Marie Benedict has quietly become one of my favourite authors. Her historical fiction novels range in topics but have featured some incredible women from history (including Clementine Churchill and Rosalind Franklin). This novel is different however, as it follows five women from history, rather than focusing on just one: Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers, Baroness Emma Orczy, Ngaio marsh, and Margery Allingham- all talented mystery authors! I could not put this book down and would highly recommend it for a long weekend book pick. Let’s get into The Queens of Crime by Marie Benedict!
Thank you to NetGalley for providing an Advanced Listening Copy in exchange for an honest review.
The Queens of Crime, Marie Benedict
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.
Why You Should Read This…
I listened to this audiobook over the holiday break and it was a great choice, as I was fully able to get lost in the story. While I’m very familiar with Christie and Sayers, and somewhat familiar with Orczy, Marsh and Allingham are new to me, so in addition to a new story, I also have more authors to explore. I think that Benedict introduced all five authors skillfully- we learned enough about them and their careers/novels to keep up with the story, but it was not clunky or forced. (There is a reason her novels remain popular.)
The story is framed around the women wanting to prove themselves to their male contemporaries by solving a real crime, a story that feels rather relevant even in 2025. Because you can’t very well have five people wandering around investigating everything together, you get some very interesting combinations throughout the novel. (The different pairings allowed us to dive into different aspects of each author’s life and career, and I think it works perfectly.)
Bessie Carter’s narration for the audiobook is sublime, as always. (Yes, the Bessie Carter who is the daughter of Imelda Staunton and Jim Carter and was Prudence in Bridgerton.) She has quickly become one of my favourite narrators and I will continue to look out for her next projects!
Is The Queens of Crime on your to-read list?
Cheers,
The Historian
Facebook | Threads | Instagram | Pinterest
