Thank you Macmillan Audio, for the ALC and St. Martin’s Press, #partner for the advanced e-copy of The Queens of Crime in exchange for my honest review.
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press / Macmillan Audio
Published: February 11, 2025
Summary:
The New York Times bestselling author of The Mystery of Mrs. Christie returns with a thrilling story of Christie’s legendary rival Dorothy Sayers, the race to solve a murder, and the power of friendship among women.
London, 1930. The five greatest women crime writers have banded together to form a secret society with a single goal: to show they are no longer willing to be treated as second-class citizens by their male counterparts in the legendary Detection Club. Led by the formidable Dorothy L. Sayers, the group includes Agatha Christie, Ngaio Marsh, Margery Allingham and Baroness Emma Orczy. They call themselves the Queens of Crime. Their plan? Solve an actual murder, that of a young woman found strangled in a park in France who may have connections leading to the highest levels of the British establishment.
May Daniels, a young English nurse on an excursion to France with her friend, seemed to vanish into thin air as they prepared to board a ferry home. Months later, her body is found in the nearby woods. The murder has all the hallmarks of a locked room mystery for which these authors are famous: how did her killer manage to sneak her body out of a crowded train station without anyone noticing? If, as the police believe, the cause of death is manual strangulation, why is there is an extraordinary amount of blood at the crime scene? What is the meaning of a heartbreaking secret letter seeming to implicate an unnamed paramour? Determined to solve the highly publicized murder, the Queens of Crime embark on their own investigation, discovering they’re stronger together. But soon the killer targets Dorothy Sayers herself, threatening to expose a dark secret in her past that she would do anything to keep hidden.
Inspired by a true story in Sayers’ own life, New York Times bestselling author Marie Benedict brings to life the lengths to which five talented women writers will go to be taken seriously in the male-dominated world of letters as they unpuzzle a mystery torn from the pages of their own novels.
My thoughts:
I have long been a fan of Marie Benedict and was excited to see her latest novel was a historical mystery – that has really become my favorite type of read within the historical fiction genre. And I loved that this book brought to light such amazing female mystery writers, some of whom I had never heard of before!
I cannot believe that I haven’t really heard of Dorothy Sayers before – maybe just in passing – but not enough that I know her books. Of course, you know I’ll definitely be checking them out after this, along with the other authors of the Queens of Crime club that Sayers forms that I am not familiar with – Ngaio Marsh, Margery Allingham and Baroness Emma Orczy. I of course am quite familiar with Agatha Christie and loved that while she was involved with this book, it wasn’t all about her.
This book is all about these women fighting for a seat at the table when women were hardly given a glance. The men of the time – London in the 1930s – felt women didn’t belong in their club and so the women come up with a plan to solve a real murder. And I couldn’t have loved the fact that they found themselves a true locked-room murder to solve.
I loved that we see each of these women use the skills from their own writing as they work together to figure out what happened to the young nurse who apparently disappeared without a trace, only to have her body show up months later.
This is such a fast-paced, engaging read and I appreciated the themes it tackles – the importance of friendship, the social struggles the women faced and how the women collaborate to solve the crime. This book is inspired by true events and Marie Benedict does a fantastic job blending fact with fiction to tell a compelling, engaging story. Be sure to read the author’s note for details on her research and additional information!
Audio thoughts:
This was expertly narrated by Bessie Carter, who did an amazing job with all the voices and accents. It was so fun listening to this one and I found myself completely engaged from start to finish.
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