Welcome to your audiobook for December 2023. This month, the book club is reading Murder After Christmas by Rupert Latimer, an eccentric Christmas mystery with a light-hearted tone. Meanwhile, your audiobook for this month is a bit sinister. “Cambric Tea” by Marjorie Bowen was first published in Hutchinson’s Magazine in July 1925. The mystery follows a young physician named Bevis Holroyd whose new patient, a wealthy man confined to bed, accuses his wife of lacing his cambric tea with arsenic. The name Marjorie Bowen is just one of at least six pseudonyms used by Gabrielle Margaret Vere Long. At sixteen years old, Bowen wrote and published her first book, immediately becoming the primary breadwinner for her family. She went on to publish more than 150 novels and countless short stories during her lifetime. While many of Bowen’s stories have been described as “potboilers,” some of her works remain popular today. For instance, this month’s audiobook, “Cambric Tea,” is collected in Silent Nights and The Big Book of Christmas Mysteries.

After listening, if you'd like to discuss these stories with other members or make suggestions for me to record in the future, head over to the audiobook club area of the forum to do that.

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