The Queens of Crime

Title:  The Queens of Crime

Author:  Marie Benedict

Publication Information:  St. Martin's Press. 2025. 320 pages.

ISBN:  1250280753 / 978-1250280756

Rating:   ★★★

Book Source:  I received this book through NetGalley free of cost in exchange for an honest review.

Opening Sentence:  "None of us is as we appear, I think as I watch the woman enter the marble-trimmed lobby of Brown's Hotel"

Favorite Quote:  "Never forget that we women aren't what you call us - witches or crones or madwomen or surplus or nobodies. We are all Queens."

The Detection Club, a collective of mystery authors founded in the 1930s, still exists. The original purpose of the club was for authors to support each other and to promote their genre of writing. This books begins with the founding of the club as the brainchild of author Dorothy L. Sayers. The main characters are some of the club's female founding members - Dorothy L. Sayers, Agatha Christie, Ngaio Marsh, Margery Allingham and Baroness Emma Orczy.

The problem that begins the book is a universal one. The male authors looks down upon, frown upon, regard with disdain, ridicule ... add other epithets here ... the female authors. They disregard the women's skills of weaving mysteries and writing compelling stories.

Added to this is the intrigue of an unsolved murder. The victim is a young woman. The case is unsolved, but certain recent happenings haver garnered interest. Even in this regard, the victim - being a woman - is maligned and the cause of death laid perhaps at the door of her own actions. 

The women of the Detection Club enter this mystery for a two-fold reason. The first is a selfish one. If they can solve this unsolved case, perhaps they can once and for all establish their own credibility in this arena. As they get more involved, the focus shifts to also obtaining justice for this young woman who has been brutally murdered and whose reputation is attacked even after her death.

It is disconcerting at first to read about the authors as characters. Having read works by at least some of them, part of me looks for the detectives they so expertly bring to life. It is an interesting mind switch to see them as the detectives and in the time and place of 1930s England and France. It is also interesting to see these icons of the genre as actual people facing the challenges of their lives and their gender.

The ending to the mystery of book is a rather prosaic one that feeds into, what I feel, is the overarching theme of the book. It is all about women in a male dominated world - whether in work, play, or life overall. That theme is repeated over and over throughout the book. Many times, the theme is stated or told rather than shown, making the book at times very slow going. 

I loved The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict. That book fleshed out and brought to life one main character, a time and place, and all the emotions that entails. This one does not quite accomplish that - perhaps too many characters to develop any one, perhaps a story of a time and place complicated with a murder mystery, and perhaps letting the main point of a male-centric world getting in the way of telling the story of that world.

I am fascinated by the historical finds that the author develops into entire books. I still look forward to see what she tackles next.

Please share your thoughts and leave a comment. I would love to "talk" to you.

Dream Count

Title:  Dream Count

Author:  Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Publication Information:  Knopf. 2025. 416 pages.

ISBN:  0593802721 / 978-0593802724

Rating:   ★★

Book Source:  I received this book through NetGalley free of cost in exchange for an honest review.

Opening Sentence:  "I have always longed to be known, truly known, by another human being."

Favorite Quote:  "Something inside you, not the heart. The spirit. The spirit cannot break, even if your heart break. Your spirit stay strong."

I love the opening sentence of this book. That idea is something most, if not all, of  us hold dear. To be seen. To be known. To be heard. The unsaid corollary accompanies. We wish to be seen with all our beauty and all our faults, and we wish for that someone to love for all our beauty and our faults. I am excited to get into the book and follow the idea.

I love the idea of the book - interconnected stories of four women, each independent, each strong in her own way, each weak. each part of a sisterhood holding each other up. I am excited to get into the book and learn more about the story of these women. 

I love the presumed setting - the COVID-19 pandemic. We have all just lived it. We have experiences the losses, the isolation, and the heroism. I am excited to get into the book and see perhaps my own experiences brought to life.

I love the author's note at the end of the book. "Novels are never really about what they are about. At least for this writer." ... "Stories die and recede from the collective memory merely for not having been told. Or a single version thrives because other versions are silenced. Imaginative retellings matter." I learn that this story for the author is about her mother. I also learn that one woman's story is also inspired by the story of a poor immigrant woman and what she suffered at the hands of those with more power and money and what she suffered at the hands of the system - "a person failed by a country she trusted." I am excited to get into the book and learn more about this history.

Unfortunately, I struggle with the book itself. The dream of being known devolves into the story of the men who did not "see" rather than of the woman herself. In fact, the stories of all the women become much more focused on the men and the power dynamic of those men in society and in these relationships. The story of the pandemic gets somewhat lost as the women's stories traverse their own histories before and after; the time element becomes less relevant to the book. The historical inspiration I learn from the author's note more so than the story itself.

I find myself putting the book down, reluctant to go back. I persevere, but I am sad, for I so wanted and expected to love this book.

Please share your thoughts and leave a comment. I would love to "talk" to you.

1666

Title:  1666

Author:  Lora Chilton

Publication Information:  Sibylline Press. 2024. 224 pages.

ISBN:  1960573950 / 978-1960573957

Rating:   ★★★★★

Book Source:  I received this book through NetGalley free of cost in exchange for an honest review.

Opening Sentence:  "The Patawomeck tribe of Virginia was referenced in many early written records starting in the 1600s by explorers Caption John Smith, William Strachey, and Henry Spelman, among others."

Favorite Quote:  "He does not understand that no ones own this land; this is for all people to share. He does not understand that he cannot own this land, but he keeps trying."

A note about the publisher:  Sibylline Press is a relatively new imprint. Their goal is to "publish the brilliant work of women authors over 50!" 1666 is the first book under the imprint.

A note about the author:  Lora Chilton is member of the Patawomeck Tribe. The book is based on research through interviews with tribal elders, colonial documents, and a study of the Patawomeck language. 

A note about the book. The book includes indigenous names and the Patawomeck language in tribute to the culture. The book includes a glossary for the terms and names used. Often, the book will provide both terms in the text which is alternatively helpful and redundant.

Now on to the story.

The Patawomeck are a Native American tribe, who call home the area around the Potomac River that is now Stafford County, Virginia. Potomac, in fact, is said to be another spelling of Patawomeck. The tribe's first recorded meeting with the Europeans is dated to 1608 and Captain John Smith. At times, the Europeans and the Patawomeck were allies and trade partners. In 1662, however, a tribe member was arrested. Trial in 1663 judged him not guilty. However, he was murdered on his travel home. In 1665, the colonists forced the tribe to "sell" their remaining land. In 1666, the colonists declared war on several tribes including the Patawomeck.

That is where this book begins.

As an act of war, all the men and even some growing boys are massacred. The babies are taken from their mothers and given to other families. The women, girls, and young children are put on board a ship and sent to Barbados to be sold into slavery. This part of the history is little known. "Every tribe along the East Coast of the New World has experienced similar losses. There are no words to describe the devastation." The current tribe members are descendants of the survivors of the 1666 massacre.

This book is the story of three of these women, one who is merely a girl at the time. The story is told as a first person narrative through the eyes of these women. The first person narration also pays homage to the oral tradition that documents the history of the tribes. The first person narration also portrays the atrocities experiences and the losses in a way that other narrative techniques would not. The details are horrifying! "I do not cry. I have no tears left. There is nothing left."

This book is also a story of courage, resilience, and survival. It is about a journey home. It is the story of the fact that, despite every effort to destroy them, the tribe survives today. An emotional, heart-wrenching story recounting an unforgettable history.

Please share your thoughts and leave a comment. I would love to "talk" to you.