Setting many cats among many pigeons

 

Poor Queen Victoria is 80 and really not amused this time. Just as work is beginning on the extension that will become the Victoria and Albert Musuem, a man is found dead at the construction site. Luckily for her, the museum detectives, Daniel and Abigail Wilson, are available to take the case. This is the 8th book in the "Museum Mysteries" series.

When the body of museum pottery curator Andrew Page is discovered at the museum construction site, Queen Victoria becomes concerned that the negative publicity and scandal will taint the memory of her beloved dead husband Albert.  She calls in the Museum Detectives to investigate. As Daniel and Abigail begin to investigate the dead man's life, they discover many possible motives for murder: someone is stealing from the museum's budget; Andrew has many mistresses which his wife knows about but can't be too happy about; and Andrew's German brother-in-law has been staying with him and relations between Germany and England aren't too friendly at this point in time. There are many routes to investigate, all while the police chief remains incensed that these "amateurs" are stealing his limelight.

The story and setting were quite intriguing, but I thought the story got bogged down at times by all the history lessons. There were long passages about the history of the Victoria and Albert Museum, how museums are funded, the English/German/Boer conflict in South Africa, Queen Victoria's children, etc. It was also a bit annoying how smug Daniel was when he was waving around a letter from the palace instructing people to talk to him with regards to the murder case. The middle of the book got quite muddled and off-track, I thought, but the resolution was satisfying.

I received a copy of Murder at the Victoria and Albert Museum from NetGalley