Marie Benedict’s The Queens of Crime

In the early 1930s, Dorothy Sayers is a well-known mystery novelist, but she has deep secrets of her own. She is also a leader in the newly formed Detection Club, which wants to make mystery writing more prestigious. However, even within the ranks of the Detection Club, where everyone is ruffled by the press’s tendency to dismiss their work as genre fiction, there is dissension and tension over who to admit. Some of the more traditional members believe Dorothy and Agatha Christie are the only women authors worthy of admission. Dorothy and Agatha then team up with three other talented women mystery writers–Baroness Emma Orczy, Ngaio Marsh, and Margery Allingham–to solve a real-life mystery to prove their credibility.

Marie Benedict specializes in historical fiction that illuminates the lives of women, and this book is no exception. Beyond delving into the Queens, as the group calls themselves, and their quest for acceptance, the murder they investigate, that of a young working woman whose reputation is being unfairly maligned after she disappears and then is found dead on a day trip to coastal France, also ties into this theme.

The Queens of Crime is an enjoyable read. In the Afterword, Benedict notes she is a huge fan of interwar British mysteries, the Golden Age of Detective Fiction, and her love for the genre shines through. She clearly is having a lot of fun as she writes about famous writers, and it is fun to watch the writer characters have to shift to applying their talents to the real world. (I was very proud of myself for usually figuring out the clues before Agatha Christie and the others did. 🙂 )

As is befitting a Golden Age mystery, the murder is a locked door mystery. The victim, a young trainee nurse named May, was last seen in a train station bathroom, and it is seemingly impossible for her to have left on her own. The story is loosely based on a true story. Dorothy Sayers did spend time investigating this real crime, though the rest is fictional.

Recommended for fans of Golden Age detective novels and/or those who enjoyed Mariah Frederick’s The Wharton Plot, Colleen Cambridge’s Murder at Mallowan Hall, and Ariel Lawhon’s The Frozen River.

*Also available as a physical audiobook in the system.

Which is your favorite Queen of Crime? Have you read this book? Are you a Marie Benedict fan? Tell us in the comments! As always, please follow this link to our online library catalog for more information on this book or to place it on hold.