The Windsor Knot

January 4, 2021
British children’s author Bennett (The Look as Sophia Bennett) makes her adult debut with the delightful first in a series featuring Queen Elizabeth II as sleuth. One day in the spring of 2016, the queen is hosting a gathering at Windsor Castle when a young Russian pianist is found dead in a guest bedroom. First ruled a suicide, the death turns out to be murder, and MI5 suspects it’s an inside job by a sleeper agent planted at Windsor by Vladimir Putin. But when the authorities begin questioning the queen’s staff, Her Majesty, whose loyalty to her people is as deep as theirs is to her, decides to conduct her own discreet investigation with the help of her assistant private secretary, Rozie Oshodi. Rozie is impressed with the queen’s keen observations, as well as HM’s ability to plant ideas and steer the investigation without anyone the wiser. As Rozie learns, the queen has had lots of practice. She’s been quietly solving mysteries for decades. Bennett’s depiction of the warm, wise, and witty queen and the insights into her royal life are fascinating. Fans of Netflix’s The Crown will have fun. Agent: Grainne Fox, Fletcher & Co.

February 15, 2021
It seemed like a pleasant enough soiree at Windsor Castle, but the next morning a charming young Russian is found dead in his room there, seemingly from autoerotic asphyxiation. The queen's couriers are naturally reluctant to share the sordid details with Her Majesty, but little do they understand how unshockable and mystery-savvy their sovereign is. With the help of one of her secretaries, a part of her inner work circle, Queen Elizabeth II uses her long but subtle reach, powers of observation, and decades (and decades!) of sizing up people to solve several crimes. Set in 2016, as the queen's ninetieth birthday approaches, Bennett's mystery does a good job of presenting an Elizabeth that is somewhere between the genteel dowager familiar to generations and the feistier version seen on The Crown. Her Majesty's sleuthing partner is Rozie Oshodi, whose family is originally from Nigeria. Rozie's backstory and how she became a part of the queen's service juxtaposes well against the royal trappings. The first in a series, this sometimes tells more than it shows, but mystery readers--and royalists, of course--will enjoy their audience with QEII.

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February 15, 2021
Firmly cushioned hell breaks loose when one of the guests at a Windsor Castle "dine and sleep" fails to survive the night in Bennett's amusingly decorous debut. Being Queen Elizabeth II is no bed of roses. The queen has to maintain a stiff upper lip during the most taxing moments, most of them evidently among her counselors. Windsor Castle, her favorite among her residences, is directly in the flight path of noisy commercial airliners. And now Maksim Brodsky, the pianist brought to her latest soiree by Russian oligarch Yuri Peyrovski and Masha Peyrovskaya, his beautiful wife, has died overnight. The potential scandal is compounded because shortly before the assembled company retired, the devilishly handsome Brodsky claimed dances with both distinguished architect Meredith Gostelow and the queen, and the manner of his demise strongly suggests autoerotic asphyxiation. Her Majesty is not amused. Nor does she believe the condescending assurance of Gavin Humphreys, the new head of MI5, that Brodsky's death, which he's certain is the latest in a series of humiliating assassinations of anti-Putin activists, has been perpetrated by a mole long lodged in the Windsor staff. But if Brodsky really was murdered, as a closer look at the forensics indicates, and the killer wasn't one of the queen's intimates, who was it? Since Elizabeth is in no position to do her own legwork, she enlists Rozie Oshodi, her Nigerian rookie assistant private secretary, to make discreet inquiries. But the crucial deductions are those of the 90-year-old monarch Rozie aptly calls "the Boss." The suspects are few and the mystery disappointing, but the queen makes a wonderfully self-effacing sleuth.

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Starred review from March 26, 2021

A "dine and sleep" event at the British monarchy's Windsor Castle goes wrong when a Russian pianist is discovered dead in a sexually compromising position. The timing couldn't be worse: It is 2016, and Queen Elizabeth's 90th birthday is fast approaching, with numerous celebrations planned. The powers that be are desperate to suppress any publicity about the tragedy, especially when they determine that the young man was in fact murdered. With utmost delicacy, they inform the monarch of the situation while trying to protect her from the tawdry details. What the reader soon cottons on to is that, for years, the Queen has been discreetly sleuthing and solving cases, and she is determined to take this one on. Fortunately, she has her private secretary, Rozie Oshodi, as her Watson, and together the pair discover that this is no isolated murder but instead a much more sinister, far-reaching affair. VERDICT A veritable love letter to England's current monarch, this adult debut by children's author Bennett (The Look) is a triumph full of royal tidbits and international high jinks. The pivotal character of Rozie adds just the right note of modernity, and readers will be thrilled to know that the second book in the series is due later this year. Strongly recommended for purchase.--Amy Nolan, St. Joseph P.L., MI

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