# 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. 

All her stories have a large number of characters. She worked with a huge cast at the same time which made the climax quite compelling and mysterious. She successfully brought out the nuances of each of them crisply with a tinge of humour and satire. She described the social details of people during the war era (2nd world war) so well that it all seems so plausible. There is sardonic humour enveloping the household and lifestyle challenges and the changing role of women in the society which one can picturize through the words easily.

Even though her novels were so popular they have been published after a gap of 70 years. 

All three of her novels are definitely worth reading! 

   

           1939                            1940                            1942

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/14550556.Harriet_Rutland