Bertie and the Seven Bodies

The eldest son of Queen Victoria, Bertie will one day be King Edward VII. For the moment, though, his primary responsibility is to enjoy himself, a task at which he excels - bedding society beauties, tormenting his long-suffering wife, and taking his royal bulk off to other people's country estates, there to shoot things, eat enormous meals, and pinch the serving maids. It is at just such an estate that the story unfolds, though this is no ordinary shooting-party, and with a killer afoot, the glittering guest-list is dwindling rapidly. Bertie greets the murders with some delight, as they allow him to exercise his passion for amateur sleuthing (a task at which he doesn't particularly excel). Lovesey wrote Seven Bodies as an homage to Agatha Christie, but he laced his classically structured puzzle with his own sly wit, gleefully poking fun at the pomposities of privilege.