"Avonna's Reviews > The Queens of Crime

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THE QUEENS OF CRIME by Marie Benedict is a historical fiction/mystery story featuring The Queens of Crime, their founding and friendship, and a locked room mystery they work together to solve in 1930 London and Boulogne-sur-Mer. Told solely from Dorothy Sayer's perspective this is an entertaining story with an intriguing mystery.

Mystery writers Dorothy L. Sayers, Agatha Christie, Baroness Emma Orczy, Ngaio Marsh, and Margery Allingham band together as The Queens of Crime to be recognized as equals to the male members of the legendary Detection Club. To receive that recognition, they plan to solve an actual murder straight out of the headlines.

A young nurse takes a day trip to Boulogne-sur-Mer, France with a friend and disappears. She went into the ladies room at the ferry terminal and never came out. Her body is discovered several months later in a park with signs of strangulation. Determined to solve the mystery, the ladies use their skills to investigate. As they get closer, Dorothy is threatened with the revelation of a secret from her past and attacked. Will they be able pull all their skills and talents together to solve the mystery before anyone else becomes a victim?

I was really looking forward to getting this book, and while it is an entertaining read, with an excellent locked room mystery intertwined, the Queens are not as fully developed as individual characters as I was hoping for. I felt Dorothy was developed as a good lead character, but the other ladies were lacking. There is a heavy emphasis on their clothes and food, with in my opinion, only minimal emphasis on their personalities. I enjoyed the history surrounding the WWI "surplus girls" and the mystery plot itself, though it started slowly it was filled with interesting twists and red herrings.

Overall, an enjoyable historical fiction/mystery book, just not my favorite by this author.