Sophia Bennett

SJ Bennett is the author of the international bestselling Her Majesty the Queen Investigates series.

The series, which features Queen Elizabeth II as a secret detective, is written in the Golden Age tradition. The first book, The Windsor Knot, was sold to 20 countries and was a feature of the ‘cosy crime’ wave that became a phenomenon in 2020. It stars the Queen solving a murder at Windsor Castle on the eve of her ninetieth birthday, ably assisted by her Assistant Private Secretary, Rozie Oshodi – much in the nature of Nero Wolfe and his sidekick Archie Goodwin.

The second book, A Three Dog Problem came out in 2021 and is set in the feverish post-Brexit referendum days of 2016, in a Buckingham Palace that was dangerously in need of repair. The book foresees that the Queen might have to move out while it is fixed, but did not predict the pandemic, which began as it was being finished. The novel is titled All the Queen’s Men in the USA and Canada.

The third book in the first trilogy, Murder Most Royal, is set in the Queen’s Norfolk seaside home of Sandringham in the Christmas of 2016. It came out in the UK in November 2022.

Book 4, A Death in Diamonds, goes back to 1957 and features a thirty year-old Queen working with her first sidekick, an ex Bletchley Park worker, Joan McGraw.

Sophia is currently at work on a second trilogy in the series, set earlier in the Queen’s reign. She also writes short stories for My Weekly, Candis, and Saga Magazine.

Before turning to crime, Sophia was an award-winning children’s author. She was a Consultant Fellow of the Royal Literary Fund and lectured in writing for children at City Lit and City University, as well as giving masterclasses in various aspects of writing. Her students have gone on to get agents and international deals in both young adult and crime fiction.

Sophia’s podcast on the art of getting published can be found at www.prepublished.net.