March 20, 2025
The Queens of Crime by Marie Benedict
In order to gain the respect of their male counterparts, five female mystery writers from the Golden Age of mystery - Agatha Christie, Dorothy Sayers, Emma Orzcy, Margery Allingham, and Ngaio Marsh - join forces to solve the mystery of a young English nurse found murdered in Boulogne.
Many thanks to Edelweiss for providing an eARC for review.
November 19, 2022
The Mitford Affair by Marie Benedict
The six Mitford sisters are the toast of the London social scene, even in the middle of a worldwide economic depression. Oldest sister Nancy concentrates on her marriage and her writing, while sisters Diana and Unity are caught up in Hitler's fascism and become close personal friends of the Fuhrer, as well as strong supporters of the British Union of Fascists. Meanwhile, younger sister Jessica is a devout communist and runs off to Spain with her boyfriend to fight Franco's regime.
Marie Benedict really captures life in England and Germany between the two world wars. She focuses on the three oldest sisters: Nancy, the best known of the sisters for her writing; Diana, married to the head of the British Union of Fascists; and Unity, Nazi fangirl who possibly had an affair with Hitler. As with all of Benedict's books, research is sound and even readers who are unfamiliar with this time period will have no problem being caught up in the story.
Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an eARC.
Five of the six Mitford sisters
September 7, 2021
The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray
Belle da Costa Greene was the librarian of J. P. Morgan's personal library. But Belle was hiding a secret that could have spelled disaster for her if it was revealed: she was born Belle Greener, daughter of the first black man to graduate from Harvard. She passes as white, claiming to be of Portuguese descent to account for her darker complexion.
As a librarian, I expected to enjoy this historical novel more than I did. I was looking for more details about the materials that Belle sourced and curated. But most of the emphasis is on the artwork that she acquired: she was more of an art dealer than a librarian. There was also a lot more about society and Belle's difficulties in passing for white. I skimmed the last half of the book. I usually like Marie Benedict's books since they focus on largely unknown women, but I felt the writing here was mediocre. Belle's story deserved better.
Belle da Costa Greene
April 9, 2021
The Mystery of Mrs. Christie by Marie Benedict
In December 1926, mystery writer Agatha Christie disappeared for 11 days without any explanation. She had discovered that her husband Archie was having an affair with a woman named Nancy Neele and wanted a divorce. Christie was eventually located at a hotel/spa in Harrogate, Yorkshire, and she never disclosed where she had been for the previous ten days.
Agatha's true life mystery was a huge news story. She never referred to her disappearance and doctors who examined her determined that she was suffering from memory loss. No one knows where she was for the ten days she was missing. She and Archie subsequently divorced, and both remarried.
This was an okay fictional biography of Christie. Marie Benedict writes historical fiction about women - previous books have focused on Albert Einstein's wife and Andrew Carnegie's maid, among others. She does stick to historical facts (which other novels about Christie have taken great liberties with), but it wasn't as good as Benedict's earlier books.
