Peter James says Queen inspired him to set new crime novel at Buckingham Palace

Author Peter James has said the Queen inspired him to set his new crime novel at Buckingham Palace – and give her a starring role.

The writer, 77, who is one of Camilla’s favourite authors, has depicted the Queen in his latest Detective Superintendent Roy Grace thriller with the plot centring around a race to stop a killer at Buckingham Palace.

The author revealed to BBC Radio Sussex that the idea for the storyline came after the Queen wrote to him.

He said: “She wrote to me and she said, ‘when are you going to set a Roy Grace novel in London?’

“I thought, well things have not ended well for people who’ve disappeared past Queens of England.

“I’d read that there was actually a lot of chaos in the palace because they’re doing this massive 360-million-pound renovation and the sort of million different items of art from the Royal Collection of getting moved around the place.

“And I thought this would be an interesting opportunity for a group of villains inside the royal household to maybe nick valuable items and sell them on the dark web.

“I drafted a storyline, just a few lines, which I then sent to her via a senior member of the royal household.

“A week later I got an email saying HMQ (Her Majesty the Queen) absolutely laughed her head off. Loves it.”

The new novel depicts Camilla as she travels aboard the royal train when disaster strikes and it derails, and a trusted aide is shot by a sniper, leading Grace to head to the Palace to investigate.

The King also features in The Hawk Is Dead: A Killer In The Palace, which is due out in October.

He added: “What was wonderful was that many members of the royal household really liked the idea that I was setting this fictional story and featuring both the King and the Queen as themselves.

“I was given a three-and-a-half hour tour right down the basement of the palace, through all the kind of all the floors right, and up on the roof as well, where I’ve got a kind of climax scene. I learned so much about it.

“I’m a stickler for getting detail right and so I had several different members of the household read different sections of the book as I was writing.

“The Queen herself was extremely helpful.

“I have a scene in the second chapter in the book is when the King and Queen are having breakfast.

“I asked her how she had breakfast and what she ate and how it all worked.

“And she was great with that.

“I saw her last July and she said to me, ‘how’s the book coming along?’ I said, ‘Well, I’ve got you being quite heroic, Your Majesty. I have you helping people get off the royal train when it’s derailed.’ And she said, ‘I don’t know if I would be that heroic you know.’

“She’s wonderful.”

The Queen, a voracious reader and passionate supporter of a number of literary charities, previously recommended James’s blockbusters as part her Reading Room book club.

In 2021, she visited the set of Grace – ITV’s television adaptation of James’s books which stars John Simm as the troubled but methodical detective – and joked about asking for a cameo role.

She told James: “I love your books. I’ve read them all, cover to cover.”