Sophia Bennett (born 1966) is a British crime novelist and children's writer. She was first published at the age of 42, and her novels have been published in more than 20 languages. [1]
Writing as SJ Bennett, she published the first in a series of adult mysteries featuring Queen Elizabeth II as a secret amateur detective, assisted by a fictional assistant private secretary of Nigerian heritage, Captain Rozie Oshodi. [2] Bennett was given a pre-emptive five-book deal by Bonnier Books UK, [3] with further multi-book deals in the US, Italy, France and Germany, brokered by Charlie Campbell of Greyhound Literary agents. The Windsor Knot formed part of the resurgence of ‘cosy crime’ in 2020, referring to mystery novels without significant on-the-page sex and violence. [4] [5] [6] It has sold 250,000 copies in the UK.
Bennett is the author of several books for young adults. Her children’s novels have also been published around the world. [7] She is the winner of the Times/Chicken House competition in 2009 [8] for her debut novel, Threads, and the RNA Romantic Novel of the Year 2017 for Love Song. [9] . In 2019 she published The Bigger Picture, an illustrated guide for teens on contemporary and historical women artists with Tate Publishing. [10]
Bennett was born in Yorkshire and educated at London University. She has a PhD in Modern Italian Literature from Cambridge University. [11] She has taught creative writing as a visiting lecturer for young adults at City Lit and City University in London and is a Fellow of the Royal Literary Fund. [12]
She created a podcast for aspiring writers called Prepublished, in which she spoke to bestselling and prizewinning authors including Sophie Hannah, Jenny Colgan, Justine Picardie, Robert Muchamore, Anthony McGowan and Phil Earle about their journey to publication and their advice for fellow authors. [13]
Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie, Lady Mallowan, was a British author known for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections, particularly those revolving around fictional detectives Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple. She also wrote the world's longest-running play, the murder mystery The Mousetrap, which has been performed in the West End of London since 1952. A writer during the "Golden Age of Detective Fiction", Christie has been called the "Queen of Crime"—a moniker which is now trademarked by her estate—or the "Queen of Mystery". She also wrote six novels under the pseudonym Mary Westmacott. In 1971, she was made a Dame (DBE) by Queen Elizabeth II for her contributions to literature. Guinness World Records lists Christie as the best-selling fiction writer of all time, her novels having sold more than two billion copies.
Ellery Queen is a pseudonym created in 1928 by the American detective fiction writers Frederic Dannay (1905–1982) and Manfred Bennington Lee (1905–1971). It is also the name of their main fictional detective, a mystery writer in New York City who helps his police inspector father solve baffling murder cases. From 1929 to 1971, Dannay and Lee wrote around forty novels and short story collections in which Ellery Queen appears as a character.
Phyllis Dorothy James White, Baroness James of Holland Park, known professionally as P. D. James, was an English novelist and life peer. Her rise to fame came with her series of detective novels featuring the police commander and poet, Adam Dalgliesh.
Eleanor Alice Hibbert was an English writer of historical romances. She was a prolific writer who published several books a year in different literary genres, each genre under a different pen name: Jean Plaidy for fictionalized history of European royalty and the three volumes of her history of the Spanish Inquisition, Victoria Holt for gothic romances, and Philippa Carr for a multi-generational family saga. She also wrote light romances, crime novels, murder mysteries and thrillers under pseudonyms Eleanor Burford, Elbur Ford, Kathleen Kellow, Anna Percival, and Ellalice Tate.
Genre fiction, also known as formula fiction or popular fiction, is a term used in the book-trade for fictional works written with the intent of fitting into a specific literary genre in order to appeal to readers and fans already familiar with that genre.
Michael Redhill is an American-born Canadian poet, playwright and novelist. He also writes under the pseudonym Inger Ash Wolfe.
Barbara Louise Mertz was an American author who wrote under her own name as well as under the pseudonyms Elizabeth Peters and Barbara Michaels. In 1952, she received a PhD in Egyptology from the University of Chicago. She was best known for her mystery and suspense novels, including the Amelia Peabody book series.
Katherine V. Forrest is a Canadian-born American writer, best known for her novels about lesbian police detective Kate Delafield. Her books have won and been finalists for Lambda Literary Award twelve times, as well as other awards. She has been referred to by some "a founding mother of lesbian fiction writing."
Jan Burke is an American author of novels and short stories. She is a winner of the Edgar Award for Best Novel, the Agatha Award for Best Short Story, the Macavity Award, and Ellery Queen Readers Choice Award.
Maxim Jakubowski is an English writer of crime fiction, erotica, and science fiction, and also a rock music critic.
Lee Lynch is an American author writing primarily on lesbian themes, specifically noted for authentic characterizing of butch and femme characters in fiction. She is the recipient of a Golden Crown Literary Society Trail Blazer award for lifetime achievement, as well as being the namesake for the Golden Crown Literary Society's Lee Lynch Classics Award.
Kate Summerscale is an English writer and journalist. She is best known for the bestselling narrative nonfiction books The Suspicions of Mr Whicher, which was made into a television drama, The Wicked Boy and The Haunting of Alma Fielding. She has won a number of literary prizes, including the Samuel Johnson Prize for Nonfiction in 2008.
Tatiana Garmash-Roffe born November 4, 1959 in Moscow, Russia, is an author of detective stories, who also published under the pseudonym "Tatiana Svetlova".
Tosca Lee is an American author known for her historical novels and thrillers.
Beth Bernobich is an American science fiction and fantasy writer. She also goes by the pen name Claire O'Dell. She was born in Lansdowne, Pennsylvania in 1959. Her first novel, Passion Play was published by Tor Books in October 2010, and won the Romantic Times 2010 Reviewer Choice Award for Best Epic Fantasy. Her novel, A Study in Honor was published by Harper Voyager in July 2018 and won the 2019 Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Mystery.
Manjiri Prabhu is an Indian author, TV producer and filmmaker. She has been hailed as the 'Desi Agatha Christie' by the media and is acknowledged as being the first woman writer of mystery fiction in India.
Beetle Boy is a 2016 middle grade novel written by M. G. Leonard, illustrated by Júlia Sardà, and published by The Chicken House and Scholastic.
Talking About Detective Fiction is a book written by P. D. James and published by Knopf Doubleday on 1 December 2009. It won the Anthony Award for Best Critical Non-Fiction in 2010.
Taylor Jenkins Reid is an American author best known for her novels The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, Daisy Jones & the Six, One True Loves, Malibu Rising, and Carrie Soto Is Back.
The Mystery of Henri Pick is a 2019 French comedy film directed by Rémi Bezançon, based on the novel of the same name by David Foenkinos.