Interesting mystery set in 2016. A severed hand is found near Sandringham while HM Queen Elizabeth and Prince P are in residence for the Christmas holidays. Rozie (isn’t she wonderful!) is up to the task of assisting QE to find a killer. This is the weakest of the series-definitely a big change in the plotting and pace of books one and two. It meanders along and wastes time setting the reader up with background on the characters and details of ALL the clothes. I was quickly lost in too much information that I couldn’t connect to the plot that was in there somewhere.
Having said that, it is still better than 80% of the books out there. Bennett loves QE as much as we do and it shines through. The murder-y parts are secondary to QE pulling the strings as a behind the scenes crime solver; we all knew she could do anything so why not? Parts of the story were very tightly written and almost made up for the rest of it. It is well worth wading through the slow moving plot just for the banter between QE and Prince P. Now they are gone in real life, the series is even more special. Bennett is a great author and I think just faltered a bit with this one. This is the second severed hand plot I’ve encountered recently so I hope it’s NOT a trend! I award Murder Most Royal 3 stars and will keep reading the series. I was given a copy and this is my own opinion.