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.

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

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

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.

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

©2025 Marie Benedict (P)2025 Macmillan Audio

Critic reviews

"In this excellent novel, Benedict vividly brings to life real Golden Age mystery novelists ... Fans of Benedict’s previous novels and those who enjoy historical whodunits will find this hard to put down."—Library Journal, starred review

“Mystery fans may know the classic novels by the real queens of crime; now, thanks to historical-fiction star Benedict’s cleverly realized portraits of women committed to friendship and feminism, readers will know the wise, empathetic, and resourceful people who wrote them.”—Booklist, Starred review

“A shrewd speculative whodunit … Benedict easily brings each of her five distinct writer/sleuths to life, and honors their literary legacies by providing plenty of ingenious, fair-play clues to help careful readers follow along and solve the central mystery. This is a treat for fans of golden age whodunits.”—Publishers Weekly

Absolutely wonderful!

Perfect narration, great story and characters. A few twists to keep you guessing. Very entertaining!

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

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.

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.

Nicely done mystery with familiar names

I enjoyed this storyline and the sleuthing quite a bit! I like to look up the names and places in historical fiction and learn more about it all when reading it. It’s important to realize that the murder case is real, but the “Queens of Crime” as an investigative group are not, and neither is the resolution. Isn’t it fun to imagine them together, though? Be sure not to skip the author’s notes at the end. One element did run me the wrong way - that Dorothy was always the one leading the other also-brilliant women to the correct deductions. That I do have some trouble imagining to be the case with this group of intelligent women.

Very nice!

Good twists and great characters. I whipped through this audible quickly and couldn’t wait to continue it each time it stopped. It was a nice book to listen to throughout the day!!

Such a treat

This is just a lovely story - love the time period, the women the history and the beautiful silver tinsel of real historical figures oh and in a dream world of such amazing women. Buy it I’m on my 2nd listen already, just a great great story the narration was so perfect I could listen to her all day!

A fun escapade with the Great Ladies of Crime fiction.

A bit longer than necessary but well crafted & very well voiced. A fun read for mystery buffs.

Great crime story set in the 1930’s

I was transported back in time with this book. Enjoyed the story of book writers trying to solve a crime. Narrator was great.