The Uncrowned Queens of Crime

Introducing: The New Queens of Crime.

Agora Books’ Uncrowned Queens of Crime series looks beyond the four Queens of Crime and celebrates the writing of mystery-making women who’ve been lost to time.

While Agatha Christie, Dorothy L Sayers, Margery Allingham, and Ngaio Marsh have held their own against the men of the Golden Age of Detective Fiction in both sales and acclaim — which is no small feat — most average readers rarely venture beyond these four queens. Without dethroning the reigning Queens of Crime, the Uncrowned Queens series will shine a light on some equally brilliant female writers of Golden Age Detective Fiction.

These female crime authors have been dismissed for far too long.

We’ve pulled apart second-hand bookstores, scoured every nook and cranny in a myriad of libraries, and delved into far-flung corners of the internet — and we’ve come up for air with some pretty fantastic long-forgotten crime authors, including Hilda Lawrence, Henrietta Hamilton, and Margaret Newman, to start.

To stay up to date with the Uncrowned Queens of Crime series — and hear about our new Queens and celebrate as we coronate them — sign up to the Crime Classics Newsletter.