Cover

Berkley Prime Crime Titles by Rhys Bowen

BERKLEY PRIME CRIME TITLES BY RHYS BOWEN

Royal Spyness Mysteries

HER ROYAL SPYNESS

A ROYAL PAIN

ROYAL FLUSH

ROYAL BLOOD

NAUGHTY IN NICE

THE TWELVE CLUES OF CHRISTMAS

HEIRS AND GRACES

QUEEN OF HEARTS

MALICE AT THE PALACE

Constable Evans Mysteries

EVANS ABOVE

EVAN HELP US

EVANLY CHOIRS

EVAN AND ELLE

EVAN CAN WAIT

EVANS TO BETSY

EVAN ONLY KNOWS

EVAN’S GATE

EVAN BLESSED

Anthologies

A ROYAL THREESOME

Specials

MASKED BALL AT BROXLEY MANOR

Title Page

Copyright

An imprint of Penguin Random House LLC

375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014

This book is an original publication of the Berkley Publishing Group.

Copyright © 2015 by Janet Quin-Harkin.

The Edgar ® name is a registered service mark of the Mystery Writers of America, Inc.

Penguin supports copyright. Copyright fuels creativity, encourages diverse voices, promotes free speech, and creates a vibrant culture. Thank you for buying an authorized edition of this book and for complying with copyright laws by not reproducing, scanning, or distributing any part of it in any form without permission. You are supporting writers and allowing Penguin to continue to publish books for every reader.

BERKLEY® PRIME CRIME and the PRIME CRIME design are trademarks of Penguin Random House LLC.

For more information, visit penguin.com.

eBook ISBN 978-0-698-18376-6

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Bowen, Rhys.

Malice at the palace / Rhys Bowen.—First edition.

pages ; cm

ISBN 978-0-425-26038-8

I. Title.

PR6052.O848M35 2015

823’.914—dc23 2015007870

FIRST EDITION: August 2015

Cover illustration by John Mattos.

Cover design by Rita Frangie.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Version_1

Dedication

This book is dedicated to Karen Mayers, with thanks for her friendship, her support of authors like me, and her fantastic Giants tickets! Love that seat behind home plate!

Thank you to all the fans of Lady Georgie who write me such lovely letters and come to my speaking events.

And thanks as always to my own Queens of Hearts: my editor, Jackie Cantor, and my stellar agents Meg Ruley and Christine Hogrebe. You are my biggest champions. I feel blessed every day that I work with you. And not forgetting John who is my first reader and whose many tweaks keep me humble!

Chapter 1

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 28, 1934

CLABON MEWS, LONDON S.W.7.

Weather outside: utterly bloody! Weather inside: cozy and warm.

Enjoying life for once, or would be if Darcy hadn’t gone off somewhere secret again . . .

Why must he be so annoying!