Rhys Bowen - Royal Blood

Publisher: Berkley Prime Crime, New York
Author:     Rhys Bowen
Title :        Royal Blood

What I love about libraries is the surprise they throw up now and then.  I can pick up titles without worrying whether I will like them or not.  If it is something boring, I can always return the book unread.  If I like it, well, I have discovered a new good author.  Also, the pressure to return the books within 15 days makes me read them quickly, unlike the books on my kindle which I take for granted.

I was browsing through the books in Jungman Neighborhood Library and feeling a little lost among the bookshelves.  This feeling is quite common when you are new in a library.  The way they arrange titles is a little novel and you need some time to get accustomed. So as I drifted up and down, I spotted these books by Rhys Bowen.  I could see that they were a series. In my confusion, I picked up No. 3 in the series, quite a crime in my eyes.  Something I will atone for by immediately reading up No. 1 and No. 2. Luckily, the books are standalone enough to be read randomly.

Lady Georgiana is 34th line to the throne, she is a cousin of King George. This does not make her a royalty we all would envy.  She has the title, the breeding and the schooling, but no money. If she wants to live the royal life she is entitled to, she will have to marry a rich Prince.  This is something her uppity sister-in-law Fig wants, so does the Queen, in fact.  They are always trying to put her in the way of some stinky rich, fish-faced royal.

She is called upon to do some sleuthing work now and then by the Queen, like trying to keep the Prince of Wales away from a frightful American divorcee. However, this time her assignment is simple, she is called upon to attend the royal wedding of her school friend Maria Theresa with Prince Nicholas of Bulgaria in Romania. It seems like a simple assignment, if a bit tiresome. She hires a highly inappropriate maid and sets off.

She is delighted to find that she is friends with the groom Nicholas, not so delighted to find that her unwanted suitor, Seigfried, is the brother of the bride. Fish-face Seigfried is pursuing her once more. Her best friend Belinda, who is only an Honorable, has also crashed the wedding.  Her mother has also landed up on the arm of her current boyfriend, Max, who is the godfather of Nicholas. 

Things get messy soon for Georgie.  A young man crashes into her room, seemingly bending towards her neck.  The bride is spotted with her mouth stained bright red.  Is is possible that she has walked into a lair of vampires?  A very important guest keels over at the dining table and dies, poisoned by cyanide. One more person falls off dangerous stairs and Georgie's maid goes missing.

Before she knows, Georgie is thick into another mystery that she has to solve quickly, before two important royal houses start a war with each other.

It was simply delightful to stumble across this engrossing well written book. It drips with humor and I was chuckling loudly as I read it.  Despite dealing with Royalty, it is not stuffy.  Lady Georgiana is constantly required to behave in a certain manner and has to struggle to maintain her status.

It is set in 1930s when King George reigned along with his consort, Queen Mary.  There are several historical references to real life personages to keep you in touch with the times.

The book is a potpourri of delights, a historical mystery about a fictional person set in real history. On top of it, it's funny and light and perfect for a quick read.

Graham Greene - The Human Factor

There was a time a month or two ago, when I yearned to read something by Graham Greene.  My pocket being on the slender side, my budget for books is not much.  Hence, such wishes are not followed necessarily by an order on Flipkart.

I can redress that by joining the State Library.  I am also lazy, and forget to just walk into the library and get myself a membership.

I did remember to walk into the sprawling second hand book market that we have in Chandigarh in Sector 15, right next to the Lajpat Rai Bhawan.  This time round I managed to find myself quite a treasure.  Among my second hand loot, was a book by Graham Greene, The Human Factor.

The books starts elegantly, languidly, describing a routine day in the life of Maurice Castle, a secret service employee.  Along with his colleague Arthur Davis, he mans the Africa desk at the embassy.  Their job is not glamorous or of any earth shaking importance.  Their mundane existence is shaken by a sudden scrutiny of their lives by a new security officer.  Being an old hand Castle knows exactly what that means.  There is a breach in the security and he is a suspect, along with Davis.

Castle has had an unblemished service.  He did have a spot of trouble with apartheid when he was posted in South Africa and fell in love with a black woman of the Bantu tribe, Sarah.  He managed to get her out of there and married her, and had a son.  Ever since he has settled in the suburbs, and lives a dull domesticated life.  His conduct is exemplary and he has nothing to fear.

On the other hand, Davis was caught taking official papers out with him.  He drinks too much, gambles and womanizes. The needle of suspicion is likely to point to him, but he is not guilty, Castle knows.

Colonel Daintry, Hargreaves and Doctor Percival are some of the people conducting the inquiry into the leak.  Despite their jolly and bluff manner, Hargreaves and Dr. Percival are not as harmless as they seem.  Despite his blustering ways, Colonel Daintry is not as threatening as he looks.  The secrets, once they start tumbling out the closet do not cease, until we learn the entire sad truth at the very end.

The book starts slow, the pace is unhurried, as I mentioned earlier, languid.  But readers of fiction of this sort know that the calm is merely that on the surface of the hill just before the volcano erupts.  The story picks up pace, and takes us through rapid climaxes to the end.

It is a story about love, and what people do for love.  It is also about politics of our world,  just what we expect a Graham Greene novel to be about.  It is as incisive as Graham Greene novels are, and we wind up feeling sad for the state our world is in, and the way it uses ordinary people as grist to its mill.

To quote a blurb at the back of the book:

"To the lonely, isolated, neurotic world of the Secret Service, Graham Greene brings his brilliance and perception, laying bare a machine that sometimes overlooks the subtle and secret motivations that impel us all."