Pigeon Pie Mystery - book review

Indian Princess Alexandrina (nota bene, born in London) is suddenly left without any money due to death of her father, the Maharaja of Brindor.   Alexandrina, also known as Mink, is forced to make a new life for herself and her loyal servant Pooki.  Queen Victoria grants her a grace-and-favor home in Hampton Court Palace which, as the local legend reveals, is haunted by many famous ghosts (Catherine Howard and Jan Seymour). Mink spends her first weeks trying to establish herself in the new environment.  Very quickly she makes friends with three women: Lady Beatrice Fisher (dove devotee and owner of “exuberant” hats), Lady Mortfort Bebb and Countless Bessington (a widow with an addiction to ferns). They invite her to the annual Eastern residents’ picnic, during which Pooki is asked to prepare pigeon pies. During the picnic General Bagshot takes more than 3 helpings of pigeon pie and later dies.  The autopsy reveals that general was poised by arsenic and Pooki's pigeon pies are suspected as the source of poisoning. Mink does not believe that her loyal servant and friend is the murderer and she decides to solve General mysterious death. After several days of poking into private lives of the residents she discovers that many secrets and motives for committing this crime.  There are at least three persons who had more than one reason to kill the “good’ General:

Lady Bagshot (conveniently traveling to Egypt during her husband passing), American gentleman, Cornelius B. Pilgrim, or young maid, Alice Cockle. 

But was the General Bagshot murdered, did he really die from eating the pigeon pie?

 

We all agreed that this book is full of wonderful characters embedded in rich history and culture of the British empire in the years of the 19^th century. 

We specially like the ending of this book when we found out that Mink placed advertisement in the local newspaper “H.H. Princess Alexandrina, Private Detective.  All inquires to Hampton Court Palace.” This ending opens vast opportunities for new adventures of clever Princess and her dedicated servant Pooki. 

We would highly recommend this book to anyone likes novels about Victorian England enjoys good mystery.  This is a great summer reads.

We are looking forward to the next book by Julia Stuart.