# 3 Best Women Authors of Golden Age Crime Fiction
Vintage Mysteries
I had always loved reading crime fiction novels from an early age. Most of which I came across in our tiny school library and the rest I heard about from friends.
From the Golden Era authors to the new age ones, I found some women crime fiction writers' works quite compelling!
They produced absolutely engaging scripts and some were adapted into movies as well.
#1. Agatha Christie
My favorite, no doubt, is Agatha Christie, an English writer, termed as the queen of crime and one of the best selling authors of all times. Two of her detective characters, Hercule Poirot and Miss Jane Marple are extremely well known besides the couple detectives Tommy and Tuppence and Mr Parker Pyne who appear in short stories.
The Pale Horse is the only book that went entirely without a lead detective, making it a rarity in Christie's catalog. I have read all her novels and most of the short stories. Some were edited and published posthumously.
With her glimpse of the modern and countryside charm of English life and the reality of the characters mixed with unexpected twists in the plot and pragmatism of the detective characters as opposed to their appearances, her writing is un-put-downable.
Here's a list of some of her best works of fiction-
1. Murder on the orient express - Poirot
2. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd -
3. And then there were none
4. The Body in the Library
5. 4.50 from Paddington - Etc
Find the complete reading list for Agatha Christie here
https://www.agathachristie.com/en/stories
List of Hercule Poirot books in order
List of Miss Marple Books in order
#2. Mary Roberts Rhinehart
Best known as the American Queen of Crime. She had penned quite a few books, poems, short stories and the best-selling were made into movies such as The Bat (1926), The Bat Whispers (1930), and The Bat (1959).
Her writing style is extremely engaging with a light emotional touch to the characters. The plots have a depth of thrill and mystery and the pace of the story keeps the readers hooked to the pages. In her stories she depicted the new era women and the changes in lifestyle of the elite class which came about with the war.
Her 1st published book "The Circular Staircase" had the narrative style of "had I but known..". While many of her books were best-sellers, critics were most appreciative of her murder mysteries. Almost all her stories had featured war in the background.
Read more about her work here.
https://www.fantasticfiction.com/r/mary-roberts-rinehart/
List of Mary Roberts Rinehart books in order#3. Harriet Rutland
Harriet Rutland was the pen name of Olive Shimwell. She wrote 3 novels in her lifetime, namely,
1. Knock, murderer, knock(1938)
2. Bleeding Hooks (1940)
3. Blue Murder (1942).
The plots of all these books were quite innovative and the characters were very realistically portrayed. She had this subtle style of infusing dark humour in the tale which made them quite engaging.
