{"id":7264,"date":"2026-10-12T07:37:54","date_gmt":"2026-10-12T14:37:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/?p=7264"},"modified":"2026-10-12T07:37:54","modified_gmt":"2026-10-12T14:37:54","slug":"s-j-bennett-death-on-the-royal-yacht","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/s-j-bennett-death-on-the-royal-yacht\/","title":{"rendered":"S.J. Bennett: Death on the Royal Yacht"},"content":{"rendered":"

Her Majesty the Queen Investigates #6<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>To read this book, I had to violate one of my \u201crules\u201d \u2013 no circuses, no ships, no fairs (state or world).\u00a0 This is one of my favorite series, however, so I was forced to make an exception. Along with Allison Montclair, Bennett writes one of the smartest, most tightly plotted series around.\u00a0 If you love the golden age schematic but welcome an update, these are the books for you.\u00a0 Set on the Royal Yacht in 1966, we follow the Queen\u2019s tour of the Caribbean. As always the central character is the Queen\u2019s personal assistant, Joan McGraw, but also as always, when a dead body crops up, it\u2019s the united efforts of the Queen and Joan that solve the crime.<\/p>\n

These are slyly feminist books.\u00a0 The Queen is surrounded by mansplainers \u2013 including Prince Philip \u2013 and Joan, a highly placed and successful woman, is viewed by staff as a bit unapproachable and cold.\u00a0 The Queen has a personal assistant as well as security detail who like to think they solve the crimes that pop up, but they are wrong, as the Queen gently and subtly guides them to a solution after she has figured everything out.<\/p>\n

The body in question is that of a glamorous young woman, Pamela, who was sensational to look at and extremely bold.\u00a0 She had been driving Joan a bit crazy but Joan is all in when it comes to searching for the reason behind her death, an apparent overdose.\u00a0 Joan and the Queen aren\u2019t so sure it\u2019s that simple and of course they are correct.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s so strong about these books are not just the settings \u2013 and this one, aboard the Royal Yacht, is a delight \u2013 but the way the Queen\u2019s household functions, with the Queen\u2019s day and schedule broken up into 5 minute increments. Elizabeth as portrayed by Bennett is dutiful and intelligent with a wicked sense of humor.\u00a0 She and Joan have a wonderful partnership which involves mutual trust and appreciation of the other\u2019s intelligence.\u00a0 It\u2019s a lovely portrayal of friendship.<\/p>\n

The other part that\u2019s really strong are the mysteries themselves.\u00a0 The one in this novel is quite complex and though Bennett never leaves the reader behind, you still might not quite be catching up with the intelligence of her plot.\u00a0 There are red herrings, an array of suspects, and an incorrect solution before the Queen gently supplies the correct one, one which has been fairly laid out, clues and all. These are \u201ccozy\u201d in the way Agatha Christie is cozy \u2013 there\u2019s a high body count, and there are some dark undertones though the ultimate tone of the story is lighter and more hopeful, which slides it into cozy territory.\u00a0 Bennett is still writing about the loss of a child, drug use, and racism, but it\u2019s organically integrated into the plot.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been telling people since the first book to try this series, especially if traditional detection is your favorite type of story.\u00a0 The Queen is technically an amateur detective, but she has some world class support.\u00a0 She can go wherever she wants to, and where she can\u2019t be seen, there\u2019s Joan.\u00a0 These books really could not be better.\u00a0 —\u00a0Robin Agnew<\/em><\/p>\n

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

Her Majesty the Queen Investigates #6 To read this book, I had to violate one of my \u201crules\u201d \u2013 no circuses, no ships, no fairs (state or world).\u00a0 This is one of my favorite series, however, so I was forced to make an exception. Along with Allison Montclair, Bennett writes one of the smartest, most … 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":[2626,2431,943,2625,1347,10,514,516,1436],"class_list":["post-7264","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","tag-1966-caribbean","tag-cozy-adjacent","tag-crooked-lane-books","tag-death-on-the-royal-yacht","tag-her-majesty-the-queen-investigates","tag-historical","tag-queen-elizabeth-ii","tag-sj-bennett","tag-traditional-detection"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7264","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=7264"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7264\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7266,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7264\/revisions\/7266"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7264"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7264"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7264"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}