Death on the Royal Yacht

S.J. Bennett

A HIGHLY-ANTICIPATED winter-time tour of the Caribbean aboard the Royal Yacht Britannia – currently anchored amidst the lush beauty and glittering sunshine of Grenada’s stunning St George’s Harbour – looks set to be a pleasurable affair for 39-year-old Queen Elizabeth and her husband Prince Philip.

With a tight schedule ahead, hopes are high that nothing will go wrong… until it does. The Queen’s young diary secretary, Pamela Sinclair, only in office for a few months, has been found dead in her cabin and it’s looking like someone on board could be a murderer.

In a delightful series that has caught the imagination – and won the hearts – of an army of readers, Yorkshire-born author S.J. Bennett sweeps us away to the glamour of life on Britannia and into another right royal mystery involving a baffling death and a list of possible suspects which includes hundreds of crew members. The aim of this cosy, quirky The Queen Investigates series was to celebrate our late monarch’s lifetime of dedication to public service, her role in all our lives, and her impact on the world at large, and her death in 2022 has added an extra layer of poignancy to the much-loved cosy crime series.

In this charming sixth book, Bennett (pictured left) winds back the clock to the Sixties and the earlier days of Queen Elizabeth’s long reign for an outing deep inside the fascinating workings of the royal yacht as we meet up again with the unexpected super-sleuthing superstar sovereign who has begun a royal lifetime of solving murder mysteries in between her more regular and recognised duties.

It’s February of 1966 and the Queen is touring the Caribbean on a schedule which is measured in ten-minute increments for the entire five weeks, a fact that keeps her staff – including her dependable Assistant Private Secretary and long-standing confidante Joan McGraw – on their toes. But Prince Philip has noticed that the trusty Joan, an ex-Bletchley Park code breaker, has looked increasingly uncomfortable recently and was ‘positively grumpy’ on the previous day’s visit to Tobago’s breathtaking palm-fringed beaches, hummingbirds and hibiscus. He reckons Joan’s nose has been ‘put out of joint’ by ‘sparky’ diary secretary Pamela who has turned out to be sharper than she looks.

And when Pamela is found mysteriously dead in her barricaded cabin the next morning, rumours quickly abound about her cause of death, although the truth is that nobody really knows. However, it doesn’t take long for suspicion to fall on Joan, who was the first to discover Pamela’s body and is uncharacteristically cagey about the order of events.

For the senior police officers on board who must now investigate, including the Queen’s chief personal protection officer, Chief Inspector Peter ‘Pots’ Chambers, the royal yacht is a busy, working ship, from the admiral at the bridge to the chefs in the galleys and the engineers attending to the turbines. It houses a crew of hundreds. Is one of them a murderer? And behind the scenes, the Queen and Joan must use every skill and trick to solve the mystery, while seeming to glide, unflustered, from one high-profile engagement to the next, as the multi-island visit unfolds with the whole world watching...

Featuring a real royal tour as the backdrop, a supporting cast of real and fictional players, some wonderfully caustic private conversations between the Queen and Prince Philip, and a plot that blends a fascinating exploration of the royals’ public and private lives with an intriguing mystery, this is an exhilarating romp that brings us the Queen and her courtiers as we have never before seen them. But, as always, it is the incomparable Queen Elizabeth who is the shining star of Bennett’s new royal blue mystery which picks up perfectly her nuances and familiar characteristics, and paints a dazzling, humorous and totally convincing portrait of the canny, compassionate and dedicated monarch without losing sight of her dignity and integrity.

Best supporting roles here are undoubtedly the discreet and resourceful, if somewhat off kilter, Joan who is more than able to operate under the radar of the many ranks of men on board, and, of course, the fearlessly outspoken and irreverent Prince Philip, whose throwaway lines prove so often to be the hilarious scene-stealers.

With its richly detailed and authentic portrayal of royal life and diplomacy, a fast-paced plot littered with clues and red herrings, revealing insights into the early years and real-life events of the Queen’s reign, and moments of genuine emotion and pathos, this is a wonderfully entertaining series with a pleasing – and distinctly British – flavour.
(Zaffre, hardback, £16.99)