A novel featuring real authors of classic mystery stories, Queens of Crime, is Book Talk’s selection for its March 12 meeting at 6:30 p.m. at the library.
Leading the discussion is local mystery writer Marion Moore Hill. The chosen book is by bestselling author Marie Benedict, who writes historical novels about remarkable women from the past who have made significant but mostly unknown contributions.
Her subjects have included subjects ranging from Lady Clementine Churchill, the savvy wife of British Prime Minister Winston, to screen legend Hedy Lamarr, who helped the Allies win World War II.
In Queens of Crime, Benedict’s protagonists include five actual mystery novelists from the Golden age of Mystery (the 1930s): Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers, Ngaio Marsh, Margery Allingham, and Baroness Emma Orczy.
The intriguing puzzle they work together to solve is the murder of a young women who seems to have vanished into thin air.
Book Talk meets monthly on the second Thursday at Donald W. Reynolds Community Center & Library, 1515 W. Main in Durant. Its book discussions are open to the public.
Hill is a former assistant professor of English at Southeastern Oklahoma State University and writes two series of mystery novels.
The Deadly Past Mysteries are current-day puzzles that relate to various Founding Fathers, including Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and John, Abigail, and Samuel Adams.
The Scrappy Librarian Mysteries are novels about a curious, intrepid Oklahoma librarian.
Hill is a board member of the Reynolds Library. Her columns appear often in The Durant Weekly Democrat, Shield and Search (a free online newsletter), and the monthly newspaper The Oklahoma Observer.
Copies of Book Talk selections are available for purchase at the Reynolds Library’s service desk.
The group’s next meeting will be April 9, when Jami Ellis of the Reynolds Library will lead a discussion of The Lost Year: A Survival Story of the Ukrainian Famine by Katherine Marsh.
