Peril in Paris (A Royal Spyness Mystery)
It’s 1936, and a pregnant Lady Georgiana Rannoch is restless, eager to be at least briefly unconfined before her impending confinement. Luckily, Georgie’s best friend, Belinda, is in Paris working on Coco Chanel’s fall collection and wants Georgie to visit. Her husband, Darcy, has somewhat mysterious business to conduct there, so they set off for France. It turns out that a group of German wives are very eager for Chanel’s new looks and that as stirrings of impending war emerge, Darcy needs Georgie’s help in his top-secret mission. Clever forms of chaos ensue in this sixteenth installment of the Royal Spyness Mystery series, where avid readers will recognize the hijinx of Georgie, Belinda, Georgie’s mother, and ZouZou.
New readers will follow the story just fine, despite some clearly history-laden remarks about Queenie and other recurring characters, and all readers will be delighted with appearances by Coco Chanel herself and even Wallis Simpson. One of the most engaging scenes, though, occurs when Georgie attends a soirée at Gertrude Stein’s home, meets The Lost Generation, and finds herself a bit annoyed by Ernest Hemingway. A pivotal scene takes place at Chanel’s very important fashion show, where mysteries must be solved even as Georgie, in her bespoke and strangely tight-in-the-legs Chanel maternity dress, struggles to maneuver herself up and down staircases. This is a lovely book with a clever mystery and characters that don’t take themselves too seriously.
