Book 3 in Her Majesty The Queen Investigates series:
“hugely enjoyable in its amusing and affectionate portrait of the practical and shrewd monarch”
Third in the trilogy. A Waterstones Crime and Thriller Book of the Year 2022
December 2016 - A severed hand is found washed up on a beach next to the Queen's estate at Sandringham.
Elizabeth has become quite accustomed to solving even the most complex of murders. And though she quickly identifies the 70-year-old victim, Edward St Cyr, from his signet ring, the search for his killer is not so straightforward.
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.
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.
A Waterstones Best Crime & Thriller Book of 2022
A LoveReading Book of the Year 2022
You can listen to Samantha Bond reading a short extract from the UK audiobook edition here.
Buy here
Praise for Murder Most Royal
“beautifully researched and delicately detailed... A master craftsman at work here, and a delightful read. Highly recommended.”
“an absolute treat”
“a rich and highly compelling mystery that is sure to become a classic”
“Murder Most Royal ensures this series is one to put to the very top of your reading lists.”
“The mystery is very well done, but what makes the book so special is the queen watching her various children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren as they interact throughout the holiday and thinking pithy thoughts about all the people we know so well from the tabloids.... All in all, it’s an absolute delight”
“outrageously convincing
HM is wonderful character, full of warmth, wry humour and care for those around her. And the dogs. Rozie is a joy
A superb audiobook.”
“After the passing of the Queen I wondered how I would feel reading this book, but it brought me such joy.
Quietly funny, good humoured and insightful, the third instalment of this series may be the best yet.
Now that the Queen has gone, I hope this clever series doesn’t come to an end”
What do you give the royals for Christmas?
Present-giving at Sandringham takes place on Christmas Eve - in the German tradition that they have observed since Prince Albert’s day. But what do you give a member of the family who has everything?
If it were me, I would go for novelty socks to wear with their wellies. They love being out in the countryside, and they love a joke. Princess Anne once gave Prince Charles, as he was then, a leather loo seat, which he loved. Prince Harry made the Queen laugh with a shower cap saying ‘Ain’t life a bitch?’ They like food too. Catherine impressed them with strawberry jam she had made herself, to her grandmother’s recipe.
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.
The Windsors are a family who tend to prefer being outdoors to in, and North Norfolk has some of the best ‘outdoors’ in the country. I loved staying there for my research. It has wide open skies, sweeping beaches visited by great colonies of wading birds, huge swathes of farmland (it’s known as the breadbasket of England) and lots of little towns and villages to explore.
With its waterways and rich history of smuggling and rebellion, it’s a boon for crime novelists. PD James, Lee Child, CJ Samson, Elly Griffiths and Dorothy L Sayers have all set great murder mysteries here. I feel honoured to follow in their footsteps. I’m sure the Queen liked to tuck herself up with a hot toddy, the grandchildren, a decent jigsaw (a Sandringham favourite) and a showing of Flash Gordon (apparently her favourite festive film) in the ballroom. Instead, I gave her a severed hand on the beach belonging to someone she once knew very well, and another murder to solve …
