Having recently enjoyed a light mystery set
in the historical Cold War era of young Queen Elizabeth,
aboard the Royal Train, I was delighted to climb back aboard
the transport. The modern era is no less dangerous and
convoluted in THE HAWK IS DEAD.
 
Her Majesty, Queen
Camilla, is travelling by Royal Train with her entourage.
They are heading to a couple of hospices and a theatre event
in the south of England. The pros and cons of helicopters
are discussed, but the train suits a larger group of staff,
and Camilla doesn’t like the choppers. I very much
enjoy the insights into the train drivers and railway
engineering, as an ambush is placed at a critical point. The
train is derailed inside a long tunnel through the South
Downs. Fortunately, nobody is badly hurt. As the passengers
leave the tunnel, they don’t know that a sniper lies
in wait.
 
Detective Superintendent Roy Grace receives an
urgent summons. One of the Royal Household staff, Sir
Peregrine Greaves, has been shot dead, and as he was
standing next to Camilla, it seems likely that Her Majesty
was the actual target. Grace is in charge of the patch of
turf, but there’s a polite war with the coppers of the
Met because Buckingham Palace is in London, plus the Royal
guards are involved. But nobody can deny that Sir Peregrine
died where he did, so that’s Grace’s case
anyway. Deciding to take nothing for granted, Grace
questions whether Sir Peregrine might have been the intended
target, and if so, why? He can’t ignore the
possibility that anti-monarchists might have wanted to kill
the Queen.
 
A few times a year, I feel highly privileged in my fiction
reading, and this is one of them – we get to walk
through Buckingham Palace, observe the massive and valuable
art collection, stroll across the lawn, and visit the
King’s drawing room. With his sidekick, Branson, Grace
is summoned to see King Charles, who is greatly concerned
for his wife’s safety. They are given free run of the
Palace grounds to question staffers, aided by the chief of
the household, Sir Tommy Magellan-Lacey.
 
Grace, with the weight of centuries of history and culture upon his shoulders, feels
star-struck but continues with his police procedural work,
telling his wife Cleo just enough to explain why he
can’t take her and their kids on a picnic. Readers
will gain the atmosphere without the cost of paying to tour
the Palace, and gain a twisty mystery to solve as well. I
felt some details were told to us a little early, providing
a motive when Grace still knew of none. Otherwise, THE HAWK
IS DEAD turns out to be tremendous fun crime fiction,
densely researched and peopled with real characters as well
as inventions. This is the twenty-first case in the Roy
Grace series, with the detective turning down promotion so
he can keep solving murders instead of hugging desks. A new
reader could start here, and those who’ve read some of
the cases can easily pick up the threads. All aboard the
Royal Train! Peter James didn’t say, but I do hope it
was mended.