Royal Gambit
A Novel
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4.6 • 5 Ratings
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- $19.99
Publisher Description
A delightful and hilarious supernatural adventure featuring a lady-in-waiting who must keep the court safe from murder, from the author of The Rook
Alexandra Dennis-Palmer-Hudson-Gilmore-Garnsey (call me “Alix”), the twelfth Lady Mondegreen, has never had any control of her life. Her ability to shatter bones with a touch made her the automatic property of the Checquy, the secret British government agency that deals with the supernatural. Her aristocratic ancestry made Alix the perfect asset for the Checquy to deploy close to the royal family. Since childhood, she has been coached to befriend Princess Louise, second in line to the throne, but the two have never been close. Now, Alix is a skilled operative who investigates unexplained phenomena for the security of the nation.
Everything changes when Louise’s brother, the Prince of Wales, dies abruptly and all signs point to an assassination by preternatural means. To protect Louise, the new heir apparent, Alix is assigned to be her lady-in-waiting. Thrust into the limelight overnight—both in the everyday world and in the underground world of the Checquy—Alix must juggle her responsibilities and her loyalties as she attempts to unravel the murder, keep Louise safe, and learn how to smile graciously while eerie threats loom around every corner.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
O'Malley's fourth thriller featuring the Checquy Group, "a covert agency within the British government that dealt with, and was partially staffed by, the supernatural" (after 2022's Blitz), offers an entertaining blend of fantasy and humor. The Group's oddball missions—like botanist Alix's investigation into "a pot of malevolent nasturtiums in Cumbria that had been directing bees to swarm people and also steal their credit card details"—are interrupted when Edmund, the Prince of Wales, dies suddenly of unknown causes. Suspicions that Edmund was assassinated make identifying the cause a Checquy priority. Those fears intensify after Odette Leliefeld, an alchemist and Checquy ally, discovers a small pyramid emerging from the prince's brain during an autopsy, a bizarre symptom also seen eight years earlier in an American college student. Alix and Odette team up to solve the mystery. As always, O'Malley imbues his imagined world with realistic details and finds plentiful humor in the clash of the supernatural and the bureaucratic. ("For all its astounding capabilities, the Checquy was still a government agency, which meant there were never enough funds or staff for a project.") Series fans will be delighted.
