I listened to Marie Benedict's earlier book, The Other Einstein, which gave me a sense of the feminist lens she uses in her historical fiction so I was excited to read the blurb about The Queens of Crime. The premise sounded fantastic - the greatest female mystery authors of the era joining forces to solve a real murder in 1931. Unfortunately the story itself was a bit flat for me. The actual process of solving the crime (examining clues, interviewing witnesses, gleaning information from various sources, coming up with hypotheses) felt a bit . And, maybe more disappointing, was the fact that the lead characters never really took shape - the mystery writers at the heart of the story seemed relegated to being superficial caricatures primarily focused on one aspect of their personality or appearance. Dorothy Sayers (the main protagonist) and Agatha Christie were slightly more 3-dimensional, because they had some backstory, but even they came across as undeveloped, but I had hoped for characters that were more complex and friendship between the women that felt more genuine and dynamic. I did enjoy being immersed into the setting and the time period, but I had hoped for more.

Many thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the opportunity to read this e-arc.

Inspired by a true story, five British crime writers try to solve a cold case, set in the 1930's. very interesting read. I enjoyed it very much.

In post WWI Britain mystery writers don't get enough respect from the literary community. So they form a club to work on this issue. One problem, the female mystery writers don't get enough respect from the mystery writer community. So, the five "queens of crime", Dorothy Sayers, Ngaio Marsh, Agatha Christie, Margery Allingham and Baroness Emma Orzy, band together to solve a real crime - that of a missing nurse. It is fun to see them work together and show up the "old boys".

A fun murder mystery solved by real historical figures -- a set of five women mystery authors who -- if you're a reader -- you know well! Written in Benedict's gripping and dramatic style. Hard to put down

For the past several years I have been reading the murder mysteries of Agatha Christie. I have been enjoying the detective novels immensely getting to know Hercule Poirot, Tommy and Tuppence Beresford and Miss Marple. Until reading this most recent book by Marie Benedict, I wasn’t aware there were other women novelists who dominated the genre during Christie’s time. This story brings five of these writers together to solve a real life crime of a young nurse. Using their knowledge of how they created and solved “locked room mystery”, these queens team together as we wind through plot twists and red herrings to find the murderer. This story has even the best “detectives” of the time stumped. In my opinion Marie Benedict should be crowned the Queen of Historical Fiction!

I enjoyed this book. Five women mystery writers are brought together to solve a cold case murder. The author uses the differing personalities and quirks of each mystery writer to bring something to progress their investigation. They must learn to collaborate with one another, despite their conflicts and differing ways of framing their own murder mysteries. The five authors get caught up in solving the mystery and use their skills in following clues and add more information to the case. I could not put this book down

Inspired by a true story in detective novelist Dorothy Sayers’ life, Marie Benedict has written The Queens of Crime coming out February 11. In the spring of 1927, Sayers accompanied her journalist husband Mac Fleming to France to report a story about an English nurse who went on a day trip to Boulogne in October 1926, never to be seen again.

With this fact nugget, Benedict has created a story in which Sayers not only goes to France with her husband to learn more about the missing nurse case, but she also bonds with four other British crime writers to see if they can solve the crime and elevate their status with their male counterparts. These writers-turned-sleuths included Agatha Christie, Ngaio Marsh, Margery Allingham, and Baroness Emma Orczy, the Queens of Crime along with Sayers.

May Daniels and fellow nurse Celia McCarthy were to return to England on a 5:30 p.m. ferry. While May went to the cloakroom to tidy up, Celia waited and waited for May to return but May had disappeared, never to be seen again until her body was found in a bush in a park in Boulogne months later. The Queens quickly identified the first part of the disappearance as a locked room mystery, and from there, Sayers found a way to duplicate May’s disappearance in plain sight.

Other parts of the puzzle included determining why the ground underneath the body was soaked in blood when the cause of death was determined to be strangulation and/or a drug overdose. More sleuthing by the Queens turned up a locker key and a letter penned by May. Working together, they may just solve the entire case, but getting the police to take their investigation seriously presented another problem.
Things turn ugly for Sayers when she is physically attacked by an assailant. After recovering from that, she receives a threat to expose a secret that she has concealed for years if she does not drop the search for May’s killer. Sayers and the Queens must work fast to confront suspects in May’s killing while keeping the writer’s private life just that: private.

Marie Benedict has made her writing career by sharing the hidden stories about strong women in history including Mitza Maric the physicist wife of Albert Einstein, mystery writer Agatha Christie, movie star Hedy Lamarr, and Clementine Hozier, the wife of Winston Churchill. Benedict lives with her family in Pittsburgh.

My review will be posted on Goodreads starting September 18, 2024.

I would like to thank St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in return for an objective review.

Thanks to NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for a review.

This is such an interesting premise for a mystery novel. I loved the incorporation of famous authors from the past into a story that still feels relevant to us today. This book is really dynamic and has some good characters and the plot is paced beautiful with a few good twists!

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.

What a great premise for a story! Marie Benedict brings together five women mystery writers to solve a cold case murder.
It's London, 1930's and we have Agatha Christie, Dorothy Sayers, and three other mystery writers I wasn't familiar with. They want to join the Detection Club, a group of mostly male writers, but need to get admitted. Their scheme to gain admittance leads them to solve the murder. May Daniels was a nurse, whose body was found in a park in France. The local police claim it was a drug related death, but these women claim otherwise. A fun story, with women making their presence known as they fight to be taken seriously as they work on solving this case- and others? You'll have to read yourself to find out!
Thank you to NetGalley and St Martins Publishing for this digital copy in exchange for my honest review.

I have had the pleasure of reading several historical fiction novels by Marie Benedict, all of which I thoroughly enjoyed. However, "The Queens of Crime" presented a unique twist. This cozy mystery features five renowned female mystery authors who come together to solve a murder set in the 1920s. While the story started off slowly, it quickly gained momentum, leading me to become deeply invested in both the plot and the characters. This is particularly noteworthy, as cozy mysteries are not typically my preference. Nonetheless, Benedict's exceptional writing truly captivated me.

Thank you to Net Galley and St’. Martin’s Press for the ARC to read and review.

One of the many reasons I love historical fiction is because it excites me to do additional research into the characters and/or events of the story. Such was the case with Queens of Crimes where I learned more about these illustrious women mystery writers as well as the real life victim in this story.

Set in London, the story takes place during the “Golden Age of Detective Fiction” where we meet the esteemed and accomplished female mystery writers Dorothy Sayers, Agatha Christie, Margery Allingham, Ngaio Marsh and Baroness Emma Orczy. Within a larger club of male writers who viewed them as inferior, they form their own secret club famously known as the Queens of Crime and set out to solve the real life murder of Nurse May Daniels. I was fascinated as Ms. Benedict gave us glimpses into the minds of our female author detectives, as they tried to imagine how they would write their fictional sleuths as they followed the path of a victim. Marie Benedict is undoubtedly a Queen of Historical Fiction as evidenced by her books depicting strong female protagonists during periods in history when their spirit and fortitude was not the norm and went against the grain.

Thank you NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press and Marie Benedict for the opportunity to receive a digital copy of this fabulous story in exchange for my honest review.

I have read all of Marie Benedicts books and she is a wonderful champion of unknown women... in this case, better knows. Written well, I enjoyed the diifferent approach in this book and appreciate the opportunity to read.

8 am a big fan of Marie Benedict. This book was interesting and cleverly written but it was a little slow getting into. It was about five famous female mystery writers in the 1930’s solve a hidden room crime using their deductive reasoning and brilliant minds. The police have given up on the murder of a nurse. These women take on the case to prove their worth. It was interesting to see how they were able to do this. Thank you net galley and st martins publishing for letting me read this

Fans of Dorothy Sayers, Agatha Christie, etc. will love this imagining of this team of female mystery authors banding together to solve a mystery.

📖 The Queens of Crime 📖 And she has done it again; it does not matter if she is writing about First Ladies or The Queens of Crime, Marie Benedict is the master of giving a voice to women. It’s 1930’s London, the Golden Age of mystery and women are emerging in the genre but their voices are not yet equal to those of men. This beautiful novel is an absolutely fascinating deep dive into this era, showing the tenacity, innovation, creativity, and heart of writers that created a prolific collection of work . When a young woman is found murdered, the female writers treat her death like a crime in one of their novels in an attempt to solve this cold case. The Queens of Crime is a stunningly captivating piece of historical fiction that brings light to a magnificently mysterious period of masterpieces.

I enjoyed Benedict's newest novel as it combined two of my favorite genres - historical fiction and mystery. This story focuses on the lives of five female authors in the 1930s. While I am familiar with Agatha Christie, I didn't know much about the other four ladies. The mystery was a little predictable, but I appreciated how the women fought to be taken seriously.

Thank you NetGalley for this arc.

This was a fun story. I had never heard of the Detection Club, but it is an interesting concept. It would have been enjoyable to be in the presence of great mystery writers such as Christie, Sayers, Chesterton, Orczy, Morrison, etc. It is also believable that the men in the club would have been reluctant to allow more than a couple token women authors -- Sayers, as she helped found the club, and Christie -- in the club, and that Sayers would have had to carry out a scheme like that portrayed in the book in order to get other worthy female authors of detective fiction admitted.

Ngaio Marsh and Margery Allingham are not authors with which I was really familiar, but the idea of those two women teaming up with Sayers, Christie, and Baroness Emma Orczy to solve a real mystery was an appealing plot line. The story is well done, with plenty of surprises regarding what happened to May Daniels, the murder victim. The author does a good job of using the different personalities and approaches of the five women to advance the story -- sometimes having personalities conflict and tension arise, while other times having the women collaborate well together, or even improvise well together. I liked that the women got caught up in solving the mystery, thinking about how their fictional characters would go about solving the crime, but events occurred that reminded them that they were dealing with real life.

Five women crime writers led by Dorothy Sayers come together to form a group called The Queens of Crime. They decide that solving a real life murder mystery of the death of May Daniels, a young English nurse, will help them be recognized by the men of the Detective Club.

The story is inspired by a true story of Dorothy Sayers life. While the book started a little slow, once the women started investigating the crime the pace really picked up.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the arc copy in exchange for my opinion of the book.

Fun premise, but I could not get into it. The writing style was not a good fit for me. Others may enjoy it!

Thank you very much to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the advanced reader’s copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

The premise behind this book is the greatest women mystery writers solve a murder. I am not familiar with all the greats but this worked. Yes - women are not taken seriously/given respect they deserve - repeating it over and over was redundant.