The Queens of Crime.

In this marvelous locked-room puzzle, we’re treated to a masterclass in solving mysteries from the grand dames of the form: first-person narrator Dorothy Sayers (Lord Peter Wimsey mysteries) and fellow Queens Agatha Christie (Hercule Poirot et al), Baroness Emma Orczy (the Scarlet Pimpernel), Ngaio Marsh (Inspector Allen), and Margery Allingham (Albert Campion). As a way to be better accepted into the Detection Club, the members of which have expressed “a certain hesitancy…around having ‘an abundance of women’ in the ranks,” the women undertake the investigation of a real crime, the disappearance of a young English nurse while on a trip to France. Dorothy’s journalist husband has been assigned the story and his work gives her a reason to go to the crime scene, the other women secretly in tow–and they’re off. Meticulously following the nurse’s activities before she disappeared, as well as her life before, leads readers into a delicious look at writing conventions of the day as well as how women skirted the low expectations that sought to hold them back. Fans of the writers in question as well as of childhood favorites such as Enid Blyton’s Famous Five will enjoy the old-timey air of innocent sleuthing, while the women’s growing determination to do right by the young victim adds a satisfying air of kindness and steadfast morality. A delight from beginning to end.