Women of the Golden Age of Detective Fiction
by Carol L. Wright
When people refer to the “Golden Age” of detective fiction, they are harkening back to the 1920s and 1930s, when some of the most prolific and popular authors of the genre were women. Among the names still renowned from this era are Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers, Ngaio Marsh, Mary Roberts Rinehart, and Margery Louise Allingham.
Agatha Christie (1890-1976), often dubbed the “Queen of Crime,” was an enormously prolific author, best remembered for two of her series sleuths: the vain, idiosyncratic Belgian private detective Hercule Poirot (about whom she wrote nearly 100 novels and short stories), and the aging, English small-town busybody Miss Jane Marple (about whom she wrote twelve novels and twenty short stories). In addition, Christie wrote mysteries featuring a handful of other main characters, a few romances under the pseudonym Mary Westmacott, and was a playwright including of the world’s longest-running play in history, The Mousetrap, which opened in London’s West End in 1952, closing briefly during the Covid-19 pandemic, only to reopen in May 2021. She is listed as perhaps tied with William Shakespeare as the best-selling author of all time, in any language, with an estimated 2 billion to 4 billionbooks sold.
Dorothy L. Sayers (1893-1957) began her career as a novelist with the publication of her first Lord Peter Wimsey mystery. Lord Peter was a bored aristocrat who found great pleasure in solving the mysteries that inevitably came his way. He relied on the assistance of his butler Bunter, a good friend (and eventual brother-in-law) detective Charles Parker, and in later books by his wife, Harriet Vane. Lord Peter, the younger brother of a duke, is polished, clever, and wealthy. Sayers has been criticized for the racism and anti-Semitism displayed by some characters in her works. Some excuse it as a reflection of the world in which she wrote. Yet, others point out the feminism evident especially with the introduction of the character of Harriet Vane, although Sayers disclaimed the label for herself. Even after marriage to Lord Peter, Harriet Vane continued to be a strong, independent character who defied societal boundaries for the behavior of women.
Ngaio Marsh (1895-1982) was a native of New Zealand who created a “gentleman detective” (without the grander aristocratic lineage of Lord Peter) in Chief Inspector Roderick Alleyn of the London Metropolitan Police (a.k.a. Scotland Yard). Alleyn had the advantages of Eton and Oxford educations, and the freedom of not inheriting the title of baronet that went to his older brother. Many have commented on similarities between Alleyn and Lord Peter Wimsey, but Alleyn plays down his aristocratic ties and lacks the eccentricities evident in Sayers’ depiction of Lord Peter. Marsh featured Alleyn in thirty-three novels.
Mary Roberts Rinehart (1876-1958), an American author, regularly wrote for the Saturday Evening Post in addition to penning thirty-five stand-alone novels, including her debut novel, The Circular Staircase, two mystery series featuring female sleuths (Letitia Carberry and Hilda Adams), and numerous short stories, plays, and poems. She is known for creating the “had I but known” literary style and is credited as being the source of “the butler did it,” even though those words do not directly appear in any of her works. She was actively involved in urging President Woodrow Wilson to enter the stalemated First World War in 1915, but it wasn’t until two years later that the Americans joined the fight. “Had he but known” that the U.S. would have made all the difference in ending the war, Wilson might have heeded her sooner.
Margery Louise Allingham (1904-1966) was another British author who began writing stories with elements of the occult, but who switched to mysteries, which, she thought, more suited her personality. Fame came when she wrote about another “gentleman detective,” Albert Campion, in eighteen novels and short stories. Campion’s family, it is hinted, might have members in line for the throne of England, while Campion himself consorted with a manservant who was a former burglar and of great assistance in solving cases. The Campion stories, too, were compared to the Lord Peter Wimsey series by Dorothy L. Sayers. Clearly the notion of the aristocracy, or even the nobility, of England getting down and dirty with crime solving struck a responsive chord with readers of the time.
Of course, there were many other women who wrote during this period, as well as many men who distinguished themselves in the genre during the Golden Age. Among many others, G.K. Chesterton wrote the Father Brown mysteries, John Dickson Carr was a master of the locked-room mystery, and Rex Stout brought Nero Wolfe to the reading public. But the Golden Age would not have been half so shiny without the contributions of these exceptional female writers.