Death at Sandringham House: Her Majesty Investigates [Mass Market Paperback]

C.C. Benison (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1, 1996 | Series: Her Majesty Investigates

Jane Bee, a housemaid to Her Majesty the Queen, accompanies the Royal family on their annual Christmas jaunt to Sandringham and turns sleuth when the dead body of a woman bearing a striking resemblance to the queen is discovered.

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 370 pages
• Publisher: Bantam (December 1, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0553574779
• ISBN-13: 978-0553574777
• Product Dimensions: 4.2 x 0.8 x 7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #153,077 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best of the Three, June 1, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Death at Sandringham House: Her Majesty Investigates (Mass Market Paperback)

I really enjoyed this one. I loved the winter setting in Norfolk and the descriptions of the royal get-away residence. Loved "Margo" and "Lilibet." Very comic stuff. Benison does a great job of sending up the Brits, and giving some humanity to the over-criticized Royal Family. Great stuff!

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars another fun one from C.C.Benison, January 31, 2000

By 

Julie "feeder_goldfish" (COTATI, CA, United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Death at Sandringham House: Her Majesty Investigates (Mass Market Paperback)

Although I didn't enjoy this as much as "Death at Buckingham Palace", it was still alot of fun. I love all the slang! I grew up with a fair amount of British television and didn't find the slang hard to understand, but I think some would. It would be nifty if the author provided a glossary of some of the more obscure terms, which are also some of the funniest. I realize, though, that authors rarely do this. Once again, I found the characters interesting (although maybe a little less believable), the plot complex and hard-to-figure-out and the descriptions fun. I have to agree with some of the reviewers here in that I found the plot not as riveting as either of her two other works. Still, a great read!

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Imagine the Queen, solving a murder mystery!, September 9, 2001

By 

[e-mail] (England) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Death at Sandringham House: Her Majesty Investigates (Mass Market Paperback)

I read this book because I thought the plot would be quite interesting. It is about the Queen, solving a murder mystery with the help of Jane Bee who is a housemaid, working for the Queen. The story takes place in the time between Christmas and New Year when the Royal family spends some time at Sandringham House. But when the body of a woman that looks exactly like the Queen is found in the village the quiet days are over. Jane who is present when the body is found is interested in the case and so is the Queen, especially because the tiara the woman is wearing had been stolen a long time ago. The Queen asks Jane to keep eyes and ears open for her and soon Jane finds out that there are many suspects. But before they can solve this mystery a second body is found. This second body gives the Queen all the clues she needed, to know who the murderer is and so on New Years Eve she is able to solve the mystery.

What I really liked about this book was the story. This book is 100% fictional and not based on a true story or the real characters but I really loved to imagine the Queen in the role of Sherlock Holmes. The story itself is not about the Queen, the heroine is Jane Bee and as the reader you'll always get her point of view and insight in her thoughts only. Till the end she doesn't know who the murderer is and so the reader doesn't know either but you can guess with her who did it.

Still I rated this book with three stars because the whole story was too fantastic to be true. To start with, the idea of the Queen, discussing a murder case with a housemaid, is very strange but without this idea there would be no story so you just have to accept it. Then many suspects talked too much and too freely about what had happened to Jane. If I were a suspect I wouldn't talk to a stranger about it at all. The suspects were another problem for me. The body was found in the village but somehow it turned out that there was a link from the dead woman to almost everyone who worked or was a guest at Sandringham House and who appeared in the book. Two of the suspects even found the body the evening before it was officially found but were too afraid to report this to the police. Last but not least, the dead woman, and please keep in mind that she looked like the Queen, is described throughout the whole book as very attractive for men. Who should believe that?

It is definitly not a book I'll read for a second time, it was not a page turner but it was not absolutly boring either. That's why I rated it somewhere in the middle. There are better books to read and if you have read all of those I would recommend you to buy this book. It's nice for entertainment but it's definitly not a must read.