852"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=852"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=852"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}