The Heir
Author: Darcie Wilde
Reviewer: Sophia Rose
Rating: B+
What I’m Talking About:
A royal princess stifled in the environment of the rundown palace and her mother’s strict rules yearns for freedom. When she comes across a dead body on the palace grounds, she is determined to investigate. Darcie Wilde’s A Useful Woman- Rosalind Thorne mysteries caught my attention some time ago with their engaging characters, mystery plots, and attention to historic detail so I was more than eager to leap into The Heir, the first in the Young Queen Victoria Mystery series.
Right away, I settled into a story that was focused as much on Victoria and her downtrodden companion Jane as the mystery itself. The political intrigue, family drama, and personalities were told with a great deal of historical authenticity, but also penned with the author’s own originality to create a smooth, fascinating story.
The mystery is introduced not many pages in with Victoria and Jane out on horseback and Victoria spotting a dead body in the grounds, but the mystery is paused while the reader is introduced to the colorful cast of characters and the situation at this time for the royal family in general and, particularly, the household of the young princess. This does slow the pacing down, but it was well worth it to be thoroughly drawn into the setting and situation of the mystery.
Victoria is kept isolated by her mother, Victoire and her mother’s advisor, Sir John (and yes, I loathed this pair, so much). Her life is stifling with every choice taken from her so when she gets the chance to break loose for a bit, she takes it. Sir John’s daughter has always seemed like a dreary doormat to Victoria until the body is found and Jane proves she has an observant mind.
Jane herself feels wedged between a rock and a hard place with her ambitious, abusive father insisting she spy on Victoria and push his plans forward while at the same time Victoria wants Jane to sneak their investigation of the body past Sir John. Victoria is only fifteen, but she has dreams of the King and Queen giving her independence in her own household choices. And, in Victoria’s mind solving this murder will advance that cause because she is convinced Sir John has something to do with the victim’s death.
Darcie Wilde brought Victoria’s domestic situation and teenage years to life in The Heir. I felt the turmoil and tension the ladies felt as they sneaked about and found a way to the truth and tried to gauge by reading the adults around them what was really going on the significance behind what they were observing. I thought this would all be from Victoria’s perspective, but I appreciated getting Jane’s and a few others point of views to add more facets to the story. I enjoyed seeing how these two young ladies who started out disliking each other found a friendship of sorts in a common mission. There were some thriller qualities to this other-wise cozy mystery. There is a big twist at the end beyond the mystery reveal and left me eager to see what comes next and to see the Young Queen Victoria Mysteries press on.
My Rating: B+ Liked It A Lot
Sophia Rose
About the Book:
Destined for a life beyond her wildest dreams, born fifth in succession to the throne, and determined to get to the bottom of a most foul puzzle. The future queen becomes a rebellious sleuth when she vows to solve the mystery of a dead man scandalously discovered on the grounds of Kensington Palace—by her.
The young Victoria remembers nothing but Kensington Palace. Arriving as a baby, she has been brought up inside its musty, mold-ridden walls. Others may see the value of Kensington’s priceless artifacts and objets d’art, but the palace is a jail cell for young Victoria. Raised with an incredibly strict regimen to follow, watched at all times by her mother, the controlling, German-born Victoire, and Victoire’s prized advisor, the power-hungry Sir John Conroy, the bright 15-year-old is allowed no freedom at any time—except that which she steals or wheedles for, always in the company of Conroy’s resentful daughter, Jane.
But one fateful afternoon, Victoria slips away from her mother to ride out on her beloved gelding, Prince. With reluctant Jane in tow, the princess gallops out from the palace green. But what would normally be an uneventful trot around very familiar terrain presents the mutinous princess with a most bewildering sight—a dead man, and on the grounds of the palace, no less.
Determined to get to the bottom of the inscrutable puzzle, young Victoria is met with shocking disrespect and any number of obstacles. Sir John lies to her, her uncles and aunts join with her mother to stonewall her questions and curtail her movements. But Victoria will not be deterred. With Jane Conroy as a tentative and untrustworthy ally, Victoria’s first “case” is underway . . .
Release Date: August 26, 2025
Publisher: Kensington Books
Series: Young Queen Victoria Mysteries #1
Genre: Historical Mystery
Format(s): hardcover (384 pages), e-book, audiobook
Book Source: Publisher