S.J.Bennett-"A Death In Diamonds"

Dear Reader

I’m an inveterate bookshelf browser. Invite me to your house, and I will roam the landings and the library, or wherever you keep your books, to see what you grew up with, what has inspired you … and what I should read next. This inquisitiveness helped me develop my love of mysteries and ultimately led to writing “ A Death In Diamonds”.

I grew up in an army family, moving around the world. Wherever we went, from Berlin to Hong Kong, books came with us, and my mother’s bookshelves were always awash with crime. Robert B Parker, Lawrence Block, Dorothy L Sayers and PD James were among her favourites. I pinched them all. I fell in love with Archie Goodwin from the Nero Wolfe books by Rex Stout, and remain a fan of Peter Wimsey in Gaudy Night and Murder Must Advertise.

I finally sat down to write my first novel in my thirties: a detective story called The Body of a Dancer. I still love that title, but I had a lot to learn. It took me ten years to get published. I then wrote ten children’s books before returning to my first love: mysteries.

My main character spent much of her life travelling – on trains, planes and even her own ocean-going yacht. That was the Royal Yacht Britannia, and she is Queen Elizabeth II, who my father got to know through his military career. We all know what she got up to in the spotlight, but what was she like behind the scenes? I like to think of her as intelligent, curious, good-humoured, and frequently underestimated because she was a woman. In “A Death in Diamonds”, Prince Philip uses her as an alibi for the night of a double murder. She knows he didn’t do it, but he wasn’t with her … so what really happened?

If you get to discover my series featuring the Queen on a bookshelf one day, do write to me and tell me what you think.

S.J.Bennett

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