Thank you to the publisher and netgalley for an early copy in exchange for an honest review.

Audio Review: The narration is fitting, smooth, and well done. Would recommend.

Review: The Queens of Crime is a very interesting, creative non-fiction / retelling (it's not non-fiction but it's based on true events and lives). I really enjoyed the first 20 percent of this story. We meet some kick ass women, who wrote mysteries during the golden age of crime.... I'm sure you've read the synopsis. I enjoyed the fictionalization of these women's lives and incorporation of a real life mystery. I enjoyed the secret society aspect and the solving a fake murder as initiation. There was so much to love at the start. That's where I'm going to shift gears a little bit. This is where the story lost me and is likely more a me problem. Once the women start solving the crime, the suspense actually dies down and I lost a lot of interest in the story. I didn't find the crime interesting but also, there were way too many conveniences in the story and ways of getting information. I want to be careful here because I don't know what's true and what's not so maybe some of it is real and just hard to believe. You go from clue to clue essentially and the women get information from various sources over and over in ways that really were just hard to believe. It also lost a lot of the mystery and interesting dynamics between the club members.

Some things it had going for it were powerful women getting shit done. I did love that aspect of it. Outside of the requirement on netgalley, I'm choosing to not rate this story. I read this as a way to try something a little different and it didn't work for me. I think if you like creative fiction based on real people and don't mind some of my earlier complaints this story will be a knock out of the park. It's truly well written and well told, just not entertaining in a way I prefer.