“The Windsor Knot” - S. J. Bennett

 (Her Majesty the Queen book 1)

👔 As a person with an above average interest in royals of all stripes, their history, and foibles, as well as a love for a good, cozy, British mystery, this series is a treat that combines both! TWK opens the morning after one of the Queen’s famous Windsor “dine and sleeps” (see Sally Bedell Smith’s book in my biography highlight for more). It is April 2016 and the Queen is 89.

👔 I can tell that Bennett has done her research with regards to the Queen. She’s got details such as neighborhood regulars (or “stalwarts” as the Queen calls them), the Queen’s habitual daily schedule, favored foods, an insider’s view of palace rooms - their history (i.e. fire damage, restoration), views, and furnishings. TWK includes mention of the real-life spy scandal that rocked the royals in the person of Anthony Blunt.

👔 Bennett’s version of the Queen has been a consummate - if secret - crime solver for decades. She confines her sleuthing to palace-related mysteries. Her MO is always plausible deniability of said sleuthing. She has one, trusted assistant private secretary whom she tasks with specific fact-finding missions, she gathers answers and drops them under the guise of idle curiosity or passing comments in conversation, to the appropriate authorities to nudge them along in their investigations. In TWK, her trusted assistant is Rozie Oshodi, whom readers come to admire. 

👔HRM limits herself to the investigatory aid of Rozie within her staff, and 1-2 trusted individuals outside; ever aware of her unique responsibilities to the British people, she insists on maintaining decorum and shies away from any public linking to the investigations. She does not pull her private secretary into the loop because “he was also convinced that, at eighty-nine, one had no possible means of understanding the complexities of the modern world. He didn’t seem to grasp that she had lived through all the decades that had created it, and she had perhaps a more nuanced understanding of it than he did.”

👔 Bennett’s portrayal of the Queen as keenly observant with a dry sense of humor, and Philip as having a caustic humor, seem entirely in keeping with what we can glean from their public appearances.

👔 In TWK, a young, Russian pianist has been found dead in his room at Windsor under the most unusual circumstances. MI5 are convinced a nefarious Russian sleeper cell has been activated on HRM’s own staff. The Queen privately scoffs at the very idea, but is treated like a doddering old granny rather than a head of state. So, HRM is forced to undertake her own, surreptitious investigation. The Queen is the mastermind, but she always allows the Met and MI5 to take full credit.