Royal Whodunnits by
Mike Ashley
pbk out February 99
(Robinson)
at £6.99
Royal Whodunnits is an anthology of twenty-five short stories by individual authors. It covers a time span from 922 AD to the present day, beginning with the mysterious death of King Wenceslas and ending with an investigation into the identity of a woman purporting to be Princess Anastasia of Russia.
It is not always the case of the monarchy being the victims. Sometimes they are the perpetrators of the crime both directly and indirectly, thinly veiling their acts through legal processes. Occasionally they even take on the role of detective as in the case of Queen Elizabeth 1, and somewhat surprisingly, Queen Victoria.
Long established heroes have a fresh light cast on them: - heroes or villains? Equally the reverse is true. The established villain of history is shown to have been wrongly labelled. Perhaps!
This collection makes the reader question the accepted historical facts learned at school. Was the death of William Rufus an accident or by design? Did Davy Riccio in Holyrood escape and assume another identity? Was it Edward 11 or a substitute, Dickon the porter who met his end in an encounter with a red hot poker?
The detectives come in a variety of guises, from the famous to the unknown, from the high and mighty to the lowly.
Each of these stories is a short masterpiece. They are skilfully crafted and polished. So often, as in the vein of all good mysteries, the reader is kept guessing to the very end and is then taken completely by surprise by an unexpected twist.
My initial impression of the book from its front cover was that it would be a series of rather dry historical accounts of royal murders. It would be a book to dip into now and again whilst reading other material. How very wrong, for once having started to read it I found it difficult to stop. It made me consider the events from a totally new viewpoint. The historian in me would have liked even more detail as to where the historical facts end and the fiction begins. The "leader" to each story and the footnotes were not sufficient enough to quell my curiosity, or to enable me to decide on how true these particular versions of well known historical events are. This book is a jewel in the crown of Whodunnits whether or not you are interested in the crowned heads of Europe. It leads me to conclude that if only a percentage is true it is hardly surprising that there are so few of them left. This book is a must for your bookshelf.
Royal Whodunnits by
Mike Ashley