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A Three Dog Problem: The Queen investigates a murder at Buckingham Palace

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A Three Dog Problem is an admirable follow on from The Windsor Knot. It's a fast-paced plot which is liberally littered with red-herrings and a dash of palace conspiracy. Bennett does well to pull off this pretty outlandish double mystery, and as usual, QEII comes out on top. Whilst your initial impressions of a monarch might not include solving crimes; this reigning monarch has a wonderful array of sleuthing abilities! 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. As she begins to look into this, a body of a disliked housekeeper is found at the Palace's swimming pool, her ankle deeply cut, causing her to bleed to death. An accident, surely? But it's strange that her death happens as the Queen begins to look into the painting's disappearance and several of the female staff, including her trusted secretary, Rosie, receive nasty poison pen letters... But. What if Her Majesty did? As Bennett has written, “If the Queen wanted to, she would make a great detective, with access to any expert she wants and a deep understanding of her world of politics and palaces,” where, of course, all the real crimes take place.

A Three Dog Problem — SJ Bennett

Unknown to most people, Queen Elizabeth is an amateur sleuth who's been solving mysteries since her father was on the throne. Cynthia Harris, the murder victim, had received some of the poison pen letters, along with the high-ranking Keeper of the Privy Purse’s secretary and at least one other. Rozie starts receiving the letters, too, ones that are racist and sexist, trying to get her to leave her job. The Keeper’s secretary does leave her job and leaves London. Mrs. Harris is murdered. Rozie doesn’t desire to leave her job or be murdered, so she must persevere in the face of these scare tactics and keep investigating for the Queen to find out who is behind them. The letters, the Queen’s painting, and the nefarious profiteering scheme appear to be connected, but proof is needed. There are suspects, but without the proof, the evidence, of their wrongdoings, it is unwise to approach them and tip the Queen’s hand.

Sometimes you read a book that just captures your imagination and makes you smile in such a way you can't stop thinking about it. You tell everyone you speak to about it. You buy people copies as gifts. In the wake of a referendum which has divided the nation, the last thing the Queen needs is any more problems to worry about. But when an oil painting of the Royal Yacht Britannia - first given to the Queen in the 1960s - shows up unexpectedly in a Royal Navy exhibition, she begins to realise that something is up. From the latest Scandinavian serial killer to Golden Age detective stories, we love our crime novels!

A Three Dog Problem by SJ Bennett | Waterstones

Queen Elizabeth's courtiers think she needs to be shielded from the real world, but Her Majesty shows her mettle again and again. I look forward to reading the further adventures of Rozie and the Queen. I listened to the audiobook narrated, once again, by Jane Copland and her familiar British accent added to my listening experience. The Top 23 Christmas Cookbooks for 2023: A Smorgasbord of Inspiration for a Happy Foodie This Christmas

LoveReading Says

Written before the second world war, this Poirot novel is full of tightly wound characters hiding seething emotions. The plot contains masterful misdirection about place and time, but its success was also due in part to its depiction of summer sun, silk pyjamas, blue skies and sandy beaches. By the time it came out in 1941, the peacetime Devon coast where it’s set had become a fantasy world. The victim is obvious from the start, as so often in Christie’s novels, but by whose hand will she die, and why? And what about those silk pyjamas?

A Three Dog Problem: Her Majesty the Queen Investigates, Book 2

There’s much to hang onto in this cozy mystery with a twist of regalit, on the who dunnit level. The intricacies of Palace life, the Queen and her relationship with her dogs, particularly when pondering a situation is a Three Dog problem. I enjoyed the throwaway a lines about real people (Camilla’s charitable work with abused women and her being hysterical in a good way!) Am going to honest with you, dear reader: I am not entirely sure where I sit on this. I like this, but up to a point. There's several things that make me stop from enjoying this as much as I did with Windsor Knot, and the worst part is that I can't exactly put my finger on what the problem is.

Customer reviews

A staff member has been found dead beside the palace swimming pool. A favorite painting that hung outside QEII's bedroom door is missing. And now anonymous and threatening letters are mysteriously being distributed in the palace.

A Three Dog Problem by SJ Bennett - LoveReading A Three Dog Problem by SJ Bennett - LoveReading

Also, I wanted to include a link to The Royal Collection Trust, which is such a big part of A Three Dog Problem/All the Queen’s Men. Prince Phillip mentions in the book that there are over 7,000 paintings in the royal collection, and as you explore this link, you can see how much more there is besides that. I’m here to trace a painting,” she explained. “One of Her Majesty’s. We know where it is, but not how it got there. It went missing a while ago.” “Stop!” Hudson raised his hand. “Stop right there. I can assure you it didn’t. We don’t lose things in the Royal Collection.” “I think you do,” Rozie said firmly, meeting his eye. “Sometimes.” “Very occasionally. Hardly ever. I resent the implication that we did.”" Both books are a lovely take on a woman who is arguably one the most famous and yet most unknowable women in the world - the little nods and touches that we know to be true (names of ladies-in-waiting, famous anecdotes) merge with things that feel so similarly plausible but turn out to be fictional that at points the two are totally entwined.

Tijdens haar onderzoek naar de verdwenen kunst stuit Rozie op een gespannen sfeer onder het personeel, ontvangen haatbriefjes en een handel in afgedankte goederen. Er lijken weinig verbanden te zijn, maar na enkele nieuwe ontdekkingen hebben de dames toch weer een spoor te pakken. Rozie voert het onderzoek uit, maakt zichzelf niet overal even populair en begint misschien ook gevaar te lopen, de Queen stuurt haar achter de schermen aan, voert discrete gesprekken en ziet mogelijke verbanden. Kunnen ze deze zaak samen tot een goed einde brengen? Artemisia Geniteschi is the 17th century artist whose paintings are featured in one of the mysteries of A Three Dog Problem. In a book where the two main characters are strong, resourceful women I don’t think the choice of this artist was in any way random. She was certainly ahead of her time in what women were allowed to accomplish, and her story is as exceptional as her paintings.

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