Murder Most Royal

A Novel

De: SJ Bennett

Narrado por: Jane Copland

Evidence that an aristocrat has gone missing—and was possibly murdered—near Sandringham House sets Queen Elizabeth II on the path to discover unsavory family secrets and much more in this new installment of the series the New York Times Book Review calls “sheer entertainment.”

Queen Elizabeth II is looking forward to a traditional Christmas gathering with her family in Sandringham when a shocking discovery interrupts holiday plans. A severed hand has been found—but even more unsettling, she recognizes the signet ring still attached to a finger. It belongs to a scion of the St Cyr family, her old friends from nearby Ladybridge Hall. Despite the personal connection, the Queen wants to leave the investigation to the police—that is, until newspapers drag her name into the matter.

As reporters speculate about the proximity of the crime to the Crown and the police fail to investigate a suspicious accident on her doorstep, Elizabeth quietly begins to mull over the mystery herself. With help from her Assistant Private Secretary, Rozie Oshodi, she delves into the interlocking layers of fact and fiction surrounding the high-profile case. Someone in the quiet county of Norfolk seems to have a secret worth killing for, and the Queen is determined to find out who and what that is—even if that means discovering that someone in her close circle is a murderer.

Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.

Love this series but this one not as strong

I love this series but felt this one was not as good. The mystery was confusing and slow and not enough of Rosie!

Another Enjoyable Read!

I enjoy this series so much! It's fun to feel like a friend of the Queen as she goes about her day-to-day activities with family and work and slips in some sleuthing along the way. Rosie has become a friend, too, through each mystery. I hope there will be more, despite the Queen's death!

Completely Delightful

I have loved this series so far, with its conceit that the late Queen Elizabeth quietly solved murders on the side. While of course fictional, it gives plausible insights into the gracious way she interacted with others and with her own family. Naturally, the wonderful Samantha Bond has few rivals as a narrator.

I wondered how the author would handle the fact that the queen died only a few years after the setting of this entry, and I see that her next two go back in time to the origins of the character's mystery-solving side. I'll see how they are, but if they're anything like the series so far they'll be thoroughly enjoyable.

Highly recommended for cozy mystery lovers and those who enjoy royalty-related fiction. A twofer if you like both, as I do.

Rather different tone from the first two.

This is the third book in this series and it veers off from the first two quite a bit. The overall pace is remarkably slow, there are far fewer interactions between Rozie and The Queen, and the cast of characters is so large that they provide a pdf to help keep track of them all.

But what is a bit unsettling is that in this one The Queen confronts some of the bad guys head on. You know, like in every detective show on TV, when a person, usually a woman by herself, gets in the murderer's face and tells him I know what you did.

Which would be okay I suppose if one, she wasn't The Queen, and two, if that wasn't the antithesis of her process in the first two books. In those two, which were fabulous, The Queen was certainly the brains of the operation, solving nearby murders like she had been doing it her whole life. But using Rozie and others as go betweens, almost like avatars. So that she wouldn't be seen as doing the work of the police for them, or be seen in inappropriate places, asking inappropriate questions.

In this book she's constantly traipsing off by herself, putting herself at risk, and practically going all Columbo on some folks. Honestly I enjoyed the ways of the first two better, with Rozie, young, highly skilled, very fit, was the one taking the risks, not the elder monarch.

I hear the next one will arrive in England, in February. But it will be set back in 1957. So no Rozie. Who knows when we will have access to it here.

Addictive

Greta narrator and the stories are so interesting. I look forward to more of this authors work.