{"id":6794,"date":"2025-11-12T06:24:23","date_gmt":"2025-11-12T14:24:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/?p=6794"},"modified":"2025-11-12T06:24:23","modified_gmt":"2025-11-12T14:24:23","slug":"s-j-bennett-the-queen-who-came-in-from-the-cold","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/s-j-bennett-the-queen-who-came-in-from-the-cold\/","title":{"rendered":"S.J. Bennett: The Queen Who Came in from the Cold"},"content":{"rendered":"

Her Majesty the Queen Investigates #5<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>I flat out love this series, as it combines two of my favorite things: the Queen and a good mystery.\u00a0 The unexpected bonus is Ms. Bennett\u2019s skillful writing \u2013 she\u2019s excellent at plotting and character development, and her portrayal of the Queen \u2013 chef\u2019s kiss!\u00a0 The Queen, as portrayed here, is dutiful, intelligent, and possessed of a full measure of curiosity and humor.\u00a0 My reading about the Queen suggests these things were true.\u00a0 This series installment is set in 1961, during the space race, the cold war, and the popularity of James Bond.<\/p>\n

The main character is actually not the Queen (though she\u2019s a strong second), but the Queen\u2019s assistant private secretary, in 1961, posited by Bennett, a capable Bletchley Park<\/a> graduate named Joan McGraw.\u00a0 (In the more contemporary novels, it\u2019s a London born Nigerian officer named Rozie Oshodi).\u00a0 Joan and the Queen share a kind of mind meld, as both are curious and wanting to solve the puzzles that come their way.<\/p>\n

In this outing, the puzzle forms on a train journey to Scotland, where Princess Margaret\u2019s substitute lady in waiting claims to have seem a dead body from the train window.\u00a0 As no trace can be found, and the lady in waiting appeared to be drunk, not much credence is given to this until Elizabeth, ever curious, seeks out a train loving Anglican priest to explain railway timetables and locations and the Queen utilizes this information to locate the body.<\/p>\n

Of course, the Queen is always at a necessary remove, with the actual operations of their detection activities carried out by Joan.\u00a0 In all the books, men around the Queen are more than happy to hog the credit for anything that goes right, and often are delighted to explain to the Queen herself just how they were so clever, accounts the Queen listens to with a bemused attention.<\/p>\n

The action in the previous novels took place in London at the palace or in Scotland, but this novel, after the initial and delightful train journey, takes place on one of the Queen\u2019s favorite spots:\u00a0 Britannia<\/a>, the royal yacht.\u00a0 As in the previous books, one of the delights of this one is simply how the Britannia was operated and managed.\u00a0 As the Queen is on a tour of the Mediterranean, the details of managing a royal tour are also included.\u00a0 Even the most rabid anti monarchist (who are unlikely to be reading this book, to be real) would have some sympathy for the Queen\u2019s grueling schedule, which was planned in 5 minute increments.<\/p>\n

The real action concerns a defecting Soviet with ties to their space program, with a plan in place for the person in question to be stashed in the royal yacht and taken to London. The Soviet has ties to the dead man seen from the train and while the Queen is initially horrified at the idea of using the yacht in this manner, ultimately, she\u2019s unable to let the person be killed by the KGB, who seem to be in pursuit.<\/p>\n

Bennett often throws in an action scene toward the end, and this novel is no exception. It\u2019s a dandy, taking place on a small Italian island in the middle of the night.\u00a0 While I don\u2019t read these books for the action sequences, I always enjoy them.\u00a0 They are kind of the delightful dessert complimenting the rest of the story, a story that Bennett manages to make captivating and emotionally resonant.\u00a0 I\u2019ve enjoyed every book in this series to date, and five books in, that\u2019s quite the achievement.\u00a0 I also enjoy that the recent books are now taking place in the more distant past, when Elizabeth was a new Queen and she and Phillip were one of the most glamorous couples on the planet.\u00a0 The glamor, the intrigue, the characters, the plots, the setting \u2013 these books are a pure delight in every possible way.\u00a0 —\u00a0Robin Agnew<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Her Majesty the Queen Investigates #5 I flat out love this series, as it combines two of my favorite things: the Queen and a good mystery.\u00a0 The unexpected bonus is Ms. Bennett\u2019s skillful writing \u2013 she\u2019s excellent at plotting and character development, and her portrayal of the Queen \u2013 chef\u2019s kiss!\u00a0 The Queen, as portrayed … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[943,1347,359,514,1276,2343,516,2342,1436,1523],"class_list":["post-6794","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","tag-crooked-lane-books","tag-her-majesty-the-queen-investigates","tag-italy","tag-queen-elizabeth-ii","tag-robin-agnew","tag-royal-yacht","tag-sj-bennett","tag-the-queen-who-came-in-from-the-cold","tag-traditional-detection","tag-train-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6794","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6794"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6794\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6795,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6794\/revisions\/6795"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6794"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6794"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6794"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}