Royal Gambit Audiobook By Daniel O'Malley cover art

Royal Gambit

A Novel

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Royal Gambit

By: Daniel O'Malley
Narrated by: Moira Quirk
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From the brilliant and hilarious author of The Rook, a delightful new supernatural adventure: When the heir to the British throne suddenly dies under mysterious circumstances, Checquy operative and reluctant aristocrat Alix is assigned to be lady-in-waiting/personal bodyguard to the new Crown Princess, and must navigate the halls of power and privilege while investigating the supernatural murder of the Prince of Wales.

Alexandra "Alix" Dennis-Palmer-Hudson-Gilmore-Garnsey, the twelfth Lady Mondegreen, has never had any control of her life. Her supernatural 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, Alix has been coached to befriend Princess Louise, second in line to the throne, but despite all machinations, the two have never been close. Now an adult and a full Pawn of the Checquy, Alix is a skilled investigator unravelling supernatural manifestations for the security of the nation.

Everything changes when Louise's brother, the Prince of Wales, dies abruptly, and all signs point to an unnatural assassination. To protect Louise, the new and unwilling 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.

©2025 Daniel O'Malley (P)2025 Little, Brown & Company
Action & Adventure Contemporary Fantasy Paranormal & Urban Royalty Urban Funny Witty Crime
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I have enjoyed these books ever since The Rook was published. This one might be my favorite!

So well-written and fun!

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Clever, clever, clever and fun! Now I’m bummed that I’ll have to wait for the next book. I highly recommend this book

How is this not a Netflix series?

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If you have read O'Malley's series, The Rook Files, you are likely to pick up his latest, Royal Gambit, without reviews considering this author has such an engaging style of writing. And if you are wavering, I can confirm that Royal Gambit is another fantasy adventure that is hard to put down. Although it can certainly be read as a stand-alone, if you haven't read The Rook, I'd suggest you start there. Royal Gambit is set in the same "world" as the The Rook Files, but the detailed world building is done in The Rook Files - I suspect that without that background introduction to the Checquy, Royal Gambit would not be quite as fun. RG gives us a new female protagonist, Alix, who has not only a unique power, but a unique personal history that makes her an insider to the royal family so the POV with this book is quite different from The Rook Files. It makes for a fascinating story and a setup for some future branching adventures since the plot ultimately leads to the revelation of a secret that is deeper than the Checquy itself. Alix indulges in quite a bit of internal dialog (not the navel gazing kind, more the snarky internal commentary on the action kind) mixed in with the external dialog. Although internal and external is probably easy to distinguish on the written page, narrator, Moira Quirk, doesn't differentiate that much in the audio so it is a little difficult for the listener to tell what Alix said out loud and what was side note to self. Otherwise, Quirk is very easy to listen to and I enjoyed her performance.

Great addition to the Checquy World

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An awesome story of the Checquey! Loved the main character and seeing some of the other secondary characters from earlier books.

Excellent characters!

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Supernatural Beauracracy meets British Aristocracy; everyone is very prim, proper and quietly hilarious. and there are boots.

loved being back in this world

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