When Dame Agatha Christie published her first mystery novel - The Mysterious Affair at Styles - in 1920, she not only broke new ground for women in publishing, she ushered in an era of detective fiction that continues unabated a century later. Of course, Christie was not alone as she pioneered “the Golden Age of detective fiction.” She had a lot of great companions, among them Dorothy Sayers, Margery Allingham, and Josephine Tey. These four authors were foremost among the women who ruled as the Queens of Crime from 1920 through the 1950s.

Nowadays, the type of mystery fiction that these authors pioneered is too often dismissed as “cozy,” as though murder and corruption are something of a lark. But Christie, Sayers, Allingham, and Tey were great writers, serious about their craft and astute observers of their society. Contemporary mystery writers acknowledge that the work of these authors brought the mystery genre a level of maturity that is worthy of respect and serious study.

This introductory course into the first century of great British detective fiction dives head-first into the work of these pioneering authors by reading a novel by each of them. The currently contemplated roster includes Sayers’ Gaudy Night, Christie’s The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, Tey’s Brat Farrar, and Allingham’s The Tiger in the Smoke. So grab a cup of tea and get ready for some great reading this winter.