The Windsor Knot: A Novel (Her Majesty the Queen Investigates Book 1)

What a delightful, smartly written whodunit, full of humor and wit. To that, add the inner workings of Windsor Castle. Definitely a fun read for any Anglophile and/or armchair sleuth.Queen Elizabeth, just shy of her 90th birthday, receives the unfortunate news that a young aspiring Russian pianist was discovered dead in his quarters, just upstairs. How can this be? Everyone is double-vetted before they're permitted overnighting at the castle. He was such a vibrant young person, only a matter of hours ago. She had even danced with the handsome young man and now he was gone. MI5 and the local constabulary are soon on the case and making some assumptions which put a kink in the queen's curls. A closet sleuth herself, she starts drawing upon her own assets to get to the bottom of the death. However, she must always appear above the fray and not interfering, lest her minions start questioning their own better judgement. She along with Lagosian Rozie, her private assistant, quietly go about their own covert investigating. Initially, Rozie is a bit uncomfortable keeping this activity secret from her boss who happens to be the Queen's private secretary, Sir Simon Holcroft. But eventually, she embraces her role and is eager to assist the Queen, even if it places her own life at risk.I thoroughly enjoyed author S. J. Bennett's writing style. She drew on the news of the day to help frame the story. Her knowledge of the royal inner workings, was deftly displayed and humorously described. The scene descriptions are interesting and aid the reader's imagination. As good as this story is, I am eager to start the next book in series, "All the Queen's Men".

The millions of us who enjoy reading detective and mystery fiction are nearly always delighted to see a new series take off with a flourish, introducing us to a hitherto unknown investigator and, if we're especially lucky, to some new twists on our tried-and-true standbys: The Locked Room, The Least Likely Suspect, or The Shocking Finale among many other memes of the trade. Personally, I always enjoy best mysteries that involve actual people, living or dead, making it seem that they are crime-fighting while in the middle of their more public pursuits.S.J. Bennett has presented us with a magnificent specimen of this favorite type of mine. The Windsor Knot's subtitle is Her Majesty the Queen Investigates, and indeed the heroine is none other than Queen Elizabeth II, aided and abetted by a series of aides, servants, and officials whom she presses into service. The action takes place in April 2016 at Windsor Castle, where the Queen is preparing to celebrate her ninetieth birthday while staying busy with other royal duties like entertaining President and Mrs. Obama, "doing her boxes" full of government papers she is required to read and sign, receiving her ministers and discussing policy with them, and making plans for the next few months' ceremonies and public events. In the middle of all this activity she holds a "dine and sleep" party during which one of her guests is found dead in embarrassing circumstances.Since the Queen is nearly ninety in this book she doesn't do a lot of investigating herself, relying instead on some intrepid assistants and her own common sense in assessing what they report back to her. Eventually she and her helpers solve the mystery in a satisfying conclusion. Throughout the book hints are dropped about earlier criminal investigations in which the Queen has taken part, beginning when she was a very young girl. Undoubtedly these hints point Bennett's readers to several more yet-to-be-published novels, helping to build up our anticipation. In my case it certainly works.This is not the first mystery series in which Elizabeth II has featured as an investigator. In the 1990s C.C. Benison published Death At Buckingham Palace, Death At Sandringham House, and Death At Windsor Castle, all relating crimes which the Queen solves with the help of one of her maids. They were a lot of fun to read, too, but I think S.J. Bennett's tale is better written and more clever.

An easy read with lots of interesting history and detail. Looking forward to reading SJ Bennett's next book. I would like to think the Queen was as interested as portrayed.

I was just looking for a cozy-ish murder mystery, but right away found myself in the lushly imagined world of Britain's Royal family. The mystery unfolds slowly, allowing space for the true nature of this book -- beautifully detailed historical fiction with characters that are immediately engaging and vivid. Binged through this book and the next. Can't wait for #3 in the series!

This book is so unique in multiple fronts. First the Queen as the protagonist leads to so many different aspects than a traditional cozy- a famous detective, one working behind the scenes and taking no credit. It’s hard not to hope the real Royal wasn’t just as charming and personable as she’s depicted here. Another fun aspect to this book was it had some features of espionage thriller that made it that much more fun. Looking forward to reading more in the series

When a guest at Windsor Castle is found dead in his room after a dinner party, Queen Elizabeth sets out to find out why. Despite being the leader of much of the free world, this isn't as easy as you might think. There are plenty of people in her circle who would rather protect her than work with her. However, despite her advanced age, she's smarter then most of them, and smart enough to be subtle about her investigations. With the help of her young aid, she sets out to solve the crime

Very interesting story. Liked the references to the royals. Gave insight into lives of family and how household is run

I thought the premise of the book was very interesting and overall I enjoyed it very much, especially since you get a bit of a look behind the curtain of the Palace, but it did not hold my attention as much as I thought it would. Of course that could have also been the fault of my new puppy, and not so much the book. I will definitely get the next one in the series and hope we get to know the characters a bit better. Perfect read for a rainy weekend with a nice cup of coffee.

I found this book recommended online for people who has enjoyed Richard Osman’s The Thursday Murder Club, and was sufficiently amused by the concept of the nonagenarian Queen as a secret mystery-solver that I snapped it up.And it is just fun. We’re aligned for much of the story with the new Assistant Private Secretary - a person with a normal background who somewhat unexpectedly finds herself working for The Boss - and that helps to reveal the world of Her Majesty and her subtle frustrations and attempts to help along.There are lots of little facts and elements that feel like the author has definitely done the homework on the royals, and the plot is well constructed and develops in the classic mystery novel style.I don’t think it’s in quite the same league as Richard Osman’s novel, but that doesn’t matter as I found it a delightful bit of escapism and will certainly pick up the sequel when it’s published next year.

I bought this book on a whim... it is one of the best books I have read this year( and I've read many) The story-line is pacy and holds the interest of the reader...it helps to have a knowledge of royalty, but most folk do... so enjoy it! its graet

So, this isn't quite historical fiction, but it's mainly set at Windsor Castle, so I'm going with it. The Windsor Knot was in the Kindle sale for 99p, and I decided to try it out on a whim, and I'm pleased I did. What I initially thought to be a cosy-mystery is a bit more than that and the plot becomes more and more complex as the queen wades through the information available to her.What I really enjoyed was the way the author managed to move the queen through the duties of her day to day business and still find time for her to be thinking more than the people at MI5.Set in 2016, just before her 90th birthday, this book is very much centred around the queen, and the people she trusts who have far more freedom than she does to get to the people and places she needs information about. There are no end of false leads and the two main characters, that of the queen and her personal secretary, Rosie, are well-constructed and engaging. And, although he only makes the odd appearance - Prince Phillip is a delight as well.If you're looking for a (reasonably) light-hearted murder-mystery that's well-grounded in today's world, then I would recommend this, and for 99p, it's an absolute steal. Not my usual read but a delight all the same.

The Windsor Knot is the first novel in S.J. Bennett’s series to feature Queen Elizabeth II in an investigative capacity, albeit on the down-low. It’s certainly an original set-up and for the most part I found it a witty and unexpectedly charming novel with the voice of the Queen captured impressively well and the author obviously having done a decent bit of research into life within the royal household. However the Queen and her humorous interactions with Prince Philip quickly prove to be the highlight of a novel in which I found the mystery itself hard to follow.Spring 2016 and Charles has hijacked the latest one of the Queen’s regular ‘Dine and Sleep’ events at Windsor Castle and invited a Russian contingent in order to curry favour for one of his ‘pet projects’. The next morning the body of Maxsim Brodsky, the young Russian pianist brought along by a guest to provide the entertainment, is discovered dead in a rather comprising position. The Queen’s long-serving Private Secretary, Sir Simon Holcroft, is determined to protect her from the unsavoury details but when pressed he mentions that MI5 are thinking that Putin could be behind it, with a sleeper spy having been planted in the ranks of the household staff. The Queen decides to look into matters herself and unbeknownst to Sir Simon it’s not the first mystery she’s been involved with and discretely steered in the right direction. The Queen’s Assistant Private Secretary of six months, Rozie Oshodi, is about to discover another requirement of her role as she soon finds herself doing the legwork. Brought up in a London council house. a former army Captain and with a spell in the City behind her, thirty-year-old Rozie is unfazed by anything.The Queen sends Rozie off to interview people and find out things but doesn’t really elaborate on her reasons why, which I found weren’t always obvious and this made the mystery hard work to follow. Furthermore there are a numbers of characters referenced who we never meet or are simply name-checked making it quite hard to remember who they are, let alone how they might be involved in what becomes a rather convoluted affair. Ultimately I found it a bit of a slog to push through to the finish and it was the endearing portrayal of the Queen (“the Boss” to her staff) that kept me reading. Hopefully in the follow-up novel the mystery element will be as compelling as the exchanges between the Queen and Prince Philip are and the Queen might actually let Rozie (and readers) in on her line of thinking! Overall I didn’t find the book gripping and with the lack of urgency and negligible suspense it has the feel of a lightweight novelty read.

What a great idea for a book - making our amazing Queen a sleuth.Totally pulled it off.Loved it.