The Gold Dagger–winning author “outdoes himself” with this pair of “most unusual and original” mysteries set in an alternate twentieth-century British monarchy ( Publishers Weekly ). With two CWA Gold Dagger awards for his mystery novels and two Carnegie Medals for his children’s books, Peter Dickinson is one of the most acclaimed and beloved fiction authors in recent history. In this pair of mysteries featuring an imaginary royal family, and told from the perspective of Princess Louise—a precocious teenager and later a proud mother—Dickinson reaffirms his reputation as “one of the most versatile and inventive writers of mysteries” ( Los Angeles Times ). King and Joker : Princess Louise is bored at Buckingham Palace before someone starts playing pranks. But when one joke really kills, the teenage princess and her father, King Victor II, stop laughing and start sleuthing in this “exceptional” mystery ( Newsweek ). “Wry, witty, irresistible.” — Financial Times Skeleton-in-Waiting : Now a young mother, Princess Louise is on a case that takes her to Uzbekistan where a mysterious woman claims to be a Romanov royal relation. Kidnapping, conspiracy, scandal, and murder all play a part in this New York Times Notable Book, the “wonderful” follow-up to King and Joker ( Financial Times ). “Fast paced and enthralling as a good detective thriller should be but also a study of extraordinary social and psychological perception.” — The New York Times Book Review