14 October 2019
In the Golden Age of British detective fiction in the 1920s and 1930s, four women were universally considered the four Queens-Agatha Christie, Margery Allingham, Ngaio Marsh, and Dorothy L. Sayers (don't forget the middle initial, please, she was most adamant about that). She earned that title largely on the strength of eleven extraordinary novels published between 1923 and 1937, featuring the iconic character of Lord Peter Wimsey and, in four of them, the inestimable Harriet Vane, as well as dozens of short stories and one stand-alone novel. Her influence on detective fiction went far wider than that, however.