Book Review: Murder Most Royal by SJ Bennett

Royal fans are counting the days until season six of The Crown streams across our devices. As I posited in an essay about peccadilloes and mysteries in the royal sphere, the British royal family is the gift that keeps on giving. Who doesn’t enjoy a peek behind the scenes with “might it be true” mysteries. Murder Most Royal, the third in the Her Majesty the Queen Investigates series, is set at Sandringham, in Norfolk: “Unlike the royal palaces owned by the Crown, such as Buckingham Palace, Holyrood Palace and Windsor Castle, Sandringham (along with Balmoral Castle in Scotland) is owned personally by the monarch.”

Sandringham is a private retreat, and as such, it was fascinating to see it come to life. Other than pictures of the family attending services at Saint Mary Magdalene church, their time in Norfolk is almost entirely private. During her seventy-year plus reign, the Queen spent Christmas and the first two months of each year in Norfolk. She knew the countryside and the denizens of the area intimately. Her aristocratic neighbors come to the fore in Murder Most Royal. 

It starts with a severed hand with a finger adorned with a signet ring. Rozie Oshodi, a six foot plus “striking young woman of thirty,” is the Queen’s assistant private secretary (APS). She’s the monarch’s first Black APS. Rozie has been instructed by her mother not to “mess it up,” but her mother’s strictures notwithstanding, the Queen has the utmost confidence in Rozie’s ability to discreetly and competently carry out her wishes. Rozie asks to speak with the Queen privately. On her computer, Rozie pulls up grisly images of a severed man’s hand which had washed up “in the mudflats.” The police wonder if it’s a ransom message or if there’s a connection to drug dealings: they’re rather at a loss, says Rozie, so “they’re casting the net widely.”

QUOTE

“I can save them the trouble,” the Queen said, looking up.

 

Rozie frowned. “Ma’am.”

 

“Of casting the net widely. This is the hand of Edward St. Cyr.”

 

The Queen briefly closed her eyes. Ned, she thought to herself. Dear God. Ned.

 

Rozie looked astonished. “You know him? From this?”

 

In answer, the Queen pointed to the top left-hand photograph. “Do you see that flat-topped middle finger? He cut off the tip doing some carpentry when he was a teenager. But it’s the signet ring of course . . . Bloodstone. Quite distinctive. And that carving is of a swan from the family crest.” She peered again at the final picture. The ring was a garish thing; she had never liked it. All the men in the St. Cyr family wore one like it, but none of the others had lost the tip of their middle finger. Ned must have been about sixteen when he did it, such an eager, inventive boy. That was over half a century ago.

 

“I take it he wasn’t a local drug baron, ma’am,” Rozie ventured.

 

“No,” the Queen agreed, looking up at her. “He was the grandson of an actual baron.”

Even though the St. Cyr family are old friends of the Queen, she is content to have the police conduct the investigation, “that is, until the newspapers drag her name into the matter.” The Queen is integral to the solution—and her reasoning evolves from her deep knowledge of the people involved, and the things—including four-legged things—that matter to them. The Queen was said to be very canny, closely observing the world around her with a knowledgeable eye. Everything points to the crime being committed by someone above-stairs, a discomforting conclusion for an insular community. Over the course of her life the Queen met people from every stratum of society but in Murder Most Royal, the victim, his family, and his fiancée’s family were friends and neighbors of the Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret Rose. During their childhood, they visited and played with one another: the memories of those times were not forgotten.

Rozie and a small cadre of former personal assistant secretaries to the Queen help her solve mysteries by acting as her eyes and ears. On occasion, the Queen discreetly speaks to interested parties herself. She invites Nigel Bloomfield, the head of the Norfolk constabulary, to brief her, mentioning that Rozie “is getting ready to play football. My grandson has inveigled her on to his team. Can I help?” The Queen escorts Bloomfield into a “book-lined room with a desk.” 

“So. An update,” she said. “How encouraging.” She didn’t sit down, because stand-up meetings tended to be quicker.

 

Bloomfield was still adjusting to his surroundings. He paused to look down at his trousers, where Vulcan was energetically sniffing his leg, and bent to give the corgi a reassuring stroke. The Queen had a lot of time for people who instinctively fondled the ears of friendly dogs. He straightened. “I wish I had better news, ma’am.”

The police have not recovered Edward St. Cyr’s body but he’s a missing person. The Queen is the recipient of bits and pieces regarding the investigation: she mulls over the disparate threads in her head, all the while hosting her family and guests at the traditional Christmas celebration. Something not everyone knows is that the Queen raised racing pigeons. 

The Queen caught sight of the mug that little Prince George had given her for Christmas. I may look like I’m listening to you, but in my head, I’m thinking about pigeons. Who else had she been talking to about them recently?

 

Then she remembered. Gradually, her curiosity turned to a prickling sense of dread. It wasn’t a suspicion, exactly. Just a twitch. A worry. A series of connections.

It’s the Queen’s ability to knit together “a series of connections,” that solves the mystery of Ned St. Cyr’s death. The pleasure in the solution comes from watching the deft way the Queen enables the appropriate people to arrive at the correct conclusion. 

It’s been more than a year since Queen Elizabeth II died on September 8th, 2022. Are you wondering if SJ Bennett will continue with the series? She shared, “When I started to write the ‘Her Majesty the Queen Investigates’ series, the Queen and Prince Philip were fit and well and leading active lives. Since then we have lost them both, and I hope that as King Charles III begins his reign, these books can be a warm reminder of his mother, and her extraordinary life,” reminding us that she does “have seven decades of her reign to explore.” Readers will undoubtedly look forward to the fourth book in the series which is set on the Royal Yacht Britannia.