First of all, I want to address the elephant in the room and say that this book is absolutely monarchist propaganda. It is extremely sympathetic to Elizabeth and her role in the UK, and also very sympathetic to a still-alive Phillip, who is portrayed as blunt and a bit crude but not, for example, straightforwardly homophobic or racist. Great stress is laid on the amount of care the Queen has for her staff and servants, portraying it as a system of deep mutual trust and loyalty, but not delving into the power dynamics or colonialism. If you are looking for a critique Elizabeth, or of the systems of monarchy or the massive expenses (and other costs) of such a system, this is not the book for that.

However, I did enjoy the mystery and the idea of the Queen sneaking around to solves crime because all of her closest staff and colleagues think she is a delicate flower was very amusing. I like Rozie Oshodi a lot. I always love an ambitious, sassy, clever, and kind woman, and Rozie provides a much needed outside lens on the royal life, as a Black veteran who grew up in a decidedly different paygrade than even her peers among the staff. I also like the Queen as she is portrayed here, as an extremely competent old woman who has been thriving in her job for longer than most of her advisors and other professionals have been alive and yet still has to bite her tongue to preserve men's egos. [Minor spoilers] One of my favourite parts of the solving of the mystery was that the Queen not only had to figure it out, she had to determine how to give the professional investigators enough hints for them to also figure it out, while never giving away that she knew. It was a neat extra step in the solving that allowed the author to show off a bit more cleverness on her royal detective's part. It definitely rankled slightly to have the incompetant technocrat at MI5 recite the Queen's own solution back to her, but it was played well for laughs and it had a certain realism that rang true despite being frustrating. The narration also does a really artful job of switching between dozens of viewpoints so that we get insight into many characters private thoughts without spoiling anything or getting bogged down by the perspectives of minor characters for too long.

Multiple blurbs described this as "Miss Marple meets the Crown" and that's quite accurate. I bought it because I love Miss Marple and it's one of the closest things I have found in a more modern package. But also, lots of royals royaling so your mileage may vary.