Book Club Questions: The Queens of Crime by Marie Benedict

Book Summary: The Queens of Crime

Without giving any spoilers, The Queens of Crime follows a group of female crime writers trying to make their mark in a male-dominated industry by investigating the murder of a young British woman in France.

Set in England and France in post-war 1930's, the story was inspired by real life authors, including Dorothy Sayers and Agatha Christie, their writers' group and their attempt to solve a real world murder.

The women come from entirely different realms of society and have all had to overcome very different struggles in life.

Will their paths help them band together and solve the murder of May Daniels?

Book Club Questions

Get your book club together and chat about this theme-rich, multi-dimensional character-filled, historical fiction novel.

Here are the questions the Historical Fiction Heart Book Club discussed:

1. The Queens of Crime believe they offer something more, a new insight into the mystery of May’s murder because they are women and mystery authors. Do you agree and in what ways? How does their insight differ?

2. Had anyone heard of the author Dorothy Sayers or even Agatha Christie before?

3. Can you feel the 1930’s setting? What helps you feel like you’re in this world?

4. The Queens are not opposed to lying and even stealing to find answers to May’s murder, the scene in which they interviewed May’s sisters comes to mind. Do you believe that justice should be found at any cost?

5. The ladies identified that the syringe left next to May’s body was a red herring designed to throw investigators off the scent. What red herrings do you think the author is throwing at us??

6. While the women are uncovering May’s secret, Dorothy alludes to some secrets of her own. What do you think Dorothy’s hiding?

7. The Queens of Crime came from decidedly different backgrounds. Do you think these differences hindered or helped them in the end?

8. Which of the Queens of Crime do you most identify with and why?

9. The women can no longer deny that someone is out to hurt Dorothy and stop their investigation. If you were Dorothy, how do you think you would react? Would you plough forward or go to the authorities for help? 

10. I found Dorothy and her husband Mack’s relationship interesting. What did you think about how it was depicted in the novel?

11. During their investigation into May Daniels’s murder, Dorothy, Agatha, Ngaio, and Margery encounter widespread prejudicial attitudes toward certain groups of women, particularly “surplus women.” This notion of women working ‘unnecessarily’ after the end of the war, making them surplus and therefore not needed - had you heard of this in history before? Do you think this belief that certain women were surplus contributed to May’s murder?

12. Would you say the women were successful as detectives considering the resolution?

13. Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

14. Favourite scene?

15. Is there a woman from history, famous or not, that you’d like to see a novel written about?

Join Our Online Book Club

If you're interested in reading more or having a fun group of book nerds to laugh and chat about books with, join the Historical Fiction Heart Book Club.

How does it work?

1. I will provide a short list of amazing historical fiction each quarter for you to vote on

2. Each month we will have four weeks to read the book

3. During the reading period, I will provide three questions each week in the Facebook Group so we can keep our discussion moving

4. At the end of the reading period, we meet via Zoom for a live chat about the book