The Parallels of History and Mystery: A Guest Post by Rosanne Limoncelli
Director, screenwriter, author and playwright, Rosanne Limoncelli knows a thing or two about storytelling. Read on for an exclusive essay from Limoncelli on what she likes about writing mysteries and what made her want to write her debut novel, The Four Queens of Crime.
Paperback $19.99
The Four Queens of Crime: A Novel
The Four Queens of Crime: A Novel
In Stock Online
Paperback $19.99
In this debut mystery, DCI Lilian Wyles, the first woman detective chief inspector in the CID, is determined to find a killer with the help of the four queens of crime, Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers, Ngaio Marsh, and Margery Allingham, perfect for fans of Elly Griffiths and Claudia Gray.
In this debut mystery, DCI Lilian Wyles, the first woman detective chief inspector in the CID, is determined to find a killer with the help of the four queens of crime, Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers, Ngaio Marsh, and Margery Allingham, perfect for fans of Elly Griffiths and Claudia Gray.
As a reader, the mystery genre attracts me because it serves as a neat container for the issues of our times. Gritty noir plots during the depression reflecting on the decline of civilization; the 1970’s stories of serial killers targeting independent women; and the golden age’s murder mystery puzzle tale, making us pay attention to every tiny detail so that we think critically and analyze the world around us.
In the 1930’s the best selling authors of the western world were four women: Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers, Ngaio Marsh, and Margery Allingham. They were dubbed the Four Queens of Crime. Every time I read a golden age mystery I marvel at the modern parallels. These four writers created everyday characters that still feel real; people that we care about, or love to hate, or that vex us. The characters exemplify greed, love, jealousy, revenge, ambition, and fear. They live through situations that keep us thinking even after we close the book.
All four writers have fascinating biographies and memoirs. In the 1930’s they were living through monumental events including the threat of fascism and by the end of the decade Hitler had started his march through Europe toward England. In reading about this time, I was amazed at all the similarities to our lives today; the partisan politics, immigration issues, the struggles of marginalized people, the divide between the social classes. It all inspired me to write a historically accurate mystery story that would feel current and relevant to readers today.
Why not put these four writers together in their own mystery genre container and see what would happen? And shouldn’t they collaborate with a woman Detective Chief Inspector on this imaginary case? The first woman DCI at Scotland Yard was Lilian Wiles, on the job in London in the 1930’s, and she also wrote a wonderful memoir. She was the perfect person to work with the four writers to solve a murder.
I found a lot of fun in this idea of the writers meeting each other and reacting to their circumstances. They would talk about writing, of course, and refer to their own stories and characters and to each other’s. Perhaps Agatha would eavesdrop on conversations just like Miss Marple, maybe Ngaio would fall in love with a detective like her main character Troy, Dorothy would certainly be shocked by a real murder, and Margery might push forward naively, getting knocked on the head, like her hero Albert Campion always did. I could hear them talk (in my head) as they each approached solving the mystery in their own way, just like they approached writing so differently from each other, and of course they related the mystery they were solving to their own lives, as readers and writers do. Mysteries make us analyze, and think critically, and make sense of the world around us. As Agatha says in my book “Everything in life is fodder for fiction—it would be a waste otherwise.”