A Death in Diamonds by S.J Bennett
This is the fourth book featuring Queen Elizabeth II as an
amateur detective doing murder investigations in Britain in 1957. Bennett gives
us a plot focusing on a brutal fetishistic double murder in a London mews house
that has been used as an illicit hideaway for upper-crust patrons of an escort
agency.
The queen is trying her best to handle the loss of her
empire after WWII and suspects that her efforts to renew the reputation of
England in foreign lands are being sabotaged by some members of the old guard. She brings into her staff and her confidence a
bright young woman who had a past with the code breakers during WWII, but that does
not keep the royal family from being sucked into a possible involvement with the
double murders. Scotland Yard moves at a glacial pace, and the security
agencies also seem to be lurking about. Several possible solutions pop up, but
all end up as red herrings before the final knot is untied in the last few
pages.
Bennett has a clever story, yet tells it so deliberately that
I found my interest flagging before the next new development arrives. The “mews”
twists are interspersed with too many overlong passages on England’s place in
the post-war world, palace infighting, and society backbiting.
I love almost anything set in London, but this one leaves me
lukewarm rather than wanting to read any more of the series.
I give it a 3 out of 5
P.S. Another author, Karen Harper, wrote a series of books
with the young Elizabeth I as a detective in the early 2000s. The Elizabethan ambiance
was more colorfully depicted.
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