The Windsor Knot: Her Majesty investigates a murder

What is this about?

Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II, investigates a murder at Windsor Castle.

What else is this about?

No really, Her Majesty investigating a murder really is enough!

Blurb

The morning after a dinner party at Windsor Castle, eighty-nine-year-old Queen Elizabeth is shocked to discover that one of her guests has been found murdered in his room, with a rope around his neck.

When the police begin to suspect her loyal servants, Her Majesty knows they are looking in the wrong place.

For the Queen has been living an extraordinary double life ever since her coronation. Away from the public eye, she has a brilliant knack for solving crimes.

With her household’s happiness on the line, her secret must not get out. Can the Queen and her trusted secretary Rozie catch the killer, without getting caught themselves?

Miss Marple meets The Crown in The Windsor Knot, the first book in the ‘Her Majesty The Queen Investigates’ mystery series by SJ Bennett – for fans of The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman, Agatha Christie and M.C. Beaton’s Agatha Raisin. 

The Windsor Knot might be the most unexpectedly charming book I’ve read in such a long time.

After a dinner with more than a few famous guests (Sir David Attenborough for example), a body is found in one of the rooms at Windsor — a Russian pianist called Maksim Brodsky was murdered. He was a guest at the Queen’s dinner, and proved to be quite popular with all the (female) guests.

Maksim is found with a rope around his neck, and at first the assumption is that he was participating in a sex game gone wrong.

However, MI5 and the police all assume this is a political plot that involves Putin, because what else could it be happening at Windsor Castle?

But, the Queen is on the case!

She really is!

Treated as someone who should be protected, and not actually understanding of, well most things outside the sphere of being Queen, this Elizabeth is anything but. In partnership with her private secretary, Rozie, Queen Elizabeth begins her own investigation into the murder.

The Windsor Knot is a mystery that gives us a Queen that is sneaky and quite adept at navigating the expectations of everyone around her, including those closest to her — her staff.

Especially her staff when they and the guests at her party come under suspicion.

You see she’s been investigating mysteries for decades now, and with two previous private secretaries. The Windsor Knot is Rozie’s, and our, introduction to this side of the Queen.

Rozie herself is a veteran and can’t quite believe she’s working for the Queen, or that she proceeds to investigate a murder for the Queen, and still come back to discuss her findings as if it was the most natural thing in the world.

Rozie herself is quite the foil to the Queen — resourceful, brave and quite skilled at kicking ass when she has to be.

The most amusing part of this is that everyone has their own expectations of the Queen and they’re all wrong. This is a woman who is 89 and has outlived so many other leaders, that she knows far more than people give her credit for.

She just happens to be adept at hiding her true self underneath the oodles of protocol she lives under. Her regard for Philip and her family is scattered through the book, including her wish that Harry find a nice girl and settle down — this is set in 2016, so I do hope the series is going to see

This Queen is also very funny, though mind you, it’s a very British humour that is found in the pages of this book. Though, that the Queen is saying and thinking all this, gives the humour an added boost.

The Queen and Rozie seem to be at the start of a wonderful relationship in this book, and I can’t wait to see where their cases take them next. The secondary cast of characters that make up the Queen’s staff and family are funny, and that Queen manages to subvert all their expectations, manipulate where she can for her investigative ends make for such a wonderful read — I just couldn’t stop smiling!