In 1990, the people of Nepal took to the streets to demand an end to absolute monarchy and the introduction of multi-party democracy. Fearing a revolution, King Birendra caved into their demands. 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! On 2 June he was proclaimed king, but died two days later in hospital. His uncle, Gyanendra, became Nepal's third king in three days. 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!

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. About This Edition ISBN: December 2016 sees the Royal Family decamping to Sandringham for the Christmas festivities ,while a severed hand is washed up and found by a young girl on a nearby beach. As we've become used to in this series Queen Elizabeth takes more than a passing interest and identifies the hand as that of local minor aristocrat Edward St Cyr, an elderly man with a chequered history from a dysfunctional family. But when a second man is found dead, and a prominent local woman is nearly killed in a hit-and-run, the mystery takes an even darker turn. 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. The Top 25 Christmas Cookbooks for 2023: A Smorgasbord of Inspiration for a Happy Foodie This Christmas With a police investigation underway, the search for the rest of Ed's body begins, and the police now probe into Ed's life, movements, and family. However, they struggle to make any solid leads. Then, another man is discovered dead, and a local woman is almost killed in a hit and run. The Queen feels compelled to become involved in what turns out to be her most challenging investigation yet and puts her life in real danger.

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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. 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. I like this series’ plotting and the feeling it gives of an inside look at the royal family. Bennett seems to know her stuff, but she doesn’t engage in anything that feels gossipy. None of today’s unpleasantness creeps into the story, unless you count some pointed criticisms of the British press expressed by Prince Philip and the Queen. 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.

However, all holiday festivities were to take a dark turn when Rozie Oshodi informed the Queen that a severed human hand was found washed up in the mudflats at Snettisham Beach. The hand had no identifying marks, other than a signet ring which was still on one of the fingers. When Rozie showed Her Majesty photographs of the hand (which she'd surreptitiously taken from the crime scene), the Queen recognised another identifying mark - The Queen soon figures out not only who must have cut off Ned’s hands, but why, and where the rest of his body will be found—but not before running into danger herself. 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.

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Eat, Drink, and Be Merry: The Ultimate Guide to Celebrating Christmas with the Best Drinks Books On The Shelves New Sports Biographies and Autobiographies: Gift a Book for the Sports Fan In Your Life this Christmas The programme also reveals how the crown prince became increasingly frustrated at his role within the royal family. I was not quite as engrossed as I had been when reading the first book in the series but I did enjoy reading more about Rozie, the Queens assistant who helps her investigate. I also liked the setting of Sandringham which was well described and I found it interesting to read the anecdotes about the royal family celebrating Christmas there..

Agatha Christie meets The Crown in MURDER MOST ROYAL , the much-anticipated third 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 royal family is at Sandringham for Christmas when the Queen’s aide, Rosie Oshodi, tells her that severed hands have been discovered on a nearby beach. The Queen is able to tip give Rosie an anonymous tip for the police as to their identity, because the Queen recognizes a signet ring as having been worn by Ned St. Cyr, who used to visit Sandringham when he was a boy, many years earlier. 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 is a very entertaining series with the Queen and a handful of trusted associates solving crimes then,as obviously the Head of State doing a bit of amateur sleuthing would cause a bit of a stir, leaving clues for the police to discover and "solve" the cases for themselves. St Cyr led an unconventional, often controversial life, making many enemies along the way in the quiet, rural world of North Norfolk, where everyone knows each other's business.One imagines Christmas at the royal family’s country house at Sandringham Estate bustling with drama, but Bennett’s version raises the stakes... Bennett charmingly portrays relationships between royal family members." — Washington Post History Makers: Female Writers Dominate the 2023 William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award Shortlist The tragedy was fuelled by the king's refusal to let the crown prince marry his lover, Devyani Rana, who he met in 1989.