The 1920s and 1930s in England saw a huge increase in the popularity of detective fiction and especially in the series of books by women authors. Dorothy L. Sayers, Ngaio Marsh, Margery Allingham and Agatha Christie were crowned the Queens of Crime during these years and their books remain popular one hundred years later. In this class, we will read one mystery by each of the Queens of Crime and explore the reasons for the popularity of their work then and now. 

The required reading is as follows and the books are available online or at the Calvin University campus store:

The Secret Adversary by Agatha Christie ISBN 9781838576974

Strong Poison by Dorothy L. Sayers ISBN 9798217007578

Sweet Danger by Margery Allingham ISBN 9781509826797

Artists in Crime by Ngaio Marsh ISBN 9781937384272

Subject: literature

Judith K. Simonson is a retired attorney who read her mother’s tattered copies of the mysteries of the Queens of Crime as a child and continues to enjoy them for their wit and clever plots, as well as the portrait they paint of the interwar years in England.