Pub Day Spotlight: Marie Benedict
Celebrating The Queens of Crime
Please join us in celebrating the publication day for The Queens of Crime by our dear friend, New York Times bestselling author Marie Benedict! We’ve featured Marie several times on our web show and podcast before and we’re thrilled for the opportunity to chat with her today about her latest novel just as she embarks on a big book tour. In The Queens of Crime, Marie gives us the thrilling story of the five greatest women writers of the Golden Age of Mystery and their bid to solve a real-life murder. With starred reviews from Library Journal (“excellent…hard to put down”) and Booklist (“cleverly realized”), Marie’s latest locked-room mystery has been called “smart, biting, and a tribute to female friendship and loyalty. An absolute delight!” by Fiona Davis and Alison Pataki says it “reads with the urgency of a mystery and the charm of a captivating, character-driven narrative.” It’s in stores everywhere TODAY, Tuesday, February 11th, from St. Martin’s Press! Be sure to grab your copy now! And we hope you enjoy this chat with Marie!
The Queens of Crime is a thrilling story of the five greatest women writers of the Golden Age of Mystery and their bid to solve a real-life murder. On these pages, you bring 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. That’s a bit of what the book is about. Tell us more. And then, in true Friends & Fiction fashion, what’s the book really about?
These five women at the heart of The Queens of Crime — think Agatha Christie, Dorothy Sayers, Ngaio Marsh, Margery Allingham, and Baroness Emma Orczy, names you may not know but whose characters you may well —buck convention to attain writerly success in the interwar era. When they come together to form the club within the club that the press referred to as the Queens of Crime, they want to secure their standing by solving a real-life, seemingly unsolvable, locked-room murder. How could their prowess be challenged if they become actual, successful detectives, right? But the book is really about the power of female friendship to secure justice when society and the authorities are unwilling to do so, and in this way, I hope the story is both historic and modern.
Where did the original spark of the idea for The Queens of Crime come from?
It all started with the research for another novel, The Mystery of Mrs. Christie —my fictional take on what happened to Agatha Christie during her infamous 11-day disappearance. I learned that Agatha’s friend, the author Dorothy Sayers — whose books I’d been introduced to in my teen years by a beloved aunt who was an English professor, poet, and rebellious nun — had been tapped by the police to help locate her. Growing intrigued with the woman behind the books, I began to delve into Dorothy’s life and legacy, discovering she was one of the first women to get an Oxford degree, had a successful career in advertising for companies like Guinness before she became a bestselling author, and hid an enormous secret that could have ruined her life had it been revealed. When I uncovered the very real murder investigation in which she became involved, I became fascinated with the notion of a writer of detective fiction becoming a detective herself — and perhaps bringing her friends along for the ride.
This book is a bit of a genre bender, blending classic murder mystery, historical fiction, and elements of true crime. How did you blend these three styles so seamlessly? Did you have fun playing with the true crime element? What drew you to the true crime angle and why do you think so many of us are drawn to true crime content?
This novel was so much fun to write! I’ve always been an enormous fan of classic mysteries and the structure seemed the perfect way to delve into the life and legacy of Dorothy Sayers, who’s often considered the first to tackle issues I hope resonate with modern women and whose work seems ripe for rediscovery. When I learned that she’d done some sleuthing into a murder — and that the murder had never been solved, making it a cold case — this marriage of classic mystery and true crime became an irresistible vehicle for Dorothy and the other Queens of Crime. I tend to think that true crime is appealing for much the same reason that mystery novels are; they give us a chance to take a disordered world and put things to right, something we don’t always have the power or control to do in our own realm.
This homage to the Golden Age of Detective Fiction features five of the greatest women crime writers of the interwar period. How did you go about choosing these particular authors to focus on? And what research did you have to do into each?
The so-called Queens of Crime really did exist, although the newspapers gave them that moniker not the women themselves. That said, only four of the five women in my novel made up the historic Queens of Crime; Baroness Emma Orczy wasn’t part of the original group. She was one of the original Detection Club members, but wasn’t considered a “Queen” by the press. I chose to include her, because I wanted to explore a friendship that included women from different ages, continents, social strata, economic backgrounds, and ethnicities. The research into these women, of course, involved a deep dive into the original source material from their lives and historical archives, and — lucky me! — it also involved reading the women’s autobiographies and their novels.
This is a work of fiction, though it is inspired by real events from the past and actual people. What are the challenges and potential pitfalls in writing about well-known women in history versus making it all up? What parts of The Queens of Crime are fact and which are fiction?
Writing about characters that are inspired by real people has its challenges. But my goal is always to honor the women about whom I write, and this helps guide my decisions about what bits of the historical record to use — assuming the research even exists — and what parts to fictionalize. I tend to envision the relationship with fact and fiction in the novels this way: the research is the architecture of the story — the foundation, the pillars, the roof, if you will — but there will always be shadowy areas between those pillars and that’s where logically extrapolated fiction comes in. I can’t give away too many examples from The Queens of Crime without spoiling the secrets, but I can say I had a blast envisioning the witty banter in which these five whip-smart women must have engaged, but of which there is no record.
Your murder victim—the young English nurse, May Daniels—is also based on a real person. How did you come to choose May’s story to focus on? How much is known about the real-life May Daniels and how much did you need to fictionalize?
I chose May Daniels’ tragic story to focus upon not only because it presented a traditional locked-room murder puzzle, but also because Dorothy Sayers actually investigated her murder. Dorothy and her husband, journalist Mac Fleming, were asked to travel to Boulogne to look into the crime against May and report on it for the News of The World. A bevy of reporters descended upon the French coastal town along with them, and a slew of newspaper articles about the murder were published for a stretch of time, detailing the emerging story. This yielded a wealth of information — admittedly some of it biased — about May and the terrible violence perpetrated upon her, and I used this to form an understanding of May herself as well as her murder. The resolution itself is, in large part, fictionalized out of necessity.
In the novel, Dorothy Sayers is a founding member of the Detection Club, an organization meant to help crime writers gain credibility in the literary establishment. Was this a real organization at the time? If so, did you take any creative license in your portrayal of this club in the novel?
The Detection Club was not only a real organization at the time period in The Queens of Crime, but it remains a vibrant club. It actually did and does use some of the rituals mentioned in my book, and it has the same wonderful purpose of elevating the mystery genre and connecting authors. I did take some creative license in depicting the club as not entirely welcoming to a plethora of women during the 1930s; I utilized it as an incentive for the “Queens” to take action. In fact, the club contained many women, and I didn’t come across any indication that the club was anything but receptive to female members.
As a writer, are you a member of any modern-day equivalent to such an organization? Tell us what community means to you as a writer and how it impacts your career and craft.
While I’m not part of a formal organization that’s similar to the Detection Club, I’m fortunate to have various groups of writer friends with whom I can discuss both the process of writing and the business of it as well. Having the support of other writers in similar boats and the gift of their sage advice is everything to me. After all, writing is a very solitary profession most of the time — except when we are lucky enough to be on the road meeting readers!
What’s coming next from you?
DAUGHTER OF EGYPT! This is a story that’s been simmering inside me for decades. This is the story of the extraordinary woman — Lady Evelyn Herbert, daughter of Lord Carnarvon of Highclere Castle (of Downtown Abbey fame) — who helped uncover Tutankamun’s tomb along with the mystery behind ancient Egypt’s only true female Pharaoh. From the sunbaked palaces and tombs along the Nile to the decadence of British colonial rule in Cairo to the grand country homes of England, DAUGHTER OF EGYPT uncovers the hidden story of two unforgettable women who changed history.
Where can our community connect with you online and in person (if you’re touring)?
Readers can find me online at @authormariebenedict on Instagram and Facebook. I’m also doing a ton of events--people can find out more here!
About the Author
MARIE BENEDICT is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of The Queens of Crime, The Mitford Affair, Her Hidden Genius, The Mystery of Mrs. Christie, The Only Woman in the Room, Lady Clementine, Carnegie's Maid, The Other Einstein, and with Victoria Christopher Murray, the Good Morning America Book Club pick The Personal Librarian and the Target Book of the Year The First Ladies. All have been translated into multiple languages, and many have been selected for the Barnes & Noble Book Club, Target Book Club, Costco Book Club, Indie Next List, and LibraryReads List. She lives in Pittsburgh with her family.
About the Book
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.
Stay in Touch!
Subscribe to our PODCAST.
Join our FACEBOOK group.
Follow us on INSTAGRAM.
Subscribe to our YOUTUBE channel.
Find details about everything F&F on our WEBSITE.
Shop our guests’ & hosts’ books in our shop on BOOKSHOP.
Join the F&F Official BOOK CLUB with Brenda & Lisa.
Upgrade to our PAID Subscription for bonus content from our hosts and guests.
Great interview! Really looking forward to reading this book.