06/24/2026
BOOK BLURB 📖
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 I ENJOYED🤓:
Enjoyed reading this mix of historical fiction and classic mystery!
I discovered new authors to read about in the mystery genre like Dorothy Sayers, Ngaio Marsh, Margery Allingham, and Baroness Emma Orczy. The book touches on all the adversities they had to overcome in being women mystery writers in a very male dominated world (at the time). Although a great deal has changed since that era, I appreciate classic mysteries free from the clutter of modern storytelling. I admired Marie Benedict’s respectful portrayal of the time period and her focus on the unsolved mystery itself.
Through the novel, I learned about locked-room mysteries, the highly publicized death of May Daniels, and how the renowned women mystery writers used insights from their own work to piece together the case.
Each mystery writer had their own style, personality and quirks which made the story more interesting and engaging. You became part of the story and wondered how they were going to work together, despite their differences and ways of doing things.
If you are looking for a clean, interesting, mystery book, the ‘QUEENS OF CRIME’ is for you!
Find this book at SERENDIPTIOUS BOOKS for $10.00 (Hardback)
🧐NOTE: I apologize book friends...my May reads are running into June. I had (have) a lot going on during the months of May and June. In order to catch up, reading my last two books for May in June, along with my book club read.
😬Is it 2027 yet?
