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Who Guards a Prince?
From a Diamond Dagger A dark tale of murderous conspiracies, secret societies, and a royal family in danger.
After a series of hideous and gruesome crimes, Inspector Doug McHarg is asking questions--but some people don't want him to. That includes his boss on the local police force and Scotland Yard--not to mention whoever is sending him death threats.
But McHarg is an unhappy man with little left to lose, and he intends to follow up on the clues that increasingly point to a mysterious, massively powerful organization with a reach that extends to both the White House and the British throne . . .
"Reginald Hill is quite simply one of the best at work today." --The Boston Globe
After a series of hideous and gruesome crimes, Inspector Doug McHarg is asking questions--but some people don't want him to. That includes his boss on the local police force and Scotland Yard--not to mention whoever is sending him death threats.
But McHarg is an unhappy man with little left to lose, and he intends to follow up on the clues that increasingly point to a mysterious, massively powerful organization with a reach that extends to both the White House and the British throne . . .
"Reginald Hill is quite simply one of the best at work today." --The Boston Globe
339 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1982
About the author
Reginald Hill
156 books509 followersReginald Charles Hill was a contemporary English crime writer, and the winner in 1995 of the Crime Writers' Association Cartier Diamond Dagger for Lifetime Achievement.
After National Service (1955-57) and studying English at St Catherine's College, Oxford University (1957-60) he worked as a teacher for many years, rising to Senior Lecturer at Doncaster College of Education. In 1980 he retired from salaried work in order to devote himself full-time to writing.
Hill is best known for his more than 20 novels featuring the Yorkshire detectives Andrew Dalziel, Peter Pascoe and Edgar Wield. He has also written more than 30 other novels, including five featuring Joe Sixsmith, a black machine operator turned private detective in a fictional Luton. Novels originally published under the pseudonyms of Patrick Ruell, Dick Morland, and Charles Underhill have now appeared under his own name. Hill is also a writer of short stories, and ghost tales.
After National Service (1955-57) and studying English at St Catherine's College, Oxford University (1957-60) he worked as a teacher for many years, rising to Senior Lecturer at Doncaster College of Education. In 1980 he retired from salaried work in order to devote himself full-time to writing.
Hill is best known for his more than 20 novels featuring the Yorkshire detectives Andrew Dalziel, Peter Pascoe and Edgar Wield. He has also written more than 30 other novels, including five featuring Joe Sixsmith, a black machine operator turned private detective in a fictional Luton. Novels originally published under the pseudonyms of Patrick Ruell, Dick Morland, and Charles Underhill have now appeared under his own name. Hill is also a writer of short stories, and ghost tales.
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
October 30, 2014
Reginald Hill, best known for his Daziel and Pascoe detective series, gives readers his take on the suspense-driven, international conspiracy thriller in Who Guards a Prince (1982). There are royals in danger, a secret society that involves Freemasonry, a sex and blackmail scheme to control an up-and-coming young senator with his eye on the presidency, and a little Fenian/Irish American plotting and counter-plotting just for good measure. The book is littered with bodies--people with their tongues cut out, burned up in a fire, killed in car "accidents," blown up, shot, and dropped 20-some stories out of windows. Just a normal few weeks on both sides of the pond--British or American victims, we're not picky. We might even add a Canadian or two just for luck.
Balance that out with a disgruntled British policeman by the name Doug McHarg--a disillusioned, but doggedly-devoted-to-duty widower who used to be the security man for Price Arthur and who has stumbled across the trail of the secret society. Much to their displeasure. McHarg follows the meager clues and finds himself the target for a series of Masonic death-attacks. Can he save Prince Arthur from becoming the latest victim and prevent the society from fulfilling their aims for power? And can he do so without sacrificing people he has begun to care about--because the society doesn't care who it hurts if it can pressure its enemies into leaving it alone...or doing its bidding.
This novel is over-the-top and far too busy with all the conspiracies and schemes and side-issues. And the scattered bodies bothered me much more than the somewhat gruesome thriller that I just finished (especially that tongue business). At least I understood the killings in Relic...here there are so many senseless deaths. So many people crushed under the wheels of the secret society machine and we're just supposed to take it in stride. To top it off, it winds up very predictably with a shoot-em-up ending (which takes place in America where such things happen, you know) and a "surprise" unmasking of the evil genius behind the plots. I will admit that McHarg's method of dealing with the mastermind is unique...but it seems more suitable for a over-blown thriller movie. I just really wasn't taken with this at all. ★★ may be generous.
The best part? A sub-plot with Prince Arthur and his lady-love, an Irish American who must go against her family's anti-English sentiments to be with man she cares for. No sloppy romance--just a nice little thread to follow.
First posted on my blog My Reader's Block. Please request permission before reposting. Thanks.
Balance that out with a disgruntled British policeman by the name Doug McHarg--a disillusioned, but doggedly-devoted-to-duty widower who used to be the security man for Price Arthur and who has stumbled across the trail of the secret society. Much to their displeasure. McHarg follows the meager clues and finds himself the target for a series of Masonic death-attacks. Can he save Prince Arthur from becoming the latest victim and prevent the society from fulfilling their aims for power? And can he do so without sacrificing people he has begun to care about--because the society doesn't care who it hurts if it can pressure its enemies into leaving it alone...or doing its bidding.
This novel is over-the-top and far too busy with all the conspiracies and schemes and side-issues. And the scattered bodies bothered me much more than the somewhat gruesome thriller that I just finished (especially that tongue business). At least I understood the killings in Relic...here there are so many senseless deaths. So many people crushed under the wheels of the secret society machine and we're just supposed to take it in stride. To top it off, it winds up very predictably with a shoot-em-up ending (which takes place in America where such things happen, you know) and a "surprise" unmasking of the evil genius behind the plots. I will admit that McHarg's method of dealing with the mastermind is unique...but it seems more suitable for a over-blown thriller movie. I just really wasn't taken with this at all. ★★ may be generous.
The best part? A sub-plot with Prince Arthur and his lady-love, an Irish American who must go against her family's anti-English sentiments to be with man she cares for. No sloppy romance--just a nice little thread to follow.
First posted on my blog My Reader's Block. Please request permission before reposting. Thanks.
July 2, 2026
MULTINATIONAL SECRET SOCIETY CRIMINALS!
Written by Reginald Hill and copyrighted in 1982, this novel was published by his estate in 2019 by Mysterious Press. It is a detective novel with a protagonist named Douglas McHarg, who is a Detective Inspector with the Metropolitan Police in Great Britain. Formerly, he worked for Scotland Yard as a part of the Royal Constabulary guarding Prince Arthur, until the two had a falling out over an assassination attempt.
The story opens with Dr. Wainwright and his five-year-old daughter, Lucy, at the beach where Lucy was playing in the sand. She calls her father over to tell him she caught a fish. Upon checking to see it, the good doctor discovered that she had dug up a tongue — a human tongue. The doctor immediately called and turned it over to the police, but their forensics lab insisted that it was the tongue of a dog. Wainwright knew better. As a physician, he knew the difference between a human tongue and a dog’s tongue.
Four miles inland from that same beach, Detective Inspector McHarg was looking over the remains of a small cottage that had been burned out completely, with the owner burned to death. His name was Jim Morrison, a freelance journalist, and he was also the owner of the tongue that Lucy found at the beach. The police and the Chief Fire Officer insist that the fire was an accident cause by drinking and careless smoking, but McHarg remains suspicious. McHarg is a widower whose wife, Mavis, had passed away some years earlier from cancer. They have a daughter named Flora who blames McHarg for taking her mother away from her near the end of her life. Flora has moved to the United States — first to attend college, and then to live. She has become very close friends with a woman from the Connolly family, and that turns out to not be a very good thing for her.
His Royal Highness Prince Arthur, Duke of Wenlock, Colonel-in-Chief of the Welsh Light Infantry, and Laird of Gulvain is now being guarded by a different policeman, but he figures centrally in this story. He has fallen in love with an American married woman named Deirdre (Dree for short). She is from the Irish-American Connolly family of Boston and New Hampshire. The family is ruled by old Pat, a Catholic Irishman who has threatened to disinherit Dree of she tries to marry Prince Arthur.
Enter the secret society: the Free Masons. They are involved in criminal activities, including the English/Irish “troubles.” They have full-time assassins in their group, and they are proven killers. It was the Masons, for example, who murdered Jim Morrison, cut out his tongue, and burned his cottage to the ground. They want to assassinate the prince, and will kill anybody who gets in their way. It doesn’t take long for McHarg to be put on their “hit list.”
McHarg is almost killed when his vehicle is sabotaged and crashes, and he decides to resign from the police and travel to Boston to visit his daughter, Flora. The remainder of the story takes place in the United States and Canada. Canada, because that’s where Prince Aurthur flies before traveling by Jeep to New Hampshire to meet his lover, Deirdre Connolly. An assassination attempt is made in New Hampshire, but it is foiled by McHarg. This is not, however, the finale of the story. McHarg later meets with the Masonic mastermind who is directing all of the murders, and an attempt is made to hire him to become their next paid assassin.
I was a bit disappointed by the quality of this story. It is not as good as the author’s other detective novels. It has a lot of entertainment value, and isn’t too graphic, but the plot is, in my view, way too complex. There are too many characters with dark ulterior motives and too many sub-plots. The pace is, however, fast. I award three of the available five stars for this novel.
Written by Reginald Hill and copyrighted in 1982, this novel was published by his estate in 2019 by Mysterious Press. It is a detective novel with a protagonist named Douglas McHarg, who is a Detective Inspector with the Metropolitan Police in Great Britain. Formerly, he worked for Scotland Yard as a part of the Royal Constabulary guarding Prince Arthur, until the two had a falling out over an assassination attempt.
The story opens with Dr. Wainwright and his five-year-old daughter, Lucy, at the beach where Lucy was playing in the sand. She calls her father over to tell him she caught a fish. Upon checking to see it, the good doctor discovered that she had dug up a tongue — a human tongue. The doctor immediately called and turned it over to the police, but their forensics lab insisted that it was the tongue of a dog. Wainwright knew better. As a physician, he knew the difference between a human tongue and a dog’s tongue.
Four miles inland from that same beach, Detective Inspector McHarg was looking over the remains of a small cottage that had been burned out completely, with the owner burned to death. His name was Jim Morrison, a freelance journalist, and he was also the owner of the tongue that Lucy found at the beach. The police and the Chief Fire Officer insist that the fire was an accident cause by drinking and careless smoking, but McHarg remains suspicious. McHarg is a widower whose wife, Mavis, had passed away some years earlier from cancer. They have a daughter named Flora who blames McHarg for taking her mother away from her near the end of her life. Flora has moved to the United States — first to attend college, and then to live. She has become very close friends with a woman from the Connolly family, and that turns out to not be a very good thing for her.
His Royal Highness Prince Arthur, Duke of Wenlock, Colonel-in-Chief of the Welsh Light Infantry, and Laird of Gulvain is now being guarded by a different policeman, but he figures centrally in this story. He has fallen in love with an American married woman named Deirdre (Dree for short). She is from the Irish-American Connolly family of Boston and New Hampshire. The family is ruled by old Pat, a Catholic Irishman who has threatened to disinherit Dree of she tries to marry Prince Arthur.
Enter the secret society: the Free Masons. They are involved in criminal activities, including the English/Irish “troubles.” They have full-time assassins in their group, and they are proven killers. It was the Masons, for example, who murdered Jim Morrison, cut out his tongue, and burned his cottage to the ground. They want to assassinate the prince, and will kill anybody who gets in their way. It doesn’t take long for McHarg to be put on their “hit list.”
McHarg is almost killed when his vehicle is sabotaged and crashes, and he decides to resign from the police and travel to Boston to visit his daughter, Flora. The remainder of the story takes place in the United States and Canada. Canada, because that’s where Prince Aurthur flies before traveling by Jeep to New Hampshire to meet his lover, Deirdre Connolly. An assassination attempt is made in New Hampshire, but it is foiled by McHarg. This is not, however, the finale of the story. McHarg later meets with the Masonic mastermind who is directing all of the murders, and an attempt is made to hire him to become their next paid assassin.
I was a bit disappointed by the quality of this story. It is not as good as the author’s other detective novels. It has a lot of entertainment value, and isn’t too graphic, but the plot is, in my view, way too complex. There are too many characters with dark ulterior motives and too many sub-plots. The pace is, however, fast. I award three of the available five stars for this novel.
February 14, 2023
( Format : Audiobook )
"All he asked was to be left alone."
I very much enjoy the author's Dalziel and Pascoe series with the larger than life Fat Andy and his university degree holding sidekick. Great characters, changing writing style but always humorous with a well woven plot. Who Guards A Prince?I is different, a stand alone, not part of the series and, although well written and an easy read, it lacks the humour so pervasive in his detective series. Births writing is sharp, the story almost an unusual telling of a Romeo and Juliet romance.
Narration by Ian Redford is excellent.
"All he asked was to be left alone."
I very much enjoy the author's Dalziel and Pascoe series with the larger than life Fat Andy and his university degree holding sidekick. Great characters, changing writing style but always humorous with a well woven plot. Who Guards A Prince?I is different, a stand alone, not part of the series and, although well written and an easy read, it lacks the humour so pervasive in his detective series. Births writing is sharp, the story almost an unusual telling of a Romeo and Juliet romance.
Narration by Ian Redford is excellent.
April 8, 2023
I suspect in between his thoughtful and literate Dalziel & Pascoe novels, Hill would sit by the fire in his Cumbria cottage, sip a bit of single malt, and say to himself: "Let's see - what's the most preposterous plot I can come up? How about we take a daughter of the Kennedy clan, pair her up with a Charles-type British prince, throw in an international conspiracy by a secret fraternal order. Then have the Scottish version of Clint Eastwood ride to the rescue. Ah, just the thing." It's silly and absurdist and great fun.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 2, 2022
An excellent thriller, with several twists and turns. The various strands are presented and then woven together masterfully, keeping the reader engaged and unsighted on the route to conclusion until very close to the end when threads always have to be tidied up. There is evidence of the use of a crystal ball in its vision of part of the plot (published in 1982); the author should be congratulated for being so well ahead of his time in foreseeing potential events.
January 29, 2023
I see this was Hill’s first published novel. Well, it’s uncharacteristic and maybe a bit uneven, but excellent writing with very strong characters as one expects from him. (And now about 40 years old…)
November 30, 2023
A stand alone thriller. Written around 1981, I have to wonder how much of the novel was inspired by Chuck & Di's engagement and marriage. The plotting was a little dissatisfying for me. (I won't do a plot spoiler to explain why.) But a good read by a very good writer.
May 31, 2018
Laughably ridiculous plot, stereotyped characters...this earned one star only because some of the dialogue was tolerable.
May 3, 2023
Excellent thriller as a ex-royal protection police officer gets drawn into an international conspiracy led by a secretive Masonic lodge.
November 7, 2024
An early Hill thriller that starts out as a rather dated evil Free Mason conspiracy featuring a self-destructive drunken detective, but then some nice unexpected plot twists appear.
May 14, 2026
So so. Complicated unconvincing plot.
December 21, 2014
What a co-inky-dink! This thriller is so coincidence riddled as to make me think the fluttering of a butterfly's wing in Indonesia might actually affect the results of an election in Panama as well as what the serve for lunch at Apple Valley Middle School. Indeed, so much if this book was so laughable, the bounds of my willingness to suspend my disbelief was so stretched, and the writing so hackneyed that I can't imagine why I am giving it three stars. I was about to say it is because I liked some of the characterization, but, honestly, that was fairly lame too.
I guess I am giving it three stars because I did sort of care what happened to the characters in the end. Plus, it's five days until Christmas and I am feeling generous.
What a ragbag of all sorts: Freemasons, Fenians, Princes, evangelists, presidential candidates, a Carolina girl, professors, journalists, cops and robbers all wrapped up in one of the silliest conspiracy plots I have ever read.
Is this the worst book I have read all year? No. But just about.
I guess I am giving it three stars because I did sort of care what happened to the characters in the end. Plus, it's five days until Christmas and I am feeling generous.
What a ragbag of all sorts: Freemasons, Fenians, Princes, evangelists, presidential candidates, a Carolina girl, professors, journalists, cops and robbers all wrapped up in one of the silliest conspiracy plots I have ever read.
Is this the worst book I have read all year? No. But just about.
November 15, 2018
I thought I had read all of Reginald Hill's books, but this is an early (1982) thriller. There are several characters and plot lines - a grieving British police officer whose wife has just died, his semi-estranged daughter, a young Irish-American woman and her brothers and grandfather, a minor member of the British royal family, and a secret society, renegade Freemasons running amok. Set in the UK and US, with a brief foray into Canada, the plot moves among all these places and characters, culminating in an exciting finale.
January 3, 2015
Another non-Dalziel/Pascoe from Hill except... McHargh is a bit Dalziel-y, with all the gruffness and ability to inspire terror (and lack of mortality) that The Fat Man has. The introduction of Evil Masonic Elements and the Royal Family were a bit much, but as with almost all of Hill's writing, I thoroughly enjoyed this!
March 5, 2013
If you like books about conspiracies in which shadowy figures with great power control current and future events by devious, amoral and violent means, then read this story and enjoy. I prefer to live with my ignorance believing and hoping that truth and justice are somewhere out there.
August 2, 2008
This was okay, but the Dalziel and Pascoe novels are my favorites.
April 16, 2015
Enjoyed the book. Interesting characters. Good pace. Perhaps a few too any coincidences, but otherwise good.
February 1, 2016
The story is perhaps just a bit too far-fetched...but it is Reginald Hill, and Ian Redford's reading of the tale is excellent. It is a very long book.
November 17, 2012
Not really a murder mystery, but an excellent novel about a tough cop.
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews