THE QUEEN AND I

Bestselling author Peter James returns with a novel at the request of his new royal muse

- AMY BIELBY

Ten years ago, Peter James was delighted to learn that the Queen was one of his biggest fans. Fast-forward a decade: he and Camilla have become close friends, and the prolific author has yet another new book hitting shelves - thanks in no small part to Her Majesty.

It all began in 2015, when Peter saw a photo of Camilla sitting in her office with a collection of his Roy Grace detective books in the background. Naturally, he was elated.

"I wrote her a letter. I just said, 'Thank you so much, delighted.' She wrote me a really chatty, handwritten letter back and we started our correspondence," he tells Hello! Canada. "I would send her every new book, and she'd always [reply]. And then, in 2019, she wrote to me, 'When are you going to set a Roy Grace novel in London?' So I thought, 'What better place than Buckingham Palace?'"

That's how The Hawk Is Dead: A Killer in the Palace came to be. With the plot sketched out – a thrilling story in which the Royal Train is derailed with the Queen aboard – Peter sent his idea to a senior member of the palace. "A week later, I got an email saying she laughed her head off. Absolutely loved it."