Agatha Christie Joins Fellow Female Mystery Legends in New Novel (Exclusive)

See the cover of 'The Queens of Crime' by Marie Benedict, a new historical mystery due out this winter

Attention all armchair sleuths: Grab your magnifying glasses, sharpen your note-taking pencils and get ready for a new mystery full of your favorite crime-solvers.

The Queens of Crime by Marie Benedict, due out in February from St. Martin's Publishing Group, brings together five of the greatest women crime writers: Dorothy Sayers, Agatha Christie, Ngaio Marsh, Margery Allingham and Baroness Emma Orczy all in one novel. The group must try to solve a real-life murder to prove their worthiness to the legendary Detection Club which is, of course, dominated by men.

Picture merry old London in 1930. A group of women wordsmiths led by the indomitable Dorothy L. Sayers call themselves the Queens of Crime, and their mission is to solve the real murder of a young woman found strangled in a park. Her death may be connected to the highest levels of the British establishment, and a lot of the details are just as juicy and confounding as one of the writers' twisty tales.

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Of course, as they investigate, the Queens of Crime find their powers are far stronger together. But when the killer starts targeting Sayers herself and a long-buried secret threatens to come to light, it throws a wrench into their plan.

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Inspired by true events, the book "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," says a statement from the publisher.

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Benedict is no stranger to the affairs of the great crime writers of the past. She's the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of 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 others.

The Queens of Crime by Marie Benedict will hit shelves on February 11, 2025, and is available for preorder wherever books are sold.

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