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3.84 AVERAGE
3.84 AVERAGE
adventurous
emotional
informative
inspiring
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Loveable characters:
Yes
I quite enjoyed Marie Benedict's mystery starring Dorothy Sayers(https://www.sayers.org.uk/biography), Agatha Christie (https://www.agathachristie.com/about-christie), Ngaio Marsh (9https://www.ngaiomarsh.org/ngaio-marsh), Margery Allingham (https://margeryallingham.com/about/) and Baroness Emma Orczy (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baroness_Orczy); the Queens of Crime not just as the book title suggests but also during their actual lives.
Having read multiple books by Marie Benedict I am comfortable stating she is a master at writing historical fiction and in the course of doing so bringing to life characters who were actual flesh and blood people. She follows fact as much as it is available and crafts the fiction when she doesn't have the facts or wants to take the story in a direction other than actually occurred. Such is the case with this book, the Queens of Crime. As always when reading historical fiction, it is important and edifying to read the Author's Note at the end of the story. The heart of Queens of Crime revolves around the mysterious disappearance of May Daniels, a nurse, while she was visiting Bologne, France. (Learn more about Nurse Daniels in this podcast https://www.shedunnitshow.com/nursedanielstranscript/)
Benedict places Dorothy Sayers as the protagonist, a mystery writer (Lord Peter Whimsy series) who actually did try to solve the disappearance of May Daniels. Both in real life and the life of this story, Sayers created the Queens of Crime (https://newlinesmag.com/essays/how-the-queens-of-crime-fiction-developed-a-modern-myth/), which was comprised of the female mystery writers of their time. The Queens of Crime was created as a small group of women mystery writers who were part of the male dominated Detection Club, also created by Sayers. In the context of the story Sayers suggests to the Queens that they try to solve a real life crime in order to persuade the male authors that they were "anything but eminently worthy" of being part of the Detection Club.
To that end we are privy to multiple mysteries – that of May Daniels, Agatha Christie's real life mystery, the (real life) mystery that Dorothy Sayers tries to keep hidden from her friends, and the mysteries she hints at of the other Queens of Crime. I found this to be every bit as good those mysteries written by professed authors of the genre.
You can watch a February 2025 interview of Marie Benedict hosted by the Gwinnett County Public Library located in Georgia: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fiJ00_JcsQ.
Having read multiple books by Marie Benedict I am comfortable stating she is a master at writing historical fiction and in the course of doing so bringing to life characters who were actual flesh and blood people. She follows fact as much as it is available and crafts the fiction when she doesn't have the facts or wants to take the story in a direction other than actually occurred. Such is the case with this book, the Queens of Crime. As always when reading historical fiction, it is important and edifying to read the Author's Note at the end of the story. The heart of Queens of Crime revolves around the mysterious disappearance of May Daniels, a nurse, while she was visiting Bologne, France. (Learn more about Nurse Daniels in this podcast https://www.shedunnitshow.com/nursedanielstranscript/)
Benedict places Dorothy Sayers as the protagonist, a mystery writer (Lord Peter Whimsy series) who actually did try to solve the disappearance of May Daniels. Both in real life and the life of this story, Sayers created the Queens of Crime (https://newlinesmag.com/essays/how-the-queens-of-crime-fiction-developed-a-modern-myth/), which was comprised of the female mystery writers of their time. The Queens of Crime was created as a small group of women mystery writers who were part of the male dominated Detection Club, also created by Sayers. In the context of the story Sayers suggests to the Queens that they try to solve a real life crime in order to persuade the male authors that they were "anything but eminently worthy" of being part of the Detection Club.
To that end we are privy to multiple mysteries – that of May Daniels, Agatha Christie's real life mystery, the (real life) mystery that Dorothy Sayers tries to keep hidden from her friends, and the mysteries she hints at of the other Queens of Crime. I found this to be every bit as good those mysteries written by professed authors of the genre.
You can watch a February 2025 interview of Marie Benedict hosted by the Gwinnett County Public Library located in Georgia: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fiJ00_JcsQ.
informative
lighthearted
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
adventurous
hopeful
informative
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
The audiobook narration (bessie carter) really made the book more appealing.
adventurous
mysterious
fast-paced
adventurous
emotional
informative
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
It's 1931 And a group of extremely talented and well known female mystery writers band together to prove that they Have just as much of a right as the men to be members of the Detection Society. Including the likes of Dorothy L. Sayers and Agatha Christie rhey set out to prove this by solving a real murder.
I absolutely loved this book. Normally I'm not a huge fan of historical fiction but I loved the way that it explored not only the historical aspect of it by these having been real people, including the actual murder being a murder case okay, But also showing how Women in society no matter What class they or the job they held were just not considered equal to men. All of the themes in this book were so well done.
I also loved the fact that this is actually a mystery book. You really get them going and finding the clues, putting things together. The methodical and calculated way they all came to together to put the best of each of them into solving a case and getting justice for this poor girl. I thoroughly enjoyed this book
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexual assault
Minor: Sexism
mysterious
relaxing
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
inspiring
lighthearted
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No