This is my first book by the author so I went into reading it with zero expectations.
‘The Windsor Knot’ is a mystery/crime story which features Queen Elizabeth II as someone who secretly solves crimes while carrying out her royal duties. After a delightful evening with guests at Windsor Castle, one of the queen’s guests is found dead in his room and no one is quite sure of how this could have happened under the watchful eyes of the security team at the castle. The police are called in to investigate but the queen also does her underground work with the help of her newly employed assistant Rosie, a British Nigerian and ex-military officer. After several misconceptions on what actually took place that night, the mystery is finally uncovered with the help of the queen of course.
A few pages into reading this book, I was so sure it was going to be a five star read because of the perfect pace and humor that was sprinkled over almost every situation even when the story is about uncovering the cause of death of a young man. My favorite character (and he is supposed to be a minor character in this story) was Prince Phillip, the queen’s husband. I have always been fascinated by his character (in real life) and in this story he was hilarious. I also like the fact that Rosie was of Nigerian heritage and reminisced about her recent trip to Lagos to attend a cousin’s wedding. This made the story more relatable and interesting. However, the second half of the book became a big drag and I couldn’t believe I was reading the same book. There was too much back and forth with the investigation and the pace became so slow I was tired of waiting for the next big thing to happen. I struggled to finish reading it while hoping that it would pick up again and it never did. I have never been big on crime stories but I had believed that this one would be one of those rare ones. Unfortunately, it didn’t do it for me either. If you love mystery and crime, you may like this one but if you are like me, I doubt if you would.
Rating: 2.5 Stars
Published: March 9th 2021 by William Morrow (first published October 29th 2020)
Pages: 288
Genre: Mystery
The Author:
SJ Bennett was born in Yorkshire, England in 1966, and lives in London. An army child, she grew up travelling around the world. Her first novel was published when she was 42, after a varied career and lots of procrastination. She is the award-winning author of several books for children and teaches and podcasts about writing.
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