Sophia Bennett

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

The series features Queen Elizabeth II as a secret detective. 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, Captain 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. The novel is titled All the Queen’s Men in the USA and Canada.

The third book in the opening trilogy, Murder Most Royal, is set in the Queen’s Norfolk seaside home of Sandringham in the Christmas of 2016.

A second trilogy is set in the 1950s and 1960s

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.

The Queen Who Came In From the Cold is set at the height of the Cold War, in 1961, and Her Majesty finds herself pitting her wits against the KGB.

Death on the Royal Yacht, set in 1961 is due to be published in 2026.

Sophia also writes short stories for My Weekly, Candis, and Saga Magazine.

Before turning to crime, Sophia was an award-winning children’s author and winner of the 2017 Romantic Novel of the Year for one of her YA books about a girl and a boyband. She has been 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 on her website, featuring conversations with a wide variety of authors, editors and agents.