A Royal Murder - Hardcover

Roosevelt, Elliott

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0312109709 ISBN 13: 9780312109707

Publisher: St Martins Pr, 1994

Synopsis

First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt journeys to the Bahamas to visit the exiled Duke and Duchess of Windsor and uncovers dangerous plots involving Nazi plans for expansion, smuggling, defection, wartime profiteering, and murder.

About this title

From Kirkus Reviews:

Roosevelt (Murder in the East Room, 1993, etc.) again presses his mother into service as an amateur crime buster in yet another of his posthumously published mysteries. This time Eleanor is sent on a diplomatic mission to the Bahamas, where the duke of Windsor, the former king who gave it all up for the woman he loved, recently has taken up his post as governor. The US has acquired naval bases on the islands as part of lend-lease. Both FDR and the British are afraid that, because of the duke and duchess's undisguised pro- German sentiments, all goings-on will be reported back to Berlin. A German invasion is even a possibility. The First Lady's entourage will, in reality, be trained intelligence agents sent to assess the situation. When they arrive, matters are worse than they feared: The colony is a hotbed of espionage. Then a wealthy Swedish industrialist--and Nazi spy--is murdered, and Jean King, who is posing as Eleanor's maid, is suspected. The First Lady must discover the real culprit and expose the intrigues for the sake of national security. Judy Garland and Erroll Flynn lend a hand in boozy cameos. Fact and historical fiction blur in what is, absent Roosevelt's clear fixation on his mother, just a routine mystery. -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

From Publishers Weekly:

Affectionately portrayed, Eleanor Roosevelt outwits Nazis and other nefarious villains in her late son's 15th mystery to star his mother, one of many reported left unpublished at his death in 1990. In September 1940, Eleanor is sent to the Bahamas, accompanied by intelligence agents impersonating her staff, to protect U.S. interests against the pro-German leanings of the new governor, the Duke of Windsor and his wife, Wallis Simpson. Eleanor deftly avoids curtseying to the duke and duchess, instead giving each a democratic smile and a handshake and finessing the duke's wish that his wife be addressed as royalty. Life in Nassau resembles the last days of French royal court with a continuous round of parties occuring against a backdrop of dire poverty. During one lavish gathering on board a luxurious steam yacht, the owner, a pro-German Swedish industrialist, is thrown overboard to drown; in his pocket is found a platinum pin bearing the insignia of the Prince of Wales. Eleanor gets to ride a bike; Errol Flynn and one of his teenage floozies sail in on the yacht of isolationist GM chairman, Alfred P. Sloan; and a fatal explosion and a gunfight occur before the First Lady neatly wraps up the case.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: St Martins Pr
• Publication date: 1994
• ISBN 10: 0312109709
• ISBN 13: 9780312109707
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 234