If you are a fan of espionage fiction, this is your jam! It begins on the Royal train, where Princess Margaret is accompanied by a most unsuitable lady in waiting. This woman drinks far too much, seems dumber than a sack of hammers, and has brought an extremely disagreeable chihuahua along. Of course it is this unreliable witness who is looking out of a train window at just the moment that a couple of men are disposing of a body. It takes some time to get her story sorted out, but the Queen knows just who to ask to narrow down the location.
Her Majesty and her assistant private secretary, Joan, undertake an investigation, culminating in a Russian defection which intersects with the Queen's Royal Tour of Italy aboard the royal yacht. As I learned in an earlier volume, Joan is romantically involved with the head of MI5. Bennett writes a tense, propulsive plot, worthy of Ian Fleming or John Le Carre (both of whom are mentioned as authors of books being read by a courtier and Prince Phillip).
At first it is a moral quandary—the Queen cannot be seen to assist in a defection nor can the royal yacht be used to achieve it. But Her Majesty is a very moral woman and she cannot enjoy her tour while knowing that two people will be killed because it doesn't suit her to help them. Her worry as the events play out is palpable.
An enjoyable entry in this imaginative series.
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