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A Novel
The New York Times bestselling author of The Mystery of Mrs. Christie returns with a thrilling story of Christie's legendary rival Dorothy Sayers, the race to solve a murder, and the power of friendship among women.
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.
Inspired by a true story in Sayers' own life, New York Times bestselling author Marie Benedict brings to life the lengths to which five talented women writers will go to be taken seriously in the male-dominated world of letters as they unpuzzle a mystery torn from the pages of their own novels.
"In this excellent novel, Benedict vividly brings to life real Golden Age mystery novelists ... Fans of Benedict's previous novels and those who enjoy historical whodunits will find this hard to put down." ―Library Journal (starred review)
"A shrewd speculative whodunit … Benedict easily brings each of her five distinct writer/sleuths to life, and honors their literary legacies by providing plenty of ingenious, fair-play clues to help careful readers follow along and solve the central mystery. This is a treat for fans of golden age whodunits." —Publishers Weekly
"I was riveted by this quintet of mystery writers... Smart, biting, and a tribute to female friendship and loyalty. An absolute delight!" ―Fiona Davis, New York Times bestselling author of The Spectacular
"Faithful to history and at the same time wonderfully inventive, The Queens of Crime is a brilliant, irresistible, and page-turning delight, as well as a rallying cry for what women can accomplish when we stick together. If I always had a new book by Marie Benedict, I would do nothing but read sixteen hours a day." ―Nina de Gramont, New York Times bestselling author of The Christie Affair
"I loved Marie Benedict's stellar The Queens of Crime....[it] will move you with its themes of female friendship and equal justice, which resonate so powerfully even today." ―Lisa Scottoline, New York Times bestselling author of The Truth About the Devlins
This information about The Queens of Crime was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Marie Benedict is a lawyer with more than ten years' experience as a litigator at two of the country's premier law firms and for Fortune 500 companies. She is a magna cum laude graduate of Boston College with a focus in history and art history and a cum laude graduate of the Boston University School of Law. Marie, the author of The Other Einstein, Carnegie's Maid, The Only Woman in the Room, and Lady Clementine, views herself as an archaeologist of sorts, telling the untold stories of women. She lives in Pittsburgh with her family.
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