Experience Planner

Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle (CLSC) Unbound Presentation — Harlem Rhapsody by Victoria Christopher Murray and The Queens of Crime by Marie Benedict

She found the literary voices that would inspire the world…. Harlem Rhapsody (On-sale: February 4, 2025) is the extraordinary story of the woman who ignited the Harlem Renaissance, written by Victoria Christopher Murray, New York Times bestselling coauthor of The Personal Librarian. Most of us have heard of the Harlem Renaissance, and some may even know that this movement began in 1924, one hundred years ago. However, few of us know of the woman who was at the epicenter of the literary awakening that occurred, the woman who discovered the authors synonymous with this time: Jessie Redmon Fauset.

Victoria Christopher Murray is a New York Times bestselling author of more than thirty novels, including The Personal Librarian, a Good Morning America book club pick, and The First Ladies, Target’s 2023 Book of the Year, both of which she coauthored with Marie Benedict. She is a NAACP Image Award Winner for Outstanding Literary Work for her novel Stand Your Ground, which was also a Library Journal Best Book of the Year. She holds an MBA from the NYU Stern School of Business.

The Queens of Crime (On-sale: February 11, 2025) by beloved and bestselling author Marie Benedict (The Personal Librarian, The Mystery of Mrs. Christie) is a genre-bending novel starring Dorothy Sayers and Agatha Christie that blends classic mystery, historical fiction, and elements of true crime into a page-turning and unforgettable story. Set in London in the 1930s and starring five of the greatest women crime writers of the interwar period, The Queens of Crime is an homage to the Golden Age of Detective Fiction that celebrates women who buck convention and seek justice for themselves—and others.

Marie Benedict is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of The Mitford Affair, Her Hidden Genius, The Mystery of Mrs. Christie, The Only Woman in the Room, Lady Clementine, Carnegie’s Maid, The Other Einstein, and with Victoria Christopher Murray, the Good Morning America Book Club pick The Personal Librarian and the Target Book of the Year The First Ladies. All have been translated into multiple languages, and many have been selected for the Barnes & Noble Book Club, Target Book Club, Costco Book Club, Indie Next List, and LibraryReads List. She lives in Pittsburgh with her family.

Newly beloved Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle authors, Victoria Christopher Murray and Marie Benedict, will join Kwame Alexander, Michael I. Rudell Artistic Director of Literary Arts, in conversation on Thursday, March 13, 2025, as part of our CLSC Unbound programming to discuss the significance of historical fiction, women in history, and each of their newest novels – and 2025 CLSC selections – Harlem Rhapsody (Penguin Random House) and The Queens of Crime (St. Martin’s Press). Register for the Zoom Webinar here: https://chq1874.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_wWZNnjEESeepbl_ckCZLsQ