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Sholto Lestrade Mystery #9
Lestrade and the Gift of the Prince
Book nine in the Inspector Lestrade series.
Sholto Lestrade had never smelt the tangle o’ the Isles before Arthur, Duke of Connaught put him on the trail to the Highlands. Murder is afoot among the footmen on the Royal Household; a servant girl, Amy Macpherson, has been brutally murdered.
Ineptly disguised as a schoolmaster in his bowler and Donegal, with his battered old Gladstone, the intrepid Superintendent is impelled by a villainous web of conspiracy northwards to the Isle of Skye by way of Balmoral.
With the skirl of the pipes in his ears and more than a dram of a certain medicinal compound inside him, Lestrade, following the most baffling clues he has yet unravelled, takes the low road alone, save for the trusty yet mysterious Alistair Sphagnum in his twin-engined, bright red boneshaker. Narrowly escaping the inferno of Room 13 in the North British Hotel, Lestrade falls foul of The McNab of That Ilk and The Mackinnon of That Ilk and plays a very odd game of ‘Find the Lady’ in Glamis Castle.
Coming from Scotland Yard is no help at all to a Sassenach in trews and everyone is convinced it’s a job for the Leith Police. Threatened by ghoulies, ghosties and wee, sleekit beasties, Lestrade hears things go bump in the night before solving the case of Drambuie.
Sholto Lestrade had never smelt the tangle o’ the Isles before Arthur, Duke of Connaught put him on the trail to the Highlands. Murder is afoot among the footmen on the Royal Household; a servant girl, Amy Macpherson, has been brutally murdered.
Ineptly disguised as a schoolmaster in his bowler and Donegal, with his battered old Gladstone, the intrepid Superintendent is impelled by a villainous web of conspiracy northwards to the Isle of Skye by way of Balmoral.
With the skirl of the pipes in his ears and more than a dram of a certain medicinal compound inside him, Lestrade, following the most baffling clues he has yet unravelled, takes the low road alone, save for the trusty yet mysterious Alistair Sphagnum in his twin-engined, bright red boneshaker. Narrowly escaping the inferno of Room 13 in the North British Hotel, Lestrade falls foul of The McNab of That Ilk and The Mackinnon of That Ilk and plays a very odd game of ‘Find the Lady’ in Glamis Castle.
Coming from Scotland Yard is no help at all to a Sassenach in trews and everyone is convinced it’s a job for the Leith Police. Threatened by ghoulies, ghosties and wee, sleekit beasties, Lestrade hears things go bump in the night before solving the case of Drambuie.
248 pages, Paperback
Published April 17, 2021
4 people are currently reading
47 people want to read
About the author
M.J. Trow
150 books120 followersMeirion James Trow is a full-time teacher of history who has been doubling as a crime writer for seventeen years. Originally from Ferndale, Rhondda in South Wales he now lives on the Isle of Wight. His interests include collecting militaria, film, the supernatural and true crime.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
December 26, 2025
If you are looking for a serious turn of the century murder mystery then I should give this one a miss. If, however, you are looking for history based mystery with lots of charecters you will recognise from your history lessons or other literature that certainly doesn't take itself too seriously, then you could well enjoy this.
The author comments on events from the era as they may have been seen at the time without our gift of hindsight. He also uses some historical events as we know them with some 'authorial' licence to make for a murder mystery.
If all starts when Sholto Lestrade is called to a secret meeting with one of Queen Victoria's sons and is entrusted with an undercover mission north of the border.
This is not Lestrade as we have come to know him from Conan Doyle (and even previous books in this series) but here he is almost a cross between Peter Sellers as Clouseau and Steve Martin as Frank Drebin in Naked Gun. Humour is drawn from many sources including his misunderstanding of the Scottish accent and from the partially deaf Duchess but also is very slyly slipped in by the author about many things including a pas de deux, the Leith police, Cole Porter and even the Beatles but much more such that the reader is on alert in case he misses any.
Through all this Lestrade cleverly manages to solve the crimes in an interesting story that had me reaching for my reference book for clarification of historical events. From it I learnt the origin and meaning of an old well known phrase and found myself smiling regularly.
As I said at the beginning this won't be to everyone's taste but I really enjoyed it and look forward to continuing the series.
27th November 2025.
The author comments on events from the era as they may have been seen at the time without our gift of hindsight. He also uses some historical events as we know them with some 'authorial' licence to make for a murder mystery.
If all starts when Sholto Lestrade is called to a secret meeting with one of Queen Victoria's sons and is entrusted with an undercover mission north of the border.
This is not Lestrade as we have come to know him from Conan Doyle (and even previous books in this series) but here he is almost a cross between Peter Sellers as Clouseau and Steve Martin as Frank Drebin in Naked Gun. Humour is drawn from many sources including his misunderstanding of the Scottish accent and from the partially deaf Duchess but also is very slyly slipped in by the author about many things including a pas de deux, the Leith police, Cole Porter and even the Beatles but much more such that the reader is on alert in case he misses any.
Through all this Lestrade cleverly manages to solve the crimes in an interesting story that had me reaching for my reference book for clarification of historical events. From it I learnt the origin and meaning of an old well known phrase and found myself smiling regularly.
As I said at the beginning this won't be to everyone's taste but I really enjoyed it and look forward to continuing the series.
27th November 2025.
January 25, 2013
For me, this series of works by M. J. Trow is like a chance to order a rich dessert. I can’t do it often but I really enjoy it when I can. Lestrade and the Gift of the Prince wasn’t my favorite of the series, but it may be more my problem than anything wrong with the structure of the book. The mystery concerning the perpetrator(s) of a series of murders was so airtight that this is one of the few mysteries where I didn’t cop to the perp by the last third of the novel or immediately affirm the appropriateness when the miscreant was revealed (recreating the events mentally that may have caused me to follow a red herring or miss an “obvious” clue). In Lestrade and the Gift of the Prince, I didn’t feel either solidly on the track of the murderer(s) nor did I feel it was a wholly satisfying revelation.
That being said, there was still plenty to enjoy in this adventure. First, Trow takes Lestrade out of his comfort zone in both jurisdiction and cultural awareness by sending the good superintendent to Scotland on a hush-hush mission. One wonders how on earth Lestrade will keep things under control when he is charged to investigate a murder at Balmoral Castle without implicating any members of the royal family. Second, Trow further creates a bit of comic relief in terms of the expense account provided to Lestrade by a wealthy noble. I wasn’t sure how that part was going to come out. And third, of course, the most enjoyment within the book is Trow’s typical humor. In Lestrade and the Gift of the Prince, the author seems to drop the reins and allow conversations to run wild.
If puns are the lowest form of humor, this is Trow’s lowest book yet. Instead of some of the historical cameos which I have loved in the past, Trow introduces a victim named Amy Simple Mcpherson as opposed to the early 20th century evangelist, Aimee Semple Mcpherson. At another point, he visits a croft with a large loom where the ancestress of the proprietor is said to have woven material for Bonnie Prince Charlie. The loom was so large that it dwarfed everything else in the cottage and, since one could sit at the loom and look out across a glorious perspective, Lestrade calls it “a loom with a view.”
If you find the latter pun painful, don’t even think about the bad riddle contest. It had questions like, “What did Adam say to his wife on the first December 24th?” The answer, of course, is “It’s Christmas, Eve.” I much preferred the one about Anne Boleyn’s last words: “I believe I’ll take another walk around the block.” In addition, there is word play on the word “retire” where going “Bedfordshire” is confused with quitting work. There is also a delightful cluelessness when Lestrade understand the Sound of the Sleat (River) to be the sound of sleet (weather). Frankly, the puns are rather more interesting in this particular book in the series than the actual mystery.
That being said, there was still plenty to enjoy in this adventure. First, Trow takes Lestrade out of his comfort zone in both jurisdiction and cultural awareness by sending the good superintendent to Scotland on a hush-hush mission. One wonders how on earth Lestrade will keep things under control when he is charged to investigate a murder at Balmoral Castle without implicating any members of the royal family. Second, Trow further creates a bit of comic relief in terms of the expense account provided to Lestrade by a wealthy noble. I wasn’t sure how that part was going to come out. And third, of course, the most enjoyment within the book is Trow’s typical humor. In Lestrade and the Gift of the Prince, the author seems to drop the reins and allow conversations to run wild.
If puns are the lowest form of humor, this is Trow’s lowest book yet. Instead of some of the historical cameos which I have loved in the past, Trow introduces a victim named Amy Simple Mcpherson as opposed to the early 20th century evangelist, Aimee Semple Mcpherson. At another point, he visits a croft with a large loom where the ancestress of the proprietor is said to have woven material for Bonnie Prince Charlie. The loom was so large that it dwarfed everything else in the cottage and, since one could sit at the loom and look out across a glorious perspective, Lestrade calls it “a loom with a view.”
If you find the latter pun painful, don’t even think about the bad riddle contest. It had questions like, “What did Adam say to his wife on the first December 24th?” The answer, of course, is “It’s Christmas, Eve.” I much preferred the one about Anne Boleyn’s last words: “I believe I’ll take another walk around the block.” In addition, there is word play on the word “retire” where going “Bedfordshire” is confused with quitting work. There is also a delightful cluelessness when Lestrade understand the Sound of the Sleat (River) to be the sound of sleet (weather). Frankly, the puns are rather more interesting in this particular book in the series than the actual mystery.
February 3, 2020
I really like how this author protrays Lestrade as an intelligent, interesting man. Grow makes his chacters so believable. His books are so well written. I'm ready to read another in this series!
November 28, 2009
Lestrade is off to Balmoral and the Highlands to investigate the suicicde (or murder) of a servant. And what he finds is a conspiracy much bigger than he could have foreseen. I really love Lestrade and his foibbles.
October 13, 2007
This book is Sherlock Holmes written by PG Wodehouse with a dirty mind. Most peculiar, but rather humorous all the same.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews