Erin's Reviews > The Queens of Crime

3 stars

Mystery writers Dorothy Sayers, Agatha Christie, Ngaio Marsh, Margery Allingham and Baroness Emma Orczy want to prove themselves to the otherwise male membership of the newly formed Detection Club, made up of England’s best crime writers. They decide to work together to solve an actual crime, the murder of May Daniels, an English nurse on holiday in France with a friend.

This was such a great idea, but it wasn’t exactly what I expected. This story is about Dorothy, the other four writers are in supporting roles. Based on the Afterword there may be some historical precedent for this choice, but I assumed (hoped) all the writers would be featured; Ngaio Marsh gets especially short shrift and is really just an argumentative cypher who prefers menswear. It’s too bad.

The mystery was fine, it was nothing exciting and most of us have seen it before. So overall the book was just OK for me. Benedict could definitely make this a series if she so chooses (I don’t know that there’s any short of plan for that; the end of the book isn’t a set up for another volume and, again, this case is based loosely on a real event.)

Read for 2035 Book Lover’s Challenge by Book Girls’ Guide, prompt #5, May, books about writers and editors.