The Queens of Crime, by Marie Benedict

March 4, 2026 Lark_Bookwyrm Book Reviews 4 ★★★★½

The Queens of Crime by Marie Benedict
Narrator: Bessie Carter
Published by Audible Studios, St. Martin's Press Genres: Historical Mystery
Format: Audiobook
Source: gift
Purchase: Amazon | Bookshop | Barnes & Noble | Kobo | Audible | Chirp
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four-half-stars

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.

A well-crafted historical mystery

The Queens of Crime is a historical mystery featuring five of the best-known female British mystery authors of the Golden Age: Dorothy L. Sayers, Agatha Christie (post her never-explained disappearance), Baroness Emma Orczy, Ngaio Marsh, and Margery Allingham. To prove their worth to the male members of Detective Club (a group of crime/mystery writers founded by Sayers and several other authors), the Queens of Crime investigate the real-life disappearance and death of a nurse, May Daniels. The mystery itself is based on a true crime, but the investigation of the five authors, and the ultimate solution, are mostly fictional, and quite enthralling.

Sayers is the main character and first-person narrator. She is also the leader and instigator of the “Queens,” particularly in investigating the murder of Miss Daniels. As a long-time fan of most of these authors, it was a treat to see them interacting and bringing their individual strengths to the investigation. I have no idea how friendly or collegial the five women were in real life, but their fictional counterparts in the novel form a lasting bond despite the differences in their backgrounds and ages: a wonderful example of the joys, benefits, and challenges of friendship.

I loved the story overall, and particularly the characters. The mystery mostly kept me guessing, although I did have my suspicions about the murderer almost as soon as the Queens encountered him. But then, I had my suspicions about several people, some of whom were also involved in one way or another.

I did have a few reservations about the writing style. Benedict’s characterizations are true to what I know of these writers, but as someone who has read most of Sayers’s Lord Peter Wimsey novels multiple times, I didn’t feel she really captured Sayers’ narrative voice. For one thing, Benedict tends toward rather fulsome and sometimes unnecessary descriptions; Sayers’s descriptions are elegant and precisely what is needed, no more. Benedict also took liberties with the history regarding the members of the Detective Club, as noted below, and I generally prefer historical accuracy in my historical fiction. Nonetheless, it’s a delightful novel and a well-constructed mystery, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It’s definitely worth your time if you are fan of any of these authors.

Audiobook review: Bessie Carter does a very good job with the narration, including multiple character voices and emotional registers. She voices each of the Queens with a distinctive tone and accent; most of the secondary characters are also easy to distinguish from one another. The variety of English accents Carter employs convey or at least suggest age, class, and regional differences without being overdone. The New Zealand accent she uses for Ngaio Marsh is reasonably convincing, though perhaps not perfect. (I’m not an expert, but 11 seasons of Brokenwood has left me at least somewhat familiar with NZ accents.) I was less sure of the accent she employs for the Hungarian-born Emma, Baroness Orczy, but then, according to the text, Emma is supposed to have only a trace of accent at this point in her life. Ms. Carter’s pacing and diction are also excellent. I would happily listen to other books she has narrated, assuming the book itself appeals to me.

Historical note: Sayers and her husband, journalist Mac Fletcher, did briefly investigate the murder of nurse May Daniels, but the crime remained unsolved, and there’s no indication her sister “Queens of Crime” were involved at all. Nor were all five women writers members of the Detection Club, at least not initially. Sayers, Christie, and Baroness Orczy were founding members in 1930, as were Margaret Cole, Constance Lindsay Taylor, Clemence Dane, Ianthe Jerrold, and Helen Simpson, and Jessie Rickard (none of whom appear in the book, and none of whom were ever dubbed a Queen of Crime.) Margery Allingham joined in 1934, well after the fictional events in this book, and Ngaio Marsh didn’t join until “later in life.” Interestingly, Josephine Tey, who is often included in the “Queens of Crime” moniker, was never invited to join the Detective Club—an omission I find most puzzling.

The male members’ overt and pointed resistance to including a number of women in The Detective Club, as depicted in the novel, is unlikely to have occurred to such a degree in real life, since nine women were among the founding “class.” It works on the fictional level, however. The book takes place in 1930, a time when women were still very much excluded from many (if not most) male institutions. Women weren’t allowed to study at Oxford at all until the 1870s, and couldn’t receive degrees until 1920; Cambridge didn’t award degrees to women until 1948!

NOTE: Portions of this review appeared in my comment on the SBTB post “Whatcha Reading? February 2026, Part 2.

Challenges: Audiobook Challenge 2026; COYER 2026: Out to Lunch Again