The Queens of Crime

A Novel

By: Marie Benedict

Narrated by: Bessie Carter

This program is read by actor Bessie Carter, best known for her role as Prudence Featherington on the Netflix series Bridgerton.

"Narrator Bessie Carter...captures the personalities of the most famous women novelists of the golden age of detective fiction...What follows is a delightful, old-fashioned mystery. " — The Washington Post

“Bessie Carter’s excellent dialect work makes the banter between feminist New Zealander Marsh and Hungarian-born aristocrat Orczy both fun and revelatory.” —BookPage

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Mystery of Mrs. Christie—a thrilling story of the five greatest women writers of the Golden Age of Mystery and their bid to solve a real-life murder.

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.

“Bessie Carter's subtle changes in tone foster a growing sense of intrigue as the plot thickens.” — AudioFile (Earphones Award Winner)

A Macmillan Audio production from St. Martin’s Press.

Terrific book. So well plotted and written

I loves that the author was able to devise a plot that was presented as a storyline with a terrific back story

The combination of historical fiction and mystery.

It was interesting having the prospective of the crime writers and there were some excellent twists and turns in the plot. However I found it slow moving and repetitive at times.

Female friendship , camaraderie and fight for legitimacy.

Loved the character development and historical details. I also appreciated the narration. The accents were spot on.

Queens of Crime

I enjoyed the characters’ personalities and the way the author had them work together. I also like the narrator.

Intricate mystery, clever characters

This mystery is like no other. Simply fantastic, and a story that gives back to the reader. The star cast of female detective writers are well portrayed and the depiction of how they are regarded is spot on. Given my 4 decades as an engineer in an exclusively male environment, I can attest to its accuracy. This novel is timely, given today's diminishing rights of women.