Mary Shelley was a 19th century English novelist best known for her Gothic novel Frankenstein, which she wrote at age 18. She drew inspiration for the story from conversations with her future husband Percy Shelley and friends about science and the occult. Other notable female writers mentioned include J.K. Rowling, creator of the Harry Potter series; Emily W. Sunstein, an American biographer and writer; and Agatha Christie, a prolific English writer known as the queen of crime fiction.