S.J. Bennett Books In Order

Publication Order of Her Majesty the Queen Investigates Books

S.J Bennett is a crime, mystery and comedy author born in Yorkshire, England. Being an army child, she grew up going all around the world. She published her debut novel at 42 after long procrastination.

Bennett had won several awards for some of her teenage books before she began writing adult crime novels. She also teaches and podcasts on writing.

The Windsor Knot
The Windsor Knot is the debut in the Her Majesty the Queen Investigates series. Queen Elizabeth II is preparing to celebrate her 90th birthday and is looking forward to all the festivities. After hosting a dine and sleep party at Windsor Castle during spring, she wakes to the news that a guest was found dead.

The victim was a young handsome Russian pianist who the Queen invited to entertain the guests with, after which he danced with some people, including the Queen. He was so attractive and in his early twenties.

Brodsky is found in underwear and a rope around his neck, and at first, it appears like he committed suicide. Later, he was killed, and the killer staged the scene since the murder happened at Windsor Castle where the royal family, Russian diplomats, and other high guests, both the MI5 and Metropolitan police, were to conduct the investigations.

After it’s revealed that Brodsky has criticized Russian President Putin, authorities conclude that Queen’s staff were Russian agents paid to kill Brodsky. It’s found out that two of the Queen’s staff are connected to the Russians. The two are laid off for a while as further inquiries go on.

Simon Holcroft, Queen’s private secretary, tries as much as he can to keep her unaware of the latest discovery. However, Elizabeth is too smart to be fooled with half a story and insists on being given all the information. What Holcroft doesn’t know is that she has been solving cases since a young age.

When the police investigations start taking an unexpected turn, Elizabeth has to take things into her hands. She doesn’t believe that she hires sleeper agents and decides to start her investigations. Since she can’t go around interviewing people on her own, she asks for help from Rozie Oshodi, her assistant private secretary.

She also gets help from an Anglo-Nigerian woman known to be intelligent, discreet and the best at data collection on social media. After the Queen gets some clues about the murder, she delicately conveys them to Gavin Humphreys, Director General of MI5 and Ravi Singh, Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, relaxed, thinking they meant all the discoveries.

All kinds of deceptions happened at Windsor Castle on the dinner night, including people conducting secret meetings and sexual liaisons. As the mystery unveils, Brodsky’s death is linked to two other people in England. It’s now up to the Queen to put all the pieces together and try to solve the crime.

During the undercover investigations, the Queen still carries out her public duties while interacting with her family and controlling the palace’s activities. She also finds time to welcome President Obama and spend time with her corgis and horses.

Queen Elizabeth is an amazing lady concerned about other people’s welfare and is always determined to uphold the dignity of the monarchy. The Windsor Knot is a creative novel where Queen Elizabeth II is delighted in solving the crimes that had happened under her watch.

Her conversations with Philip and her inner thoughts add more humor to the story. The author takes the reader to a world where the Queen reveals her talent. S.J Bennett has plotted the story in real-time and wonderfully revealed a cast of characters highlighted in discreet interviews and a series of English settings.

All the Queen’s Men
All the Queen’s Men is the second installment in the Her Majesty the Queen Investigates series. In this novel, the Queen has to figure out how a missing painting is connected to the death of an employee in Buckingham Palace.

The novel opens up in the fall of 2016 when Queen Elizabeth has a lot in mind. The United States is conducting presidential elections; Philip is almost retiring from public service, while Great Britain has just voted for Brexit.

Things aren’t going well in Buckingham Palace, and the renovation program is underway. On top of it all, she has seen her painting of the royal yacht Britannia presented to her by an artist in 1963 in an exhibit of maritime art in Portsmouth.

The last time she saw it was hanging outside her bedroom door decades ago, and she can’t think of how and when it was stolen.

During the summer of 2016, the Queen has urgent duties to take care of. They include inspecting the elections in the states, meeting the new prime minister, and recovering a painting she adored that turned up in the wrong hands.

She is expecting Rozie Oshodi, her assistant Private Secretary to keep an eye on the activities in the palace and help solve any issue that may come up. Rozie is loyal to the Queen and doesn’t want to disappoint her. The Queen has asked her to find out how the artwork ended up in the possession of the Royal Navy.
She goes through all the palace records while consulting with the past and present royal art curators, questions the palace staff; she even calls a Royal Navy admiral but finds it difficult tracing the Britannia painting

She’s aware of the poison pen letters that some of the staff have received and though her instincts think it’s right to tell the Queen, the senior members in the palace assure her that everything is in control. When one of the staff who received the letter is found drowned in the pool house at Buckingham Palace, Rozies decides to inform the Queen about the issue.

The staff doesn’t know that the Queen is one of the best detectives in the palace. She can see some fine details that no one else can notice.

She guides Rozie using her skills to investigate the case as she is now in the middle of a missing painting of Britannia and a rash of poison-pen letters. Can the poolside death, threat notes and lost art be connected?

When they find reliable clues, she gives them to the police and her male advisors, who start thinking they’re solving the cases when Rozie and the Queen are doing all the work.

2 Responses to “S.J. Bennett”

1. linda m case: 2 years ago

   I read The Windsor Knot and am now reading All the Kings Men. They are excellent. I started reading them just before the Queens death. She was an amazing woman.

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2. linda m case: 2 years ago

   I just read “The Windsor Knot”. I could not put the book down. I wondered, did you interview Queen Elizabeth and does she really investigate? I am looking forward to reading “All the Queen’s Men”.

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