Michelle Blanchard Ardillo

Those of you who know me, I mean really know me, know how much I love to read! Growing up, I would read just about anything; of course, the back of the cereal box, but also, the back of the shampoo bottle in the bathroom.

But, my favorite all time thing to read is a mystery. I love mysteries. I don’t like thrillers, though, and as I get older, I seem to be leaning more and more towards cozy mysteries.

I also love historical fiction. So, Marie Benedict’s new book is the perfect mash-up for me: historical fiction where five mystery writers from the Golden Age of Detective Fiction get together to solve a murder mystery.

I have to be honest, the beginning of the book was a bit slow for me. I also could not keep the five main characters straight. But as I continued to read, the personalities of each of the five mystery writers began to take shape. When a dark secret from the main character Dorothy begins to emerge, the story really picked up for me.

This story starts in February of 1931, between the wars, in London, England. It is told in first person from the perspective of one of the five Queens of Crime, Dorothy Sayers, who has been instrumental in the creation of the Detection Club, which consists almost entirely of men, save Dorothy and Agatha Christie. They know they are merely token females and won’t be taken seriously, so they conspire to bring in other females to the club; namely, Ngaio Marsh, Margery Allingham, and Baroness Emma Orczy. Even as the five take their oath as founding members of the club, the men shun them. Plan B is to solve an actual murder mystery so they will be taken seriously.

While the sleuthing commences, the five Queens of Crime work to their strengths. As Dorothy continues to narrate the story, the reader learns about the writing process of each of the Queens, as well as bits of information about the main characters/detectives in their respective works. Dorothy has her Lord Peter Wimsey, Agatha has her Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple, Ngaio has her Roderick Alleyn, and Margery has her Albert Campion. The fifth Queen of this novel, Baroness Emma Orczy, was not originally one of the Queens of Detective Fiction, but became well known for her Scarlet Pimpernel short stories, with her hero being Sir Percy Blakeney.

In my opinion, this novel got stronger as it went on. The deeper I delved into the mystery surrounding the death of a young nurse, May Daniels, the more engaged I felt. As stated earlier, the individual personalities of the women became more evident, although since the entire book is told from Dorothy’s perspective, we really don’t get to know the other women that well.

Author Marie Benedict must have had a field day with the “research” for this book, reading one mystery after another to learn the writing style of each of these real life authors. Since I’ve only read Christie from the group of five Queens of Crime, I have a lot of new additions to my TBR list!

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the ARC. While this wasn’t my favorite Marie Benedict novel, I enjoyed learning more about these famous writers of the past.

Update: the 2/16/25 Washington Post Book World section recommends the audiobook of this newly published novel!