Book Review: The Windsor Knot by S.J. Bennett

The Windsor Knot

by S.J. Bennett

 

I am only very marginally an Anglophile. I’m slightly interested in British history, and have been a fan of Sherlock Holmes, Doctor Who, Steed & Peel of the Avengers, and of the plays and poetry of Shakespeare for many years. But I have never been particularly interested in the Royal Family, per se.

 

None-the-less, this charming new mystery intrigued me enough to select it for the “Series Share” meeting of the libraries’ Just Desserts Mystery Fiction Discussion Group, where all the members sampled a “new” mystery series and shared our opinions about whatever we had each selected. I selected The Windsor Knot for this year’s entry. It was published in early 2021, and a second volume in the series is due by the end of the year.

 

This is a mystery, with some twists that cause it to stand out. The sleuth at the heart of the story is Queen Elizabeth II herself, but she is far from a traditional mystery solver. Set in 2016, just before and including the Queen’s 90th birthday celebrations, this story reveals that Elizabeth has been helping (behind the scenes) to solve a variety of mysteries since her teen years. As the monarch, she can’t be seen to be meddling in the affairs of the police or MI-5. So when she has a hunch, born from years of careful observation of everyone and everything around her, she sets some of her many loyal, hand-picked employees on the trail of clues, or slips carefully planned “suggestions” to the appropriate authorities on new avenues to pursue in their investigations.

 

Enter Rozie Oshodi — a young British Nigerian with a military background, who’s a newly installed Assistant Personal Secretary to the Queen. Little did she know, when she took the job, that it would include secret missions on the Queen’s behalf, to question possible murder suspects or to make contact with some of the Queen’s former allies in crime-solving. In this first entry in the series, Rosie and the Queen investigate the suspicious death of a Russian pianist who was a guest in Windsor Castle, who was made to appear as if he accidentally killed himself. But the Queen’s suspicions about an incorrectly tied Windsor Knot lead to a possible international incident…and another killing.

 

The Windsor Knot was fast-paced, with charming characters (though a bit simplistic). I do look forward to seeing where this series goes in future volumes, especially as Prince Philip has recently passed away in real life (2021), and he has a fairly large role in this first mystery novel, set 5 years ago.

[ official The Windsor Knot page on the official S.J. Bennett web site ] 

 

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Service

 

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