Death at Windsor Castle: Her Majesty Investigates

Industrious housemaid Jane Bee is at it again in this third novel in a series featuring Her Majesty the Queen as a very polite inquisitor in deaths that are not what they seem in the various royal houses. C.C. Benison has set up the novels so that Jane Bee, a Canadian college student working for the royal family as a lark, ostensibly serves as Watson to the Queen's Sherlock. However, Jane is much quicker off the mark than Watson ever was, and the Queen, old dear that she is, is not quite as prescient as Holmes; yet, the Font of All Justice is just as believably steely-eyed in the pursuit of truth.

In this instance, Ascot Week at Windsor provides the setting, and Jane sets out to find who was rude enough to slaughter royal curator Roger Pettibon in the Throne Room of Windsor Castle. Strawberries, glamorous hats, and Eton schoolboys all play a role in helping Jane solve the crime. Benison's strength is her ear for Britspeak and the occasional hilarious aside in how the English amuse themselves with the summer onslaught of foreign tourists. (The Queen's footman, whose primary responsibility is looking after the Corgis, admits to one heat-flushed Southerner that a footman, of course, takes care of the royal family's feet.) At times, though, Jane has the grace of a bull in a china shop, or, more accurately, a North American abroad. And, Benison could make better use of minor characters, such as the chip-slinging single mother whose daughter gives Jane the clue she needs to solve the crime. They are often whisked away before the reader can appreciate their subtleties or contradictions. Still, Benison's efforts are solid enough and Death at Windsor Palace makes a nice addition to her series. --K.A. Crouch