The Twelve Clues of Christmas: A Royal Spyness Mystery

Read from November 20 to 24, 2012

Listened for FUN!
Part of my 25 Christmas Reads for 2012
Overall Rating: 4.50
Story Rating: 4.50
Character Rating 4.50

Audio Rating (not part of the overall rating): 4.50
Christmas Rating: Just plain fun!

First thought when finished: Rhys Bowen hit it out of the park with The Twelve Clues of Christmas. It was a great Christmas Who-Done-It!

Just my thoughts: The Twelve Clues of Christmas was a jolly good time! I had a blast while listening and was thrilled to delve back into her royal spyness. This is one fun series for those that like amateur sleuth stories. Check it out when you get a chance! These have a small carry over story but I think they can be read out of order or as standalones.

About the audio: Narrated by Katherine Kellgren and she did a bang up job! Her voices were spot on, the pacing was fantastic, and the reading was delightful.

Final thought: I recommend the Royal Spyness series to anyone who enjoys cozy mysteries!

This is such a fun series to enjoy. Sometimes kind of silly but always interesting. The series wouldn't be the same without the great narration of Katherine Kellgren. Looking forward to the next one.

Lady Georgiana Rannoch escapes the horrid fate of spending Christmas with her step-sister's family at Castle Rannoch by attending a house party in a quaint English village instead as a Royal Family entertainer for the house guests. But as soon as she arrives, people start dying in strange accidents and she shortly begins to suspect that these accidents are really murders. Accompanied by the dashing Darcy O'Mara, Georgie sets out to solve these murders and uncovers the twelve clues to these murders. Clever and witty, with a dash of romance, Rhys Bowen weaves old English Christmas traditions and centuries-long superstitions with pre-WWII England and all of its social class upheaval to create a magical Christmas mystery that is sure to entertain. Fantastically performed by Katherine Kellgren, I quickly lost myself in the story. A Must-Listen Mystery for this Christmas season!

Lighthearted, Smart, Whodunnit

Not on the edge of my seat, no. It was a good murder mystery without too much predictability. It was an utter pleasure to listen to and to follow Lady Georgie on yet another adventure. If there can be charming murder mysteries, this is definitely one.

Katherine Kellgren is one of my favorite narrators of all time - she does voices and accents and dialects beautifully. It feels like an entire cast is acting out the story.

Laughed. MANY times.

Once again, Lady Georgie is stuck at Castle Rannock with her miserly sister-in-law, Fig, making her life miserable and Christmas is just around the corner. So, why not take a job on a country estate in Devon, make a little money and get far, far away from Scotland? All is fine until local people start dying. But are these deaths accidents or murder?
Once again, Darcy is on hand to lend his simmering sensuality to mix and he does distract Georgie quite a bit as she goes about trying to figure out what's going on.
This is one of my favorites in the series. I just love Lady G's spunk and how wonderfully English these books always are. And there are always several laugh out loud incidents in any of the Royal Spyness books.
I loved this reader's ability to capture personalities so well with her intonations.

You know, these books won't make you smarter. But, they're great entertainment. Especially fun to listen to this one and have it end on New Year's Day in the book and in real life. Once again, the narration is fabulous.

Was so happy to see that Rhys Bowen had added another novel. Lived up to expectations.

Lady Georgiana stories delight me. The concept is simple: a young royal (35th in line for the throne) without any money or much life experience tries to make it in the world on her own. It's after the 1st great war in England and Scotland and life is hard for everyone. In this story, Lady G's awful sister-in-law makes it impossible for her to stay in the Scottish family castle for the holidays, so she applies for a job assisting an English aristocrat with a classic English Christmas house party.
Bodies start piling up the day she arrives - one a day, made to appear accidental. Lady G determines she is 'noblesse oblige' to solve the murders before anyone else dies. Lord Darcy O'Mara, love of her life, shows up just in time to help her with enquiries and makes the season bright.
Highly recommended.

it was very interesting and exciting book to listen to.

The leading lady.

yes.

I would recommend this to spy fans.

Yes, it was fun, great characters and a good plot.

For the most part. I did not guess the ending a head of time and for someone who has read a lot of mysteries that is an achievement.

Katherine is great as always and I can't imagine the main character with another voice. In fact we started this series because she had been the voice in another story.