Fiction Friday: Mystery Releases by The Queens of Crime

Fiction Friday: 

Mystery Releases by The Queens of Crime

In 1941, three of the four “Queens of Crime,” Margery Allingham, Agatha Christie, and Ngaio Marsh. At the time, the fourth “Queen,” Dorothy Sayers was focused on her radio dramatization of the life of Jesus as well as translating Dante’s Divine Comedy into colloquial English. The period during which these women wrote is known as the Golden Age of Detective Fiction, and books published during this era were typically “whodunits” and often feature closed door mysteries (i.e. the killer is not from outside the group of people) and took place in country manors of “landed gentry.” With the exception of Agatha Christie who found success with two sleuths, Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple, the other authors are primarily known for one:

• Allingham: Albert Campion
• Ngaio Marsh: Roderick Alleyn
• Sayers: Lord Peter Wimsey

Let’s take a look at their publications for the year.

Margery Allingham’s Traitor’s Purse takes place in the early days of World War II and intriguingly has

a plot line that mimics a real German operation, Operation Bernhard, that involved pouring counterfeit money into Britain. However, the campaign didn’t become public until after the war, so she wouldn’t have known about it. The main character, Albert Campion first appeared in her 1929 book The Crime at Black Dudley. He would show up in a total of eighteen full-length novels and copious short stories.

He awakens in a hospital with amnesia yet feels compelled he is on an important mission of some sort tied to the number fifteen. He overhears a conversation taking place in the hallway about an unconscious man who has killed a policeman and is to be hanged. Campion assumes they are talking about him and escapes. Stolen cars, secret meetings, and hidden trucks combine with espionage and murder to keep the reader (and Campion following clues) to ascertain the culprit.

Agatha Christie’s Evil Under the Sun doesn’t refer to the war although ostensibly takes place in the present day (1941). Poirot is on vacation at “The Jolly Roger Hotel” in Devon and gets tangled up in the murder of an attractive woman no one seems to like. As is his penchant, the detective observes the other guests and their interactions, drawing conclusions and making associations no one else sees. The plot is somewhat convoluted because nearly every guest has a secret and/or motive to kill the victim. In the end, Poirot brings everyone together and announces that not one, but two people were involved in the murder scheme.

Ngaio Marsh’s Death and the Dancing Footman takes place in 1941, and the war is not mentioned. As was popular the story is set at the large manor of “wealthy dilettante” Jonathan Royal who hosts a party with guests “whose mutual animosity is sure to provide cruelly macabre entertainment.” A snowstorm arrives, and the telephone lines soon go out. Shortly thereafter, the victim is killed with a Maori greenstone mere weapon, a short, broad-bladed weapon in the shape of an enlarged tear drop, from Ms. Marsh’s native Australia. Inspector Roderick Alleyn is called in from a nearby town and stages a re-enactment to determine the villain.

Have you read any of these classics?

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Murder at Madison Square Garden

1941: The dream of a lifetime becomes a nightmare.

Photojournalist Theodora “Teddy” Schafer’s career has hit the skids thanks to rumors of plagiarism. With any luck, a photo spread with Charles Lindbergh at the America First Rally will salvage her reputation. After an attempted assassination of Lindbergh leaves another man dead, Teddy is left holding the gun. Literally. Can she prove her innocence before the police lock her up for a murder she didn’t commit?

Private Investigator Ric Bogart wants nothing to do with women after his wife cleaned out their bank account and left him for another man, but he can’t ignore the feeling he’s supposed to help the scrappy, female reporter who is arrested for murder at the America First rally. Can he believe her claims of innocence and find the real killer without letting Teddy steal his heart?

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