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, betting on sporting events, 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 goose the occasional serving maid. It is at just such an estate that the story unfolds, though this is no ordinary shooting-party. The guest-list, of course, is glittering, featuring a famous lady explorer, a beautiful actress, and several gentlemen known to be good with guns. Unfortunately, the guest-list dwindles rapidly, as one member after another turns up dead, but Bertie greets the murders with a certain 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, irresistible wit, gleefully poking fun at the pomposities of privilege. A Prince of Wales Mystery