The Countess of Prague: Book 1 of the Countess of Prague Mysteries

Beatrice “Trixie” von Falklenburg, the high-born narrator of Weeks’s captivating series launch set in pre-WWI Prague, has a reputation for solving little mysteries—which explains why her beloved Uncle Berty, a retired general, asks for her help in solving what could be a murder case. The body of an elderly man, his face battered beyond recognition, has been hauled out of the Vltava River. A laundry number stitched on the man’s underwear indicates that he is Alois Tager, who served years before as Uncle Berty’s batman in the army. Alois, however, turns out to be alive and well at the Invalides Hospital, where he resides as a pensioner. How did the dead man come to be wearing Alois’s underwear? With the aid of a few trusted servants and a cadre of street urchins, Trixie gets on a trail that leads to some startling revelations about her fellow blue bloods. Weeks (The Nerve Doctor) provides a refreshing glimpse into a time gone by in this well-wrought mix of historical fact and fiction. (Sept.)