Customer Reviews

The Murder of Princess Diana

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I was very sceptical of the quality of this book when I first heard of it, my reading of it has confirmed my feelings.
Mr. Botham spends 288 pages going over the events of the Princess' life and death and how it must've been, in his view, murder.
He has an extensive bibliography but no footnotes to tell you who, or which book, provided each bit of information. Any serious collector of Royalty/ Diana books will recoginze many titles, some of them not at all friendly to the late princess. I also found irritating the extent to which senior officials, well placed sources, and all sorts of others all anonymously confided in the author- this amounted to a large portion of the story at times.
To save time you can pretty much skip reading pages 30-152 as there is nothing new in the section titled "The Marriage", just a lot of recycled Charles and Diana bashing, sure to offend many. Botham even brought up the old Prince Harry fathered by Hewitt story, claiming to have seen in Hewitt's home, in his bedroom (p.80), there is only one picture displayed- of Prince Harry. He implies that this must mean the rumors are true although even James Hewitt himself denies the possiblity.
As for the rest of the book, unfortunately largely supported by those anonymous tipsters and no documentation, there is a lot of very interesting stuff about how the CIA, MI6, French agencies had to have had something to do with her death and how/why they would've pulled it off. It's all very interesting reading, some of it I have read/ heard before (including the Prince Charles had a hand in it bit) and even at least somewhat plausible given that some of these people are known to have attempted such things at times. I didn't care for the way Botham uncritically accepts the pregnancy legend as fact or the way he'd alternately use Mohamed Al Fayed as evidence or brand him as a liar, all to prove whatever point he wanted to make at that time. I really didn't like the way he claims that Diana's friend Rosa Monckton might even have been an MI6 agent secretly out to get something on her. For that one to be true the lady must still be undercover, acting as Diana's friend, what would be the use in that?
Large parts of the details of the official investigation (or lack of one) are true, or at least likely. Entirely too much of the rest of the book could be- it's just that there's so much unsupported hearsay that bothers me.

Though I don't agree with some major points in the premises laid out, I wanted to commend the author for putting out the murder stance in a backed-up logical way. It is a sham to not acknowledge that Diana was revered by many but to a small faction she was a MAJOR nuisance.
I don't think that Diana was pregnant OR planning to marry Dodi. I agree that Diana wanted revenge for the humiliation that she suffered- and she could do this by her "scene stealing humanitarianism".. But to think that she would get engaged to a playboy who had broken up with his fiance a few weeks prior- , who had drug problems and a checkered past? No way. Dodi's father has plenty of reason to espouse this theory because he was the engineer who set up this friendship in the first place. Look at the pictures of Diana on the Jonikal- she is not gayly hypnotised by the festivities- she looks like she's killling time.There were plenty of dynasties that Diana could have hooked up with- she didn't need Dodi's hand to legitimize her. It's just not believable.
That said, the rest of the theories ring true; the supposed drunk driver- Henri paul was on the MI5 payroll, and he was a light drinker who had NO signs of drunkedness- watch the tape. Yet his blood alcohol test says that his blood alcohol level was 3X over the limit- oh and yes contained carbon monoxide- indicative of a suicide- somebody simply switched the blood tests with another guy at the morgue that night.Additionally, the blueprint of the "murder crash plan" was outlined to others at another time, it is acknowledged in the dark force circles that making a car crash look like an accident is a very effective assasination method.The road that the death car traveled on- has numerous cameras poised on it- are we to believe that evry single security camera was off that night? P'shaw. Also, why did Henri Paul take that roundabout route , why were the security proedures in place discarded at the last minute- after Henri Paul had a little tete-a-tete at the Ritz with Dodi? ( at around eleven, after Dodi and Diana had enjoyed some wine with dinner- I think between the two of them they just didn't smell the rat that was there. )

I thought this was a pretty good book. I disagree that Princess Diana would not have married Dodi. I believe she felt a little desperate at this point. She desperately wanted another child before it was too late. And I believe Dodi was perfect for her. Dodi had done a few things in the past when he was young as alot of people have done. Also, remember she was scheduled to go back to London the day she died but did not go back because Dodi wanted her to stay. This one point makes me believe that she knew why he wanted her to say (proposal of marriage). If she was not interested, she would never have cancelled her plans to go back to London. Some people want the public to believe she would never have married him because that was one of the BIG reasons why she might have been 'eliminated'. I have read TONS of material about her accident and am not convinced that it was an accident. But I don't believe anything will ever come of it!

I love this book (and the movie that closely followed the book). It is
just about what I'd figured it out, too. It could not have been a simple
"accident" because too much evidence disappeared, bungled investigations,
etc. She had a pretty miserable existence during and after her marriage
ended, afraid for her life and pursued constantly. Such a sad ending for
such a truly beautiful woman who rightly should have been Queen one day.
May she have peace now, that she didn't have in real life.

YES, I most defintley believe that there was a cover up and consiprisy in Princess Diana's death. I believe without a doubt that she was murdered. Diana was more loved and popular than the Royal family, she was in love with a muslim and maybe pregnant. She was the peoples Princess, therefore she had more love and power than the Queen and Prince
Also she had information ( hidden ) that was removed, never to be found, by the Royal family, this information would have greatly embarressed and brought Prince Charles and his family down, The Royal family where afraid of all her information, this is absolutely a FACT, so how can this be ingnored ?

She was everything the Royal family could never be, Loving, Kind , and Giving, loving her sons enough that against the Queens wishes, Diana gave birth in the hospital, that was a firt for the Royal family. I have researched and read about this for 10 years now, and she was indeed murdered.

When i finished reading this book i was entirely conviced that Princess Diana was murdered. All the facts add up and nobody can deny that her death took some heavy weight off some people's shoulders.
The way the author presents all the evidence was amazing to me because i always thought that the theory of Princess Diana assassination was just that, a theory, but now i know that they're really lots of facts backing up that theory.
This book is very interesting and i highly recommend it.

I enjoyed this book, and I thought the author did an excellent job on research and presentation. From the moment I learned of Diana's death in Paris, I thought there was much more to it than just a simple automobile accident. I was especially interested to read about Henri Paul's post-crash blood test. Diana was supposed to have died as the results of a drunk driver at the wheel of her car. Yet, this was exposed as false when Henri Paul's blood sample was found to contain a huge amount of carbon monoxide but no alcohol. A major issue that gets ignored by those wanting to dismiss the whole suspicious circumstances surrounding her death. How can Diana have died as the result of a drunk driver, when her driver was not drunk?
Yet, the author does a great job on covering other issues relating to incidents before, during and after the crash. A lot of questions are answered in a logical manner.
A great enlightening book for anyone that suspects Diana's death was more than an innocent automobile crash.

Despite the front cover blurb, which proclaims that this book will reveal the "truth behind the assassination of the century", I fear that those looking for any definitive answers or new insights into this ultimate conspiracy theory will be sadly disappointed.
Much of this admittedly entertaining and well-written book is a mere recounting of the story of Charles and Diana as we already know it, and here the author's uncritical adoration of Diana and his readiness to absolve her from any responsibility for the ills that beset her raises a doubt about his impartiality in the investigation which makes up the second part of the book.
The "investigation " into the circumstances of the crash turns up plenty of facts and unanswered questions (many of which were new to me), but the author's habit of accepting uncorroborated, conflicting, circumstantial or anecdotal evidence when it suits his case and rejecting it (because it is uncorroborated etc) when it runs contrary to his view further diminishes the credibility of his research.
Notice that I said "the credibility of his research", and not "the credibility of his findings". There are, in fact, no firm findings; ultimately Noel Botham does not provide a coherent and believable theory of what actually happened on that night and instead leaves us with a mass of unanswered questions and innuendoes.
Which is exactly where we were before.

This is a fascinating book with all the facts as I had heard them & it is worth the read.

Diana Spencer embodied beauty, class and elegance. Her sophistication and grace captured the hearts of the world. Her life was cut short tradically. Was Diana's demise a simple accident or was it a well calculated government assassination to make her go away?

In "The Murder of Princess Diana" Noel Botham calls Diana's death "The Murder of The Century" and he has Coutnless theories to make you consider that to be true. The modified route Diana's Mercedes took the night she died, the fact that she was taken to the hospital the longest distance from the crash sight and how the police used the paparazzi as an explination for what happened.

Various conspiracy theory books about the late princess have been written over the years. The main point of difference for this book is that it is well researched and very believable in the way the timelines are laid out. Diana clearly had enemies but were there vendettas to the level that they wanted her dead? We will most likely never know.