Do you know the four "Queens of Crime"? They were the most dominant female crime writers in the 20s and 30s, maybe you have heard of all of them, maybe not, but I'm quite sure you know the one I'll be starting with.
Their names are Agatha Christie, Ngaio Marsh, Dorothy L. Sayers, and Margery Allingham.
On a book shop site I read that some would also include Gladys Mitchell and Josephine Tey in the club. Like in the case of Margery Allingham, I have heard the name of their best known characters, but haven't read any of their books. Yet. I had just had an Allingham book arrive a few days ago and hopefully I will find one or some of both Mitchell and Tey as well. And while I'm at it, I may dive into my library and add someone you may not know that well as a crime author, but for a different genre instead - Georgette Heyer.
Of course, I won't be able to do a review of the complete works, I won't even be able to read their complete works (except Sayers and Heyer, I think I own all of their crime books), maybe because I don't want to or because it's too much or because I wouldn't be able to get my hands on them at all.
One hope I have is to get over my reading slump again now that I'm not able to craft every day anymore, even if some of it will be re-reads, and I like the idea of keeping the posts limited to older crime novels for now. Maybe I will even discover someone completely new to me?
Maybe I will want to review individual books by those authors eventually and maybe I will just end up with short explanations why I like one author more than another, maybe I will even change my own mind about an author during the re-reads or maybe it will turn into something completely different?
I will see. You will see.
P.S. I took this picture in my library. This leather pouf has always been there, and as you can see, it has been abused by generations of cats. No matter how it looks, I wouldn't dare to throw it away, it holds so many memories.
I must confess I’ve only heard of Christie and Heyer. For a long time, all I read was Agatha Christie, then something changed for me, and I stopped. I should try it again. Suggestions?
ReplyDeletehttps://marshainthemiddle.com/
Nothing to confess, if I made a list of authors I don't know, oh my, that would be a long one. I'm not even sure I remember the names of all the authors I have read!
DeleteI think if you can get your hand on any of them, it's worth a try. As always, opinions are all over the place for all of them. I started my first Allingham book today and so far I'm really having a lot of fun with it. It's a collection of Campion stories and I think stories are always a good starting point. I have loved the Sayers books since I was a teenager, but of course I have my favorites - especially the novels around Harriet Vane and Lord Peter Wimsey.
Out of all of these, the only one I have heard of is Agatha Christie. I will be making note of all of these ladies, and trying them out!
ReplyDeleteIt might be easier for you to find some of them thanks to ebooks.
DeleteA lot of the old crime authors (many of them from the UK) were published in series here as the Christie in the picture "The black crime books", which had red covers with black and white stripes, or another publisher's "Red series" all in red, some in both series. Being such a hopeless nostalgic, I always tried to get those old editions at fleamarkets if possible.