The Queens of Crime ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

 The Queens of Crime by Marie Benedict

From Google/AI:

"The Queens of Crime" by Marie Benedict, the main characters are the real-life crime writers Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers, Ngaio Marsh, Margery Allingham, and Baroness Orczy. They are portrayed as a group of women crime writers who come together to solve a real-life murder in France. Dorothy L. Sayers leads the group, and they are known as the "Queens of Crime". The novel is inspired by a true story of a young English nurse murdered in France, and the author uses newspaper headlines and Dorothy's own novels to create the fictional resolution.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Mystery, Thriller. 

Circa: 1930.

I like that it's about real-life crime writers solving the murder instead of investigators, reporters, or more recently, a friend or relative of the victim or the senior citizens at Shady Pines. Although I haven't listened to any with the senior sleuths yet. I mean, isn't Agatha Christie the real Queen of Crime? I don't think I've read any books by these authors except a few of Agatha Christie's a long time ago. Maybe I should try one of each writer after this one. Although the books are old and all the ladies are gone now, they may not be available on audio.
YES! They each have a couple on Hoopla. I'll check Libby when I'm ready to move on to the next one.

Later - Now I'm obsessed with Marie Benedict. Maybe not full on obsessed, but defiantly a girl crush. I watched a Zoom discussion of her with Barbara Peters. She talks about the inspiration of the true story. In real life Dorothy investigated a crime. She went with her journalist husband who was investigating new evidence in the nurse's murder. Marie thought "what if I have her friends come along. What if her four friends, the best crime writers, come with her to solve the mystery". So that's where the fiction takes over the history. They also talked about the writer's rules of fair play of the Detection Club, which was a social club for writers. I'll look those up and post them* because I found them interesting too. The discussion is like an hour plus but I enjoyed the entire thing. Oh, and she said she hopes at least some people who read the book will be inspired to revisit the women in the story. I already said that before I watched the video or finished the book so mission accomplished! Barbara said they are still in publication.

*Rules of the Detection Club. The oldies of detective fiction writers tried to set up rules for the genre.

• The criminal must be mentioned in the early part of the story, but must not be anyone whose thoughts the reader has been allowed to know.
• All supernatural or preternatural agencies are ruled out as a matter of course.
• Not more than one secret room or passage is allowable.
• No hitherto undiscovered poisons may be used, nor any appliance which will need a long scientific explanation at the end.
• No Chinaman must figure in the story. (The "No Chinaman rule" was a reaction to, and criticism of, racial clichés prevalent in 1920s English writing.)
• No accident must ever help the detective, nor must he ever have an unaccountable intuition which proves to be right.
• The detective himself must not commit the crime.
• The detective is bound to declare any clues which he may discover.
• The "sidekick" of the detective, the Watson, must not conceal from the reader any thoughts which pass through his mind: his intelligence must be slightly, but very slightly, below that of the average reader.
• Twin brothers, and doubles generally, must not appear unless we have been duly prepared for them.

Of course, rules were made to be broken. In the video I linked (above), they said Dorothy broke the rule when she referenced poisen mushrooms in The Documents In The Case (Rule 4). Not an undiscovered poison, but breaking the intent.

Rule 5, sounding racist but was intended to avoid racial clichés.

Barbara also mentioned no doppelgangers in reference to Rule 10!

I think these rules have been thrown out the window by a lot of current authors.

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This one hooked me in right away and held my attention until the end. When I finished it, it made want to read (🎧) every book she's ever published. 

🎧Bessie Carter

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Marie Benedict had said in the Zoom and/or in the author's note at the end of the audio that this was HER version of who these women were. She uses history as the structure and then fills in the dark corners with fiction. In the book, the Queen's (of course) solve the murder, however in real life the murder was never solved. Dorothy had gone with her husband to investigate the murder, that much was true. Marie pieced together historical documents/newspaper articles of the murder, Dorothy's real notes she took when investigating with her husband, and then she used the writing style of all the "Queens" to piece together the puzzle. Dontcha just love a backstory?

I read a few of the low star reviews because sometimes I like to do that to see why they didn't like it and discuss their reviews in my head as if we were in a book club meeting! 👀
Only 1% was 1★. I do the same with books I don't like, just to commiserate! The bad reviews for the Queens:

Someone thought it was slow. I disagree. And you know how I am. If it doesn't take off, I'm ready to ditch it.

Someone thought it didn't delve enough into the personalities of the other Queens. I felt like I got a sense of who they were.

Someone thought it was too much of Dorothy and not enough of the other Queens. Well, it WAS presented as Dorothy telling the story, so there's that.

Not all books are for everyone. I liked it a lot. I think that is obvious by now!