In 1930, when a young English nurse disappears during a visit to France, five of the greatest female crime writers band together to solve the mystery. This book has such a fun premise! Agatha Christie, Dorothy Sayers, Ngaio Marsh, Margery Allingham, and Emma Orczy assign themselves the title “Queens of Crime” and the fun begins. While they try to prove to their male counterparts that they aren’t second-class citizens, they learn about cooperation over competition. More importantly, the women realize solving this real murder has much greater stakes than crafting their fictional works.

I’m a fan of Marie Benedict, and she didn’t disappoint with this book. The fact that a true story in Sayers’ life inspired it made the reading all the more intriguing. My favorite part was the relationship between Christie and Sayers. I loved Benedict’s take on how these two strong women might have worked together. I was unfamiliar with the rest of the authors, but now I’m going to check out their bodies of work.

Mystery, a look inside history, insights into female friendship, and the “battle” of the sexes, combine with well-rounded, interesting characters to make The Queens of Crime compelling and entertaining. Curl up with a cuppa and a soft blanket and lose yourself in its pages.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for an advance reader copy.

e-book ARC from Netgalley, all opinions are my own

This is my second Marie Benedict, and I thoroughly enjoyed it :) As usual, there is a well developed blend of history and fiction, real people and made up characters... Dorothy L Sayers and Agatha Christie, as well as Ngaio Marsh, Margery Aligham and Emma Orczy, solve the murder (that was passed over by the police as a drug related death) of a young woman.

I feel as though the personalities and dialogue for each of the female mystery writes was true to the real woman, and I was happy to read more about their lives and careers.

I like historical fiction and I loved the premise of this book, but this didn't quite work for me. I didn't feel as if the women were working as a team, and the tone of the dialogue didn't work well for me. The book was incredibly slow in some parts and moved too quickly in others. Thanks to NetGalley for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

The Queens of Crime is a great "what if" story about the Queens of mysteries in the Golden Era of Detective Fiction.

Dorothy Sayers and several other mystery writers are launching The Detection Club. The male members want to admit just one other woman, Agatha Christie, but Dorothy tricks them into admitting three others - Baroness Emma Orczy, the author of the Scarlet Pimpernel novels, Ngaio Marsh, the author of the Inspector Alleyn novels, and Margery Allingham, author of the Albert Campion novels.

The women form a club within the club, and set out to make their mark by solving a real mystery. An English nurse, May Daniels, was killed in France, and the Queens of Crime decide to investigate.

This novel is great fun. I love the interplay between the women writers and their sharp minds as they solve the crime. If you love old mysteries and mystery writers, you will enjoy this book.

I received an advance copy via NetGalley.

This new work from repeated bestseller Benedict brings together five early 1930s mavens of mystery, headed up by Dorothy Sayers: Agatha Christie, Ngaio Marsh, Margery Allingham and Baroness Emma Orczy. When they join a detective writer society dominated by men, they are dismissed and ignored even by those they deemed allies. Riled, they set upon a method of proving themselves: by solving the genuine locked door mystery of a British nurse, May Daniels, who recently vanished in France, her body just discovered.

As they uncover details about the young woman’s life and death, her case becomes personal, not a means to an end. The women use their ingenuity to talk to the woman’s family, friends, and police, drawing uncomfortable attention upon themselves as they seek to right a wrong.

I read one of the author’s previous books, The Mystery of Mrs. Christie, and liked it well enough, especially as it aided my research needs. It was interesting to see her take on Agatha as a character again, years later. I hope regular genre readers will understand what I mean when I say this very much reads like literary fiction, not a cozy mystery. It is more about the women and their growing friendships; the mystery feels largely solved early on, with lack of proof a main issue through an ending that lacked the significant twists one expects in a full-on mystery. That said, it’s still a fun read, and I imagine it will spur others (as it did me) to see out books by the other women authors (beyond Christie) in the cadre.

Imagine Dorothy Sayers, Agatha Christie and Ngaio Marsh as well as several other female contemporaries putting their crime solving skills together to solve the mystery of a nursing student on a one day visit to France. Learning about these ladies made for a fun read as the take on the "locked room" puzzle.

This book was great. She’s an excellent author & I’ve read other works of hers. I had an ARC from NetGalley. I love mystery and I love Agatha Christie. I love the real life mystery of her person. This book was set in the 30’s so I enjoyed the historical element. A book with strong female characters.

I was excited to read this as I've already enjoyed books by this author and because the premise sounded intriguing. I loved the idea of the female mystery writers teaming up to solve a real-life crime. However, it never quite felt like the women were working as a team. Dorothy kept going off on her own as if she wanted to be the star, leaving the other women as the supporting cast. This is despite the fact that it was her idea for the women to work together, and despite her supposed desire for all of the women to be taken seriously.

The ending didn't work for me. It felt like an ending from a classic mystery novel. Maybe that was the point, but it didn't feel realistic or appropriate for historical fiction. Perhaps it would have helped if there had been an author's note at the end explaining what was fact, what was conjecture, and what liberties were taken and why. This was an ARC, though. Hopefully the final version will include such a note.

The other issue I had was with the portrayal of Agatha Christie. She seemed so broken here. I've read The Mystery of Mrs. Christie, also by Marie Benedict, and that is not the way I remember her being shown in that book. I found that a bit jarring.

Thank you to NetGalley and to St. Martin's Press for the early read.

Part historical fiction and part mystery, THE QUEENS OF CRIME turned out to be such a clever and fun book to read and a fascinating glimpse into 1930s Britain. Quite different from other books I've read by Marie Benedict.

By way of background, I had never heard of the Detection Club (aka the London Detection Club) before reading this novel. But this is where the novel begins.

Formed in 1930 by a group of British mystery writers (link to: list of members), the idea was for members to meet regularly, share ideas and concerns, and generally offer support to a genre that, at the time, didn't get much respect.

It turns out that neither did the female members of the group. This author explains that from the start, male writers wanted to limit the number of female members. But that didn't sit well with founding members Agatha Christie (1890-1976) and Dorothy L. Sayers (1893-1957). According to this book (though NOT backed up by the actual dates these five women joined the club), Christie and Sayers concoct a way to add more women members, by secretly inviting Baroness Emma Orczy (1865-1947), Margery Allingham (1904-1966), and Ngaio Marsh (1895-1982) to join. But, of course, membership alone doesn't guarantee equal treatment.

The five women authors (we do get to learn a bit more about each individually) agree that to gain the respect they deserve, they should together solve the murder of a young nurse, a crime that had so far stumped police in both England and France. How the women approach this work forms the guts of this story. And it's very skillfully executed, as any mystery connected with writers should be.

There's a quiet theme of feminism that underlies the plot. These are widely known and wildly successful writers and yet their peers virtually ignore them - simply because of their gender. Uncovering the story of the murdered nurse also illustrates the prevailing attitudes of many men toward women in the 1930s. So, I loved discovering how these five mystery writers find a way to fight back about misogyny.

Highly recommended. Even without the history references, THE QUEENS OF CRIME is a fun mystery to read.

Imagine what 5 female "golden age" mystery writers can accomplish when they set about to solve a real life locked room murder. A wonderful look at British life and women's emergence.

DNF 11% (through Ch. 7) - I received an ARC through NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

I could not finish this book. A murder mystery solved by famous female detective novelists is a fanatic premise. Unfortunately, the liberties taken with certain historical elements rubbed me the wrong way.

As a woman, I encounter sexism periodically even in our current "more enlightened" age. A century ago, women battled constantly to get us where we are today. That does not mean that every club of the time was a boys club, not every man of the time inclined to snub women simply for her gender. The raucous pounding of the girl-power drum overpowered anything clever or interesting the book had to offer.

If it was an invented club of imaginary women, I may have stuck around. This book traded on the title of The Queens Of Crime and made the Detection Club into a boys club they needed to infiltrate. Those women were warriors against sexism, and most of them built that club! I can not pretend that they would be unwelcome, nor that they would be so inept at throwing their weight around if it came to it. The world they lived in was built to keep women in a box. They were devoted to breaking out of that box.

I enjoy books with powerful women, women who stand together and for one another. This was not that book for me.

Marie Benedict always gives us a great story as she highlights real people in her historical fiction. The Queen’s of Crime is really about five female authors in Great Britain finagling how to get all five into a group of mystery writers. Two of the authors are Dorothy Sayers and Agatha Christie. Dorothy spearheads their cause. She suggests they solve an actual crime, and so they do. It’s a great story with mystery and a presentation of how men then underestimated women, as they continue to do today.

Queens of crime is a fictionalized account of 5 famous female crime writers of the Golden Age of Mysteries solving an actual murder. Like most Marie Benedict novels, it uses the real life names of the characters but the story is fictionalized. Agatha Christie is the most famous of the writers. It is interesting how they are developed as characters. I am not familiar enough with all of them and their work to judge how accurately they are portrayed.

I found it slow going at first, partly because i am not familiar with the male mystery writers who appear as characters in the book. However, once the women started investigating a real murder, I did find it very engrossing. It was especially interesting how differently the women viewed the case compared to the police and journalists who were all male at the time.

One editorial note:

At Location 814, Dorothy says “ I purposely did not single her out by name” referring to Ngaio Marsh. However, she did mention her detective Inspector Alleyn along with the detectives of the other writers

I enjoyed so much about this book. A murder mystery solved by five famous female mystery writers. It was so much fun and I honestly want to do research on them and read some of their books now. I didn’t love the way the story wrapped up, but overall it was fun and intriguing.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book set in the 1930s about a group of women detective story writers, including Dorothy Sayers and Agatha Christie, who band together to solve the murder of 19 year old May Daniels. They initially started out with the plan to solve the mystery, so that the men in the Detective Club would take them seriously, but in their quest to solve the murder, they began to truly feel a need to vindicate May Daniels. This book definitely kept me curious and wanting to find time to read more. Bravo, Marie Benedict! You have written another great historical fiction novel.

I received this ARC from Netgalley and the publisher for my honest opinion.

When the legendary Detection Club was formed in London in 1930 it included the four greatest female mystery writers of the Golden Age. Dorothy Sayers, Margary Allingham, Agatha Christie and Baroness Emma Orczy known as "the queens of crime". However despite their popularity and strong sales their male counterparts were disdainful and patronizing to the queens annoyance. The formidable literary sleuths determined to rectify matters by solving a real life murder. May Daniels, a young English nurse on holiday in France disappeared from a ferry terminal moments before departure. Months later her body was found in a secluded park. Retracing her steps and interviewing those close to her reveals some surprising truths which the cops missed . When Sayers is attacked it becomes clear the queens are getting too close to the culprit. I have read some of Benedict's other works. She has a unique knack of bringing historical figures to life on the page. I was thrilled to discover that her new book pertained to four of my favorite authors and included a murder mystery as well as the biographical insights. I was disappointed. The four have very different personality styles and creative processes. The interactions between them as they get to know and understand each other during the course of the narrative was engaging and realistic. A well researched, well written narrative rich in historical and biographical detail. Recommend highly.

The Queens of Crime
By Marie Benedict

The story here is an interesting concept. It is set in the 1830s – the Victorian era. At the time, while women were most certainly writing murder mysteries, they were not well accepted by their male counterparts. In addition, these kinds of books – no matter the author – were not considered good literature.

The book begins with the formation of the Detection Club, whose purpose is to raise the standing for these kinds of books above pulp fiction. One of the founders is none other than Dorothy Sayers, creator of Lord Peter Wimsey. She is determined to see more female mystery writers included in the Detection Club. To that end, she conspires with Agatha Christie to include Baroness Emma Orczy (The Scarlet Pimpernel); Ngaio Marsh (Inspector Alleyn); and Margery Allingham (Albert Campion).

When the men in the club are not accepting of this influx of women writers, the ladies decide that they must solve a real-life murder mystery to increase their credibility. Thus the game begins.

This group of women sometimes seem to confuse themselves with their detective characters – and indeed put themselves in harm's way. But along with way to solving the murder, the women give us much of their own personal back-stories. This makes for some interesting reading – and a better understanding of women's struggles against the conventions of Victorian society.

1931, crime-writer, journalist, misogynistic-era, historical-fiction, historical-figures, historical-mystery, historical-places-events, historical-research, thriller, suspense, collaborators, colleagues, amateur-sleuth, mystery, women's fiction, murder, murder-investigation, cozy-mystery****

Tired of the misogyny among renowned mystery writers, the women writers who are considered the Grande Dames (or queens) of the art of mystery fiction band together to prove their superiority by solving a current murder of an English nurse in coastal France in 1931. They travel together to do their own investigation, and the first thing they notice are the inconsistencies in the police reports.
With the reader as voyeur, they are able to elicit more information and correctly solve the mystery
I requested and received a temporary review copy from St. Martin's Press via NetGalley. Thank you
Pub Date Feb 11 2025 by #MarieBenedict #TheQueensOfCrime #NetGalley

3.5, rounded up.
A fun, quick mystery with just enough history to make it feel slightly literary and give it some gravitas. The only thing that dampened my enthusiasm was that this was the third in a string of books about a ragtag team of amateur detectives coming together to solve a murder/crime (Thursday Murder Club, The Southern Bookclub's Guide to Slaying Vampires, and now this). I'm not sure how I happened to read these three in a row, as they've got very different release dates, but such is life.

Going into this one, all I knew was that I liked Benedict's penchant for exploring the lives of under-the-radar women from history. I have previously read The Christie Affair, which was just okay, so I knew a bit about the famed disappearance of Christie, and I'm glad that this book doesn't really focus on that particular mystery. Yes, it comes into play a bit, but this book is focused on an entirely different case, and is told from the POV of Dorothy Sayers, who was supposedly far more 'type A' than the notoriously shy Christie. I do wish the book had included a brief section that told us about the real-life ladies and which things were drawn from reality, as I had no idea these ladies were indeed members of the London-based Detection Club. I struggled to suspend my disbelief throughout the entire book because the concept of them being involved in a club together felt like such a plot device, so knowing it was true from the start would likely have made it an even more enjoyable read.

Fans of mysteries and historical fiction with a feminist bent will enjoy this.

In a field dominated by men, a legendary group of female writers come together to solve an actual murder in order to gain distinction and prove that they belong in the Detection Club along with the men. Characters Dorothy Sayers, Agatha Christie, Ngaio Marsh, Marjorie Allingham and Broness Emma Orczy are historical crime writers and this book is based on actual historical events. The story is a delightful mystery that becomes even more compelling when you know that these women were actual real life people. I found myself researching background information about these women and learning so much.
This book kept my attention from beginning to end. The story was very engaging. I have read a number of Marie Benedict’s books and they are always a fascinating perspective on a female historical figure. Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for this ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.