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I enjoyed this one equally to the first two in the series. I love the combo of amateur sleuths, HRH Queen Elizabeth and her assistant private secretary, Rozie Oshodi, as they work on solving yet another murder. This is a great example of how an audiobook narrator can contribute to ones experience of a book, in this case, the marvelous Jane Copland. Not sure I'd like these as well in print. I see book 4 is coming out in 2024, A Death in Diamonds! It’s almost Christmas and the Royal family have arrived at Sandringham. A severer hand has been found near the estate and it is the Queen who is able to identify the victim from a ring on the little finger of the hand. Turns out it belongs to a family member who happen to be close friends of the Royals. Christmas at Sandringham was all about family. The Queen went there as a little girl and loved it as much as her parents did. When her grandfather died, the house and the estate naturally passed to her Uncle David, who briefly became King Edward VIII. When he abdicated, the Crown and all its lands passed to the Queens’s father, Bertie, who became King George VI … But not Sandringham. That was a personal residence, not part of the Crown, so Bertie had to use his inheritance to buy it from his brother. He then surrounded himself with uncles, aunts and cousins at Christmas time, as the Queen continued to do. The tragedy was fuelled by the king's refusal to let the crown prince marry his lover, Devyani Rana, who he met in 1989.
That said however, I didn’t think it was as good as the first book which had the element of originality. This was more of the same but with an inordinate amount of characters so that at times I found it difficult to work out who everyone was. Princess Ketaki claims that the crown prince was frustrated at the thought of fulfilling the role of a modern monarch and was reluctant to relinquish the feudal role of absolute king. The programme also reveals how the crown prince became increasingly frustrated at his role within the royal family.In June last year, Nepal's crown prince massacred his entire family in their royal palace. A television programme being screened on Sunday on BBC Two at 2100 GMT reveals how forbidden love and political frustration drove Crown Prince Dipendra to murder.
Murder Most Royal is Her Majesty the Queen's third attempt at solving a mystery, and I think, the weakest one yet in the series. I'm a big fan of S.J. Bennett's Her Majesty the Queen Investigates series - I loved the first two books and was keen to get my hands on her latest. But something about Murder Most Royal had it missing the highs of its predecessors. There were a few defining moments for sure - the Duke, for example, was at his characteristic best in #3, and on par with previous appearances.
And now the series is about to become a trilogy. MURDER MOST ROYAL will be published by Bonnier in the UK on 10 November. The Queen’s investigations continue. This mystery centres around a local aristocratic family, whom the Queen knew quite well many years ago. In fact the victim used to come and play with Charles when he was boy. So there’s a personal connection that makes things a bit awkward but also a bit easier. I kept changing my mind about who the murderer was because of all the red herrings, and only really discovered who it was when the big reveal came! Just like in the other books I loved the banter between the Queen and other family members. There’s a particularly amusing conversation between Princess Anne and Prince Charles, that made me smile!
Close by, on a Norfolk beach, a severed hand in a plastic bag washes up on the beach. The police are seeking to identify the victim, but it is the Queen who identifies the 70 year old victim from the signet ring as a well known member of the aristocracy, Edward St Cyr, who as a boy was a frequent visitor to Sandringham. As the police investigate, hunting for the rest of his body, and looking into his life, movements and family, they struggle to make any headway. When another man is discovered dead and a local woman is almost killed in a hit and run, the Queen feels obliged to become involved in what turns out to be her most twisted and challenging inquiry yet and which brings danger far too close to home. Family history, secrets, deceptions and lies are slowly uncovered with a Queen determined to get to the truth, irrespective of the obstacles in her path. With the Christmas break coming to an end, the Queen and her trusted assistant Rozie must race to discover how the pieces of the puzzle fit together. Or the next victim may be found even closer to home. An excellent plot and insight into Norfolk and Sandringham that takes you right into one of the Queens' favourite homes. I wondered how Bennett would handle this series in light of the Queen’s death last September. She has set the book in 2016, is the answer. And there will be at least one more book in the series, already announced. As with SJ Bennett's first two books in the series in which Queen Elizabeth II has now been established as a more than capable, below the radar, sleuth, solving intricate mysteries with the aid of her trusted assistant private secretary, Rozie Oshodi, I listened to this one on audio, nine and half hours long, and narrated by the wonderful actor, Samantha Bond. Bond does a warm and stellar job in immersing the listener into the royal household and family at the Sandringham estate in Norfolk during the festive season. The Queen and Philip arrive not in the best of health, looking forward to spending Christmas with the family, including the grandchildren and great grandchildren, although William and Kate are not there, choosing to spend it instead with Kate's family. There is banter and fun as the intimate side of a royal family at Christmas, that endeavours to keep these aspects of their lives private, is detailed.It’s strangely bittersweet, reading this in the week of the coronation. It’s another delightful and incredibly respectfully put together tale, and very much a price of fun to imagine that this is one of the late Queen’s activities. SJ Bennett was born in Yorkshire, England in 1966, and lives in London. An army child, she grew up travelling around the world. Her first novel was published when she was 42, after a varied career and lots of procrastination. She is the award-winning author of several books for children and teaches and podcasts about writing.
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