Marie Benedict’s The Queens of Crime (pub date 2/11/25) 👑👑👑👑

This was intriguing to get into the minds of 5 crime writers at their prime in 1931 as they set off to solve a murder. #truecrime
If only there were pod casts back then. The story is intriguing and moves quickly. While actively depicting women’s suppression during the 1930’s, she captures the strength and empowerment women provide to one another to overcome injustices. Loved it ❣️

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martins Press for this advanced copy.

#queens #womensfiction #womenempowerment #mariebenedict #queensofcrime #netgalley #stmartinspress

4/5 ⭐️
Real Mystery Writers become detectives and try to solve a crime! This is a wonderful and fun mystery novel to read. My first approach to Marie Benedict andI really loved her writing style. The Queens of Crime is inspired by real events and it is told from the perspective of Dorothy Sayer, and English Novelist. Having Agatha Christie as a sidekick was a delight. Benedict’s new novel will be published next February 11th, 2025

This was an excellent book!! I enjoyed the character development as well as how the plot was developed throughout the story. The author was able to to do a good job with all aspects of the story. I would recommend to others.

Marie Benedict’s latest, The Queens of Crime, is a fictionalized story about a real group of British women crime and mystery writers in the 1920s and 1930s.

In this book the authors, including our main character, a fictionalized version of Dorothy Sayers, work together to solve a real life crime, the disappearance of a single young nurse while visiting France with a colleague, in order to prove their skills to their male counterparts and fellow members of a cub of writers, the Detection Club.

The group includes, along with Dorothy, Agatha Christie (who also appeared in a previous Benedict novel that I enjoyed, The Mystery of Mrs. Christie) and lesser known writers Margery Allingham and Ngaio Marsh (along with Emma Orczy who doesn’t appear to have been a real life member of the group, although she did write the Scarlet Pimpernel novels).

I like Benedict’s writing because although it is historical fiction, and although it is old fashioned in some ways, it still feels modern and tackles topics relatable to women of all ages and eras.

Fans of her previous books, as well as fans of closed door/Agatha Christie type mysteries, will enjoy this latest book!

Marie Benedict writes a locked room mystery a la Agatha Christie, Ngaio Marsh, Dorothy Sayers, Margery Allingham, and Baroness Emma Orczy from the golden he of mystery. Who better to solve it than those amazing authors? Narrated by Dorothy Sayers, Benedict brings each of these women to life while also addressing their second class status in the mostly male Detective Club. They believe they will be taken seriously by the men if they can solve a real life murder.

This is a highly enjoyable mystery full of twists and turns. For any mystery reader who enjoys the Grand Dames of the Golden Age, Marie Benedict has hit it out of the park.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the chance to read this arc in exchange for an honest review.

In THE QUEENS OF CRIME, written by Marie Benedict, the story is told from Dorothy Sayers’ point of view and is set in 1930s London. Dorothy Sayers leads a Detective Club (The Queens of Crime) consisting of female mystery writers—Dorothy Sayers, Agatha Christie, Ngaio Marsh, Margery Allingham, and Baroness Emma Orczy. What is this group up to? I wonder if they will be accepted by male mystery writers.

The novel holds my attention from the beginning scene, where Dorothy Sayers meets with Agatha Christie, to its conclusion. The Queens of Crime work together to explore the real-life mysterious disappearance and death of a nurse, May Daniels. I would have liked this mystery to surface earlier in the book, but that may because I read so many novels where death is the focus. In this novel, I enjoy getting to learn about the female mystery authors and glimpses of how they write their mysteries. The actual mystery involving May Daniels is also interesting but does not take center stage for me. Thank you, St. Martin's Press and NetGalley, for the chance to read and review an advance reader copy of THE QUEENS OF CRIME.

The Queens of Crime - Marie Benedict
Genre: Historical Fiction & Mystery
Imagine one of your favorite contemporary writers writing about some of your favorite historical writers - what a dream, right? So it is with Marie Benedict’s The Queen’s of Crime - a mystery reader’s delight. Dorothy L. Sayers, Agatha Christie, Margery Allingham, Baroness Emma Orczy, and Ngaio Marsh are treated as “less than” in an exclusive club for mystery writers because they are women. With Dorothy in the lead, they decide that solving the murder of young nurse May Daniels that has baffled police for some time will gain them the notoriety they need to break that glass ceiling. Along the way they must challenge that ceiling in more ways than they can initially fathom.
Dorothy Sayers is a force with which to be reckoned. She will use her journalist husband’s sources, travel, rally the ladies, and take on some powerful British men and the police to solve the story of May Daniels. Throughout their journey, she of all the queens has, perhaps, the most to lose. She has protected her own secrets for quite a long time. The mistreatment of another woman spurs to risk even those. Women have been battling to be heard at a number of levels for a very long time. Benedict captures that battle while crafting a fascinating mystery that would have made the queens proud. She also captures the spirit of friendship in a beautiful way. Each of the queens comes to the table with her own quirks - one prefers pants, another is well used to her wealth, more than Dorothy has a secret. Rather than allowing these quirks to divide them, they use them to work together. Because of this effort, beautiful friendships develop - again speaking to the power of women working together. May never gets to benefit from their work, but what they gain is incalculable, professionally and personally. We get the sense that these queens have only just begun.
Benedict does not disappoint. I love how through her commitment to women and to detailed research, she continues to bring the lives of unsung women in history to life. I can easily become discouraged as in many ways the fight to be heard as women continues. And really, how dare I, who has more privileges than even my mother, and certainly more than my grandmothers, be discouraged? In The Queens of Crime, Marie Benedict provides mystery, history, amazing women, and, of course, inspiration.

The Queens of Crime by Marie Benedict
Narrated by Bessie Carter

It is thanks to Marie Benedict's The Mystery of Mrs. Christie and other historical fiction that I really became interested in all the secrecy about Agatha Christie's past. Now the author has written an historical fiction that includes Agatha Christie and other real life crime fiction writers of old. I was only familiar with the name of Dorothy Sayers and not familiar at all with the other featured crime writers in this book, besides Agatha Christie. Dorothy leads the way with this story as we see things from her POV.

I was able to have both the audiobook and ebook in front of me. Bessie Carter does a fabulous job of narrating the book and the ebook allowed me to search the internet for names and places as I listened to the story. Although the story is historical fiction, the afterword by the author lets us know what parts of the story lean on real life events and what parts of the story have been fictionalized. Now I'm interested in several other women crime fiction writers than just Agatha Christie and I foresee more more reading and researching in my future.

I got such a feel for the time and place and became well acquainted with the manner of dress and affectations of each of the women crime writers who aid Dorothy and Agatha in their investigation of the death of May Daniels, a young nurse who has been done wrong. Law enforcement wants no meddling from women and they also want to shelve this incident, putting all the blame of her death on the young woman herself. Dorothy, Agatha, and their cohorts are not going to allow this to happen and it's fun following them around on their sleuthing jaunts. Each woman will fall back on "what would so and so do", using their own fictional characters to help them decide how to approach each turn in this murder case. I was able to buddy read this story with DeAnn and we are now both interested in learning much more than we ever knew about these women.

Thank you to Macmillan Audio, St. Martin's Press, and NetGalley for this ARC.

Another great book by Marie Benedict. This one centres around Dorothy L. Sayers and the Queens of Crime, and also involves a real-life incident. I loved how each of the writers is portrayed. The interplay between Dorothy and the other women feels authentic and very much like the steps they took would have really happened. I also very much enjoyed how the women approached the disappearance of May Daniels much as one of their characters would have. Life as fiction. Fiction as life. Very satisfying and a good first book for the year!

4 True Crime Stars

This is my second book by Marie Benedict, but I enjoy her writing so much that I’m going back and reading some of her older titles! She’s a master at historical writing that brings real people to life.

In this story, we have five female crime writers (of course, Agatha Christie is among them) who band together in a club and decide to tackle an actual murder case and try to solve it. Dorothy Sayers is the main character in this one, and while I have heard of her, I haven’t read any of her books. Those are on my list now, too!

Watching these five women solve a crime like their book detectives and build a friendship was quite a ride. It was harder to read about how women were treated and thought of in the 1930s. Nursing was not a good profession; once pregnant, no woman could work. There were more women than men after WWI (and WWII). Despite contributions during the war, the women are now considered “surplus women” and expected to return to traditional household roles. Women were considered below men on so many levels. I’m glad some progress has been made on these fronts.

The women travel to France and all over England to solve the murder of Nurse May Daniels and redeem her name. I loved the ingenuity of the women and this was a delightful story to lose myself in for a few hours!

I thoroughly enjoyed this read! I was engaged the whole time and didn't want to put it down. The story was so good and I couldn't figure out what the ending was going to be.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for this advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

3.5 / 5

A solid historical mystery which reimagines the famous ‘Queens of Crime’, a female group of amazing golden age mystery writers, which included Agatha Christie, as they decide to take matters into their own hands and solve a cold case.

I had heard of most of these incredible mystery writers but confess I’ve only ever read Christie. I now have added Ngaio Marsh, Dorothy Sayers, Margery Allingham, and Baroness Emma Orczy to my to-read list.

Thank you to the author, publisher, and Net Galley for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I enjoyed the Queens of Crime. It is an interesting mystery with famous authors doing the investigating. It was fun and entertaining. I would have liked an author's note at the end explaining some of the historical information.

This historical fiction is well written and very interesting. The plot sees the five most preeminent mystery writers of the time getting together to solve a real life crime. It is a story that reflects the history of women in England following WWII. The women travel across England and to France as they feverishly search for clues. It reflects their determination and intrepid spirit as they fight off the barbs of men and the dangers surrounding them. The author gives great descriptions of the setting and the characters that brings everything vividly to life. The dialogue is witty and very easy to read. This will make a very good book club read.

Marie Benedict has created another hit with this historical fiction work depicting real life mystery writers, including Agatha Christie and Dorothy Sayers, who band together to create a club in order to solve a real life mystery to help them enter a male-dominated club. I loved this and know so many people who will also love it. The story is both fascinating and heartwarming and I loved the feminist theme and the way that the authors in the story used their female perspectives to see this mystery in a whole different light than their male counterparts. Marie Benedict’s books are already a hit with book clubs and these definitely will be as well. Ideal for fans of both cozy mysteries and historical fiction.

I really enjoy reading Marie Benedict's books because I learn about wonderful historical figures I didn't know about prior. This is another fascinating, interesting mystery story.

From the excerpt: " 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."

It was interesting to learn about the Detection Club, how Dorothy helped form the club but the men limited the number of women included. Then she took it into her own hands and invited the other ladies. I loved how they used their skills and background to help solve the mystery together. It was a really interesting storyline, fascinating characters and kept me reading.

Thank you to NetGalley, the author and publisher for a temporary, digital ARC in return for my review.

I’m a big fan of both Marie Benedict and Agatha Christie, so I was thrilled to get an early read of this book. Agatha and 4 other female mystery writers team up in London in the 1930s and form a group called The Queens of Crime. Led by Dorothy Sayers, they decided the only way to be taken seriously by the male writers is to solve an actual crime.

The title refers to the women who were crime writers at the time, Agatha Christie, Ngaio Marsh, Margery Allingham, and Baroness Emma Orczy and Dorothy Sayers, the leader of the group. They have decided to solve the mystery of a young English nurse who was strangled in a France. While crime solving was the framework for the story, at heart it’s about the bond and friendship of these women. Marie Benedict’s stellar research sets the stage for a well written book. Recommended for all public libraries.

Marie Benedict is an autobuy author for me. I'll be honest, upon seeing the cover and title, I thought this was a novel similar to Heather Webb's Queens of London. I often don't read the books blurb! Well, I was wrong , haha, and once that confusion resolved itself as the story built I completely lost myself in this novel. Like so many of Marie's novels, it's an ingenious concept with a stellar execution. The women rocked it in this story!

I thoroughly anjoyed this take on historical fiction where 5 well-known female mystery writers band together in 1930s London to solve a crime in the hopes of establishing legitmacy with their male counterparts. I found the whole premise delightful, and it was executed well. I'd love to see this become a series!

Thank you to #NetGalley and #StMartinsPress for a free copy of #TheQueensOfCrime by Marie Benedict. All opinions are my own.