The pigeon pie mystery by Julia Stuart: my review

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Last week I finished "The pigeon pie mystery" by Julia Stuart. I really enjoyed reading this book. It was very funny and it made me laugh a lot of times. It is evident that there is a lot of research behind this book as it reconstructed very well the historical background and the history of the place where the novel is set. The novel began by the end of the victorian era, in 1897. The maharaja of Prindur has died leaving his daughter, princess Alexandrina, a lot of debts. Princess Alexandrina is the main character of the novel. She was called Alexandrina after Queen Victoria second's name but the maharaja nicknamed her Mink because when she were a child she was found asleep between her dead mother's furs. She is a resolute, very intelligent girl and a good shot, but she couldn't let herself go, she couldn't express her feelings  easily probably because the people she loved abandoned her. When she was only a child she lost her mother. She opened her heart to a boy but he abandoned her after her father's death was shrouded in scandal. The only person who always remained with her was her loyal servant Pooki who was, as Dr Henderson once told her, her "soft spot". I loved to see the development of  their relationship during the novel. Pooki loved Mink and Mink loved her so much that, as Pooki told her: " you would not want another maid. She would not tell you the butterman's jokes, nor would she be able to save that very expensive sealskin jacket of yours from the jaws of moths".
When her father died she moved with Pooki to a grace and favour apartment queen Victoria warranted her in Hampton Court Palace. Hampton Court is the place where the novel is set. The author described it so well she made me want to visit it. In fact while I read the novel I made a lot of research and I found it was a wonderful palace.  While she was living in this palace Mink met a  lot of eccentric individuals, the palace's residents. There are a lot of characters in this novel but my favourite, by far, was Dr Henderson as he was very akward. He felt in love with Mink but it seemed that she didn't return his love.  Nothing went right for him. He made me laugh a lot when his bicycle capsized in the Thames hahaha. All went well in the palace until Easter picnic when General Bagshot died after he had eaten a pigeon pie filled wirth arsenic. A trial began (a very funny one to tell you the truth as Mr Sparrowgrass's rabbit nibbled the coroner's toes and tore round the round) and  Pooki was the main suspect because she had prepared the special pigeon pie (without eggs as the General didn't eat them.) the general ate. Mink  couldn't bear the thought of Pooki being hanged so she began her personal inquiries. As she discovered the residents'secrets I, as a reader and a non english speaker, learned a lot of things I didn't know. For example I didn't know who were the cats' meat sellers, who where the Swansea cockle-pickers, what was the english gentleman's relish and I would never have guessed who was the murderer because I didn't know what happened in the victorian age until Mink revealed it to the reader. The medical knowledge  in this novel is so extensive that I thought the author was a doctor until I discovered she referred to the Wellcome Library's collection. At the end of the novel Mink not only discovered who was the murder but when she thanked dr Henderson for hiding Pooky in the maze when the inspector went to her house to arrest her (Mr sparrowgrass made me laugh when he related the episode: "I have got a right pair in there. Been lost for ages. If you see a thin India woman with big feet and that doctor who messed up the Lancers, I'd be obliged if you'd escort them out. They have been causing mayhem, believe me. They are worse than Herris when he got lost in the maze in Three men in a boat. At one stage there were twenty-four people following them, assuming they know the way out.) she also discovered that......