Murder Most Royal

Letter from Author

Hello!

Thank you for picking up Murder Most Royal.

This book is the latest in the Her Majesty the Queen Investigates series. I’m pleased to say we have reached the trilogy stage! There will be more books to come, when I intend to go back in time, to insert more mysteries into the Queen’s long and fascinating life. Meanwhile, if you haven’t yet read The Windsor Knot and A Three Dog Problem, now is your chance to catch up on the Queen’s sleuthing adventures so far. Rozie gets up to some pretty interesting things too. I promise you won’t be disappointed.

Having set the first book at Windsor Castle, and then one at Buckingham Palace, I decided to travel to Sandringham this time, for a traditional royal family Christmas. To start with, I knew that Sandringham was a big house in East Anglia where the royal family liked to go shooting, but that was about it. I hadn’t realised it was near the sea, or that there was a wildlife sanctuary on its borders, or that its estate contains several farms, where the Queen and Prince Philip enjoyed experimenting with sustainable farming methods and which Prince Charles is now turning organic as fast as he can. I didn’t know this was where Prince Philip intended to retire, or why he would want to spend the last years of his life in North Norfolk. Now I know all those things, and having spent some very, very enjoyable weeks there doing my research, I quite understand the royal couple’s love of the place. The area is in fact sprinkled with celebrities who are quietly living their best life.

North Norfolk is rural, traditional and coastal. Don’t go there if your ideal holiday is the nightclubs of Mykonos. Do go there if your idea of the perfect beach is something vast and windswept and almost empty, until visited by a thousand wading birds. The county is also home to lots of fictional detectives – some of which may already be favourites of yours – and I hope my royal sleuth fits right in.*

My interest was piqued by the question of who owns our countryside, who else loves it and how do they get along? When I started researching, rewilding was a niche topic that few people I spoke to knew about. Now it’s everywhere, and I challenge you to find a British aristocrat who isn’t trying it out. I was also fascinated by the country’s houses great and small. I have invented Abbotswood and Ladybridge Hall, and had a lot of fun doing so, but Sandringham House is available to visit. You can even stay in the old head gardener’s cottage or an old water tower on its grounds.

If you would like to know more about the real-life inspirations for Murder Most Royal, along with snippets from my research about the Royal Family, then visit bit.ly/SJBennett where you can sign up to receive Royal Correspondence about the series. It only takes a few moments to sign up, there are no catches or costs.

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And if you would like to get involved in a wider conversation about my books, please review Murder Most Royal on Amazon, on Goodreads, or wherever else you share your thoughts online, or talk about it in real life with friends, family or reader groups!

Thank you again for reading this book, and I hope you enjoy the rest of the series.

With best wishes,

S. J. Bennett

*(My own favourite Norfolk-related detectives include Lord Peter Wimsey, as written by Dorothy L Sayers, whose ancestral seat of Bredon Hall was in Norfolk, and Ruth Galloway, the archaeologist from the fabulous modern series by Elly Griffiths. I highly recommend both.)