The Queens of Crime combines the best of mystery, historical fiction, and strong female characters. Knowing that this story is inspired by real life made it even more intriguing. I loved how the "queens of crime" used their wit and brains to collect details on what truly happened to May Daniels. They are creative and savvy. The characters were enjoyable and the plot was fast paced. I highly recommend this book!

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for a digital ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Marie Benedict is one of my favorite authors. So, I jumped at the opportunity to preview this book. This novel is different from her other novel. In previous books Ms. Benedict takes on real life historical women and digs deep into their lives, so they are part historical fiction and part fiction. In “The Queens of Crime” there are 5 female mystery writers who set out to solve a real life death. And, prove that women writers are just as important as their male counterparts. I found this book fun and quite different from what I was expecting.

Thank you #NetGalley, #St.Martin’sPress, #MarieBenedict, #BessieCarter and #TheQueensofCrime for the advance copy for my review.

Thank you to Net Galley and St. Martin's Press for the chance to read and review this book. All opinions expressed are my own.
Marie Benedict is one of my favorite authors. Every time I see a new book written by her; it goes on my "have to read" shelf. I have read all of her books, and all of them have been fantastic stories. This story was also exceptional. This story takes place in 1930 and involves five of the greatest mystery and crime writers of that time. They call themselves the Queens of Crime. In order to impress the other members of the legendary Detection Club (mostly man), they decide to solve a real murder. A young nurse has been strangled in a park in France, so they decide to find out what happened to her. I learned a lot in this story. I had heard of Agatha Christie and Dorothy L. Sayers, but not the other three ladies. I was curious so I looked them up to find out more about them. This story is very well-written and kept my interest right from the beginning. Highly recommend!

Thanks for the review copy. Benedict is an excellent historical fictitious writer, I love the cover, this hits a sweet spot between mystery and historical fiction.

The Queens of Crime is a nod to the five greatest female Golden Age mystery novelists: Dorothy Sayers, Agatha Christie, Ngaio Marsh, Margery Allingham, and Baroness Emma Orczy. They are members of the newly formed Detection Club, which still exists today. Treated poorly by the club's men due to sexism, the Queens use their mystery writing skills to solve a real case: the strangulation of an English nurse found in a park in France. This locked-room style mystery is well-suited to their skills and a great way to gain respect from their male counterparts. As they investigate the crime further, Dorothy becomes targeted by the killer. It's hard to know who to trust as the Queens suspect this could go up high in the British government.

Benedict does a splendid job of illustrating the bias against female victims. There are parallels to women in today's workplace. How far is one willing to go to get the recognition one deserves? As a woman, do you ever feel marginalized by not being taken seriously? I also loved the strong, historic female characters that Benedict carefully crafted and the fierce friendships among group members. For lovers of historical fiction and mystery, this book is a must-read!

Many thanks to NetGalley, St. Martins Press and Marie Benedict for an advance reader's copy in exchange for my honest review.

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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.

Loved it. Will recommend to others

4.25 stars

Marie Benedict’s upcoming historical fiction novel THE QUEENS OF CRIME takes the reader on a journey of learning about how five female detective writers, including Agatha Christie and Dorothy Sayers, came together to form the Queens of Crime and solve a real-life murder of a nurse who vanished five months prior and was found in the woods. Think THURSDAY MURDER CLUB with female detective writers.

I thoroughly enjoyed learning about these strong detective writers with a dose of feminism and a dose of empathy in learning about what was going on in the victim’s life and mind in the months leading up to her disappearance. Marie Benedict is very thorough in her research, and I particularly loved the character of Dorothy Sayers, a name which I have heard through the years but didn’t know anything about her. The other women detectives were interesting as well, but the reader doesn’t get a ton about the other detective writers except for Agatha Christie. I’m fairly confident that Benedict’s interest about this group was piqued while researching THE MYSTERY OF MRS. CHRISTIE.

I’m almost a Marie Benedict completist, and THE QUEENS OF CRIME has risen to be my favorite of her novels. If you enjoy historical fiction and enjoy early twentieth century detective novels, I think this will be a hit for you.

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for an advance listener copy in exchange for an honest review.

THE QUEENS OF CRIME publishes February 11, 2025.

In this historical fiction novel Marie Benedict again brings us a tale of strong women, this time authors Dorothy Sayers, Agatha Christie, Ngaio Marsh, Margery Allingham and Baroness Emma Orczy. When only Sayers and Christie are officially offered membership in the otherwise all male detection club of mystery writers, they invite their other three author friends to join the group, much to the dismay of the men. In an effort to gain their respect, the ladies, led by Dorothy Sayers who tells our story, decide to solve a real life murder mystery.

I really enjoyed the relationship between the authors, and how they related their fictional detective methods to the murder they were trying to solve. It was interesting to see the contrast between the clues the ladies had turned up vs what the male police inspectors had found. Benedict did a great job incorporating what Christie might have felt after the publicity she underwent after her disappearance into the character and the story line. I also went down my own rabbit hole looking up these authors and their books and may have to add one or two to my never ending TBR. If you enjoy historical fiction I encourage you to give this one a try.


Thank you to net galley as well as the publisher for the e-galley in return for an honest review.

Dorothy Sayers was one of the creators of The Detection Club, a group of crime writers in the 1930s. But what if she and a group of women had to solve a murder to prove their worth to be a part of the Detection Club? That's what the Queens of Crime do. This group, including Ngaio Marsh, Baroness Orczy, Margery Allingham, and Dame Agatha Christie, do just that in this interesting, imaginative story of these women's relationships.

This was a wonderful historical mystery, taking place during the Golden Age of mystery writing, with some actual Golden Age writers as the sleuths. The self-titled Queens of Crime solve a locked room mystery which is both historically appropriate and surprisingly timely, with echoes of women’s empowerment and the Me Too movement. I loved the relationships between the women, and the insights into their writing methods and style. All in all, a very enjoyable read.

I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Marie Benedict writes engrossing historical fiction about real-life strong women characters, some famous and some just famous-adjacent. She has previously written about Agatha Christie in “The Mystery of Mrs. Christie” and the author re-visits that British post World War era in 1931, 5 years after Agatha Christie’s 11 day disappearance (when her cheating husband was publicly revealed and properly humiliated). Mrs. Christie has dumped the cad and has a younger paramour now. Plus she’s finally ready to come out again in public, due to the coaxing of fellow mystery author, Dorothy Sayers. Agatha and Dorothy have been grudgingly accepted by the male mystery writers of the day, but they want to expand that acknowledgement to other women authors, including Ngaio Marsh, Margery Allingham, and Baroness Emma Orczy. Except for the baroness (in her sixties), they have an age range from 27 to 41 and they would all like the legitimacy of recognition.

Together they form “The Detection Club,” and new members are sworn to write without relying on "Divine Revelation, Feminine Intuition, Mumbo Jumbo, Jiggery Pokery, Coincidence or the Act of God" and "to observe a seemly moderation in the use of Gangs, Conspiracies, Death-Rays, Ghosts, Hypnotism, Trap-Doors, Chinamen, Super-Criminals and Lunatics, and utterly and forever to forswear Mysterious Poisons unknown to Science."

Led by Dorothy Sayers (the main character and first person narrator), the Queens of Crime decide to reassure the public of their competency by solving a real life murder mystery of a young English nurse who went missing on a day trip to France.

The audiobook is gloriously narrated by Bessie Carter who brings all the personalities to life (especially New Zealander Ngaio). This novel seems a tad different than some of Benedict’s other tales since it is trying to actively solve a murder, using the techniques and reasoning that the women have written about. We do learn about another past tragedy in Dorothy’s life, that she reflects upon why trying to find the murderer. I had access to both the ARC and audiobook — I far preferred Carter’s narration, although the plot keeps you interested to the very end. 5 stars for both book and audio!

Literary Pet Peeve Checklist:
Green Eyes (only 2% of the real world, yet it seems like 90% of all fictional females): NO No green ones among the detecting eyes.
Horticultural Faux Pas (plants out of season or growing zones, like daffodils in autumn or bougainvillea in Alaska): YES/NO

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press, MacMillan Audio and NetGalley for an advanced reader copy!

I read and really enjoyed The Only Woman in the Room and The Mystery of Mrs. Christie by this author, and I was excited to be approved to read an eARC of this one, but the writing was a departure from Benedict's usual style and it just didn't work for me at all. Unlike her other books, where the story focuses on the heavily-researched, fictionalized stories of real-life women that allowed the reader to learn something about those women, The Queens of Crime focuses on Dorothy L. Sayers and four of her female contemporaries of the time, including Agatha Christie, and uses them as detectives to solve a murder mystery.

My first problem was the characters. I wasn't able to connect with any of the characters at all. They felt two-dimensional and never came off the page for me. The dialogue, which I assume was intended to sound authentic, came off as stilted, lacking the panache and pluck these women must have had. The few tidbits of their real lives we pick up throughout the story didn't really pack enough punch in either educating me or in connecting me to the characters or storyline much. In fact, I had to Google the Queens of Crime to see if this was a moniker assigned to the group by society or if they were actually as they were portrayed in the story, a self-appointed subset of the larger Detection Club, and I couldn't find an answer, so hopefully there's an Author's Note added in the final copy of this book.

Probably the bigger problem I had was the pacing and writing. I found the pacing incredibly slow and the story much too drawn out. The writing itself was often pedantic and sometimes a little patronizing in how much was overexplained throughout. The book was fairly short and the chapters moved quickly, but it felt purposely drawn out, but could have been condensed even more by the time you remove unnecessary explanations and redundancies.

As a result of my problems with the characters, the pacing, and the writing in addition to the fact that I didn't really learn overmuch about Dorothy L. Sayers and the Queens of Crime, I struggled to engage with this book. I pushed through because of my respect for the author, but I honestly almost DNFed this at least once a week during the month it took me to read it.

I am sad to say that I cannot recommend this one, unfortunately.

This is such an intriguing concept for a book. It's almost like it's breaking the fourth wall of a movie like Deadpool does. It's even more fascinating that it is inspired by true events.

I will read anything Marie Benedict writes. I really enjoyed The Queens of Crime. The plot was great, the writing was amazing as always. I know when I pick up one of her books, I can expect to read about women who are real, flaws and all. I loved it.

I received an arc from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. As a longtime fan of Marie Benedict, I was excited to read her latest work. It did not disappoint. Like her other novels, this one has strong female characters. I kept going back and forth between google and the Queens of Crime to find out their true stories. I think Benedict kept the characters’ personalities true to life all while crafting a puzzling mystery. Highly recommend.

This was my first Marie Benedict novel, and it was a fun read! I loved learning about Dorothy Sayers & Agatha Christie and the other ladies. Even though the “mystery” portion wasn’t hard to figure out, it was fun to get to know these Queens of Crime as they tackle the mystery together.

Thanks NetGalley for the ARC, all opinions are my own.

I loved this book! It is historical fiction about women in the 1930s who write mystery novels. They form a group called the Queens of Crime. The group consists of: Dorothy Sayers, Agatha Christie, Ngaio Marsh, Margery Allingham, and Baroness Emma Orczy. They decide to try and solve the murder of a young English nurse in France.

I loved learning more about the personalities of the Queens of Crime. I wanted to read more of their actual books and started with Agatha Christie. I hope there will be an author’s note because I would love to hear what she has to say about the book.

Thank you to Marie Benedict, NetGalley and St. Martins Press for the advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Publication Date: February 11

This is a total treat for readers who love traditional mysteries and historical fiction. Five golden age mystery authors (they call themselves the queens of crime) band together to actually solve a real life murder -- Dorothy L. Sayers, Agatha Christie, and three others. Marie Benedict is such a good author, and she tells a great story here!

Marie Benedict knows how to write historical fiction. I just loved this! What a fun journey into the world of crime writing in the 1930s. I really felt transported. A fast paced mystery novel built on the foundation of strong female friendships.

I really enjoyed this book. The authors are well portrayed. They start out determined to show up male authors by solving a real unsolved murder. They learn to work together, improving their sills. As they work a case they change how they think of the victim. She becomes a real person. They learn to care about her more than showing up the men. I received an Advanced Reader Copy courtesy of Net Galley and I am leaving a review voluntarily.