Four Funerals and Maybe a Wedding by Rhys Bowen

Berkley Books, 2018. Hardcover, 304 pages.

This is my first review of Rhys Bowen’s Her Royal Spyness series, but I have read the entire series within the last year. While I was unsure after the first book (Her Royal Spyness), I made sure to read the second (A Royal Pain) as first books in a new series tend to be setting up for what follows. I’m glad I did as that second book hooked me in to the life and crime-solving of Lady Georgiana Rannoch. Four Funerals and Maybe a Wedding, the series’ twelfth book, continues the fun.

The novel opens with Georgie making plans for her summer wedding to Darcy O’Mara. Her mother is also making plans to marry her longtime boyfriend, Max. Georgie’s grandfather is also hoping to wed his neighbor, Hettie. Her friend Belinda is overjoyed to use Georgie’s wedding to help launch her fashion design business. In the midst of all this planning, a letter arrives. In it, her former stepfather Sir Hubert Anstruther invites Georgie to take up residence at his manor house and live there after the wedding. As he is often traveling, he is seldom home to use it and Georgie is his heir. She happily accepts.

However, not all is as seems. Georgie arrives at Eynsleigh to find it to be nothing like she remembers. The grounds have turned wild. The staff, most of which is new in the last year, seems untrained and are reluctant to do their job. Have the staff simple gotten lazy or is something afoot? It’s up to Georgie to investigate. She sends for her trusted maid, Queenie, to assist and help whip the staff into shape. In addition, tragedy strikes several of those closest to her. Will she be affected next?

The thing I love most about this book, and the series as a whole, is the combination of fun and intrigue plus the genuine caring nature of the main characters. Despite the seriousness of the situations Georgie often finds herself in, she also manages to find ways to have a bit of fun and never fails to support those she loves who are also involved. This rings true whether it is her beloved Darcy, best friend Belinda, her maid, mother, or grandfather. History is also sprinkled in throughout, often as it regards Georgie’s royal family, especially as it related to the king, queen, and future (and short-reigned) Edward VIII, or the political climate of the time (the 1930s). Regarding, Four Funerals and Maybe a Wedding specifically, this novel showed an evolution in Georgie as she went from a near-penniless situation (explained in earlier novels) to the mistress of her own grand home. She transitioned from being more submissive to assertive. The novel also will touch hearts as the title implies deaths and those greatly affect Georgie or her family. In all, another great addition to the series.

This novel will be released on August 7, 2018. Thanks to NetGalley for a digital advanced reader’s copy!