Summary: Queen Elizabeth investigates a murder at Windsor Castle. I really enjoyed it.
I picked this up a couple of years back because I quite like “cosy” mysteries, ones that don’t burn me out. I was curious, because I do like unusual concepts and well, having the main detective be Queen Elizabeth II was definitely an intriguing idea. I did put it off for a while as I do have many books in my TBR pile, but this one I put off even longer after Her Majesty passed away.
It became the right time to try it, as The Crown has come to an end, I’ve read several books now, such as Red, White and Royal Blue, and Falling Hard for the Royal Guard which are set either in royal palaces or have alternative royal families at the heart of their stories. It was time, and I couldn’t put it down. I loved it, maybe not as much as I was hoping I might love it, but I certainly enjoyed it.
I appreciated that this isn’t the Queen going off investigating rather than doing her royal duties: most of the legwork is done by an Assistant Private Secretary and then the Queen is updated, and she sits and thinks about it all. It is more like Miss Marple using her life experience to work out how human nature works than it is Poirot and Hastings going about and out in the world looking for clues. There are differences of course, the Queen has resources to hand that rival the favours Sherlock Holmes can call in, but ultimately this is about her sending out her secretary to gather facts and she has a think.
I liked the story that has started off this series of books: a dead body is discovered in very dubious circumstances in Windsor Castle after a private party and more and more people involved keep turning up dead. MI6 is determined to oust a sleeper agent from amongst the Royal Household, and the Queen is determined to find out the truth, which from the beginning she doesn’t think is as simple as the authorities believe. It’s very enjoyable and I will be on the look out for the next book in the series in the future.
A Young Writer's Notebook 