MURDER AT BUCK-INGHAM PALACE

The backstairs atmosphere--rather than the mystery--is the prime attraction in this saucy (but never arch or precious) little entertainment built around an imaginary, hush-hush murder investigation at the Palace in 1935, on the eve of George V's Silver Jubilee. The victim is tarry young housemaid Alice, found bludgeoned (and pregnant) in the library. The investigators are a low-profile team: young detective-sergeant Harry Bennett; policewoman Veronica, who goes undercover as a Palace maid. And the suspects are many: Alice's two lovers, one of them a Palace footman; her homely roommate, from whom she stole one of the lovers (a window-cleaner); a possible lesbian housekeeper; the footman's other amour, a young aristocrat. But the actual culprit--only mildly surprising--isn't unmasked until the very day of the Jubilee. . . with a guilty-suicide windup during the Jubilee parade. Nice details (those grimy servant quarters), pleasant characters, a few photos with funny deadpan captions--a modest, tidy, faintly naughty diversion overall.