Review of "The Queen Who Came In From The Cold: Her Majesty The Queen Investigates #5" by S.J. Bennett

This 5th book in the series 'Her Majesty the Queen Investigates' harks back to 1961, when the capitalist Western Bloc was in a cold war with the communist Eastern Bloc. The rivalry leads to a murder and an MI5 problem, both of which Queen Elizabeth helps resolve.

The book works fine as a standalone.



*****

Early in the story, Queen Elizabeth and her entourage board the Royal Train for a trip up the west coast of Great Britain.

Before the locomotive departs, Princess Margaret's substitute lady-in-waiting, a striking blonde called Sandra Pole, boards the train with her chihuahua Conchita.

The first evening on the Royal Train goes well, with martinis, dinner, and lively conversation.



The next morning, lady-in-waiting Sandra Pole tells Joan McGraw - the Queen's assistant private secretary (APS) - something shocking.





Sandra claims she went to get a wrap yesterday evening, looked out the window, and saw three men disposing of a dead body. The police determine the general location, search, and find nothing.



Then Sandra admits she shaded the truth. It turns out Sandra snuck into the Queen's railroad car yesterday AFTERNOON, to take a photo of her dog Conchita in the Queen's bathtub. That's when she saw the horrible event.



This time the police locate a dead body in a cistern. The victim is photographer Pavel Michalowski, who's a friend of Princess Margaret's husband, the photographer Antony Armstrong-Jones.



The Queen, who's surreptitiously helped the authorities before, becomes interested in the case. By chance, the Queen's perusal of a horse magazine gives her a clue to Michalowski's killers, and - in a roundabout way - the Queen informs the police.



That's just the BEGINNING of her majesty's involvement in the case though. The Queen learns Michalowski, who played chess, had connections with the immigrant community, and was known to help high-profile defectors escape from the Eastern bloc.



Happily, the Queen has useful connections. Her APS Joan McGraw was a code-breaker during WWII, and is familiar with the world of espionage;



and Joan's boyfriend is Major Hector Ross, Head of D Branch, MI5.



As a result, Joan gets a peek at evidence collected from Michalowski's apartment, and is able to inform the Queen that there ARE arrangements to help a defector escape from Russia. Astoundingly, the plans are tied to the Queen and Prince Philip's upcoming trip to Italy on the yacht Brittania.





No spoilers, but the Queen feels obligated to pull all sorts of strings to avoid a HUGE diplomatic incident AND to assist the defector. Her majesty's clever machinations come to involve an admiral;



naval personnel;



intelligence agents;



Italian fishermen;



the Queen Mother;



the indispensable APS Joan McGraw; and more.



All this is fun and compelling, and one admires the Queen's intelligence, spunk, and ability to dissimulate.

Her majesty's wily operations necessarily take only a fraction of her time, and the Queen spends time with Prince Phillip - who affectionately calls her cabbage and sausage;



takes her children to a point to point horse race;



performs her royal duties;



reads the briefings in her red box;



plays with her corgis; and more.



The story has unexpected twists, as expected in a good mystery. I like this series, and this book is my favorite so far. Recommended to fans of suspense stories.

I listened to the audiobook, narrated by Samantha Bond, who does a fine job.

Thanks to Netgalley, S.J. Bennett, and Dreamscape Media for a copy of the book.

 Rating: 4 stars 

Review of "Clown Town: Slough House #9" by Mick Herron

This is the 9th book in Mick Herron's 'Slough House' (Slow Horses) series, about British MI5 agents who are 'on the outs' with Regents Park and consigned to working in a decrepit building called Slough House. There the slow horses are tasked with boring paperwork in hopes they'll quit. The novels in this series are best read in order because of the continuing story arc.



*****

The man in charge of Slough House is former spy master Jackson Lamb, who might be the most obnoxious person on the planet. Lamb hurls insults at people, smokes too much, eats too much, is purposely flatulent, wears dirty clothes, has holes in his socks, and always needs a shower. Regardless, Lamb is a clever fellow, and it's hard to get one over on him.



The disgraced agents at Slough House are:

✿ Shirley Dander: Shirley has a drug problem, a hair trigger temper, and is currently in trouble for causing mass casualties at an MI5-run detox center.



✿ Catherine Standish: Catherine, a recovering alcoholic, is Jackson Lamb's assistant. Among other things, Catherine distributes the monotonous paperwork assignments to the slow horses.



✿ Lech Wicinki: Lech purposely scarred his face to obliterate a tattoo. He's currently assigned to cross-check census results against utility usage, to determine if supposedly occupied properties are empty, and potential hideaways for criminals.



✿ Louisa Guy: Louisa still mourns the death of her boyfriend, slow horse Min Harper. Louisa has been offered a job with a private security firm, and is thinking of leaving Slough House.



✿ Roddy Ho: Roddy is delusional, and (wrongly) considers himself irresistible to women. Roddy just got a hummingbird tattoo, and thinks it makes him even hotter. On the upside, Roddy is a master hacker.



✿ Ashley Khan: Ashley is the newest slow horse, and thinks she can back to Regents Park. If she did, it would be unprecedented.



✿ River Cartwright: River recently recovered from deadly nerve poison and is on leave. He's currently living with former slow horse Sidonie Baker, who was shot in the head during an operation.



Since the slow horses are never given anything useful to do, they sometimes embark on their own 'missions.' In this book, the slow horses join an off-the-books operation mounted by a group of former MI5 agents called the Brains Trust. The Brains Trust is comprised of agents Daisy Wessex, Charles Cormoran (CC) Stamoran, Avril Potts, and Al Hawke.



During the 'Troubles', the Brains Trust ran an operation called Pitchfork, during which they protected an Irish informer named Dougie Malone. Unfortunately, Dougie was a serial rapist and murderer who, while being protected, killed 13 women. Following the Good Friday agreement, the Brains Trust agents were forced to leave MI5, to prevent a scandal from erupting.

The Brains Trust agents were just following orders, and are angry about the fallout from Pitchfork. Daisy, CC, Avril, and Al are getting older, have small pensions, and live very close to the bone. But a chance for a corrective may be in sight.

David Cartwright (River's grandfather), who was once VERY high in MI5, died and left his library to Oxford College.





CC found information about Pitchfork in one of David's books, and decided to blackmail Regents Park First Desk Diana Taverna - a woman you DO NOT mess with.



Diana takes steps to take care of the Brains Trust while simultaneously getting rid of a threatening politician named Peter Judd.



River Cartwright intuits Diana's plan, and he and the other slow horses - who are always looking for excitement - decide to interfere.



There are tragic consequences, and since Jackson Lamb feels responsible for his 'joes' (even if they're idiots), he plans his own revenge.



The story gets complicated, and close attention is necessary to follow all the threads. It's worth the effort though, since the book is full of Mick Herron's fine storytelling and trademark humor.

Recommended to fans of the Slough House series.

 Rating: 4 stars