The Countess of Prague by Stephen Weeks

Beatrice “Trixie” von Falkenburg, a Countess of English/Czech decent, is drawn into helping her uncle discover the truth behind the death of her uncle’s former military aide.  Outside of reading Sherlock Holmes, the Countess is totally unprepared to be an amateur sleuth, but what she lacks in worldly experience and guile, she makes up for in pluck and intuition. 

Before long, Trixie is chasing down disreputable actors, an international thief, a Russian ballerina and an ingenious scientist.  Learning as she goes, the Countess travels from Prague to Paris, on to London, and finally to a climactic meeting between Edward VII and Germany’s Kaiser Wilhelm in the Czech spa resort of Marinbad.   

The evolution from the Countess Beatrice von Falkenburg to Trixie the detective, is the delightful bit about this book.  Her husband, the Count, has lost his ancestral home and most of his fortune but is off attending several “bachelor” hunting parties throughout the book.  They write letters back and forth, he agreeably sends her money when she asks, but he is never there when she needs him.  So, the reader, and eventually Trixie herself, begins to realize that maybe she doesn’t need him at all. 
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Film director, Stephen Weeks, paints a rapidly changing society that is ten years away from a World War.  He propels the beautiful Countess on a confusing and often frightening adventure with masterful superfluities of wit and sparkle.  I am looking forward to reading the next book in the series.

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