We discuss chapters 1-15 of Vaseem Khan's riddle-laden historical romp, 'The Dying Day'. Just days after narrowly defusing one political bomb in 'Midnight at Malabar House', another lands in Inspector Persis Wadia's lap, as she is put on the hunt of a priceless copy of Dante's Divine Comedy. The scholar who was translating it has taken it, leaving behind a bizarre trail of clues and no straight answers. Why did he run off, and can Persis avoid working in tandem with the nefarious force he may have fled from? Herds is in the hot seat, as we return for our 2022 Murder Mystery World Tour.

It’s time for the crown. The Sulari Gentill Award for the most-recommended mystery novel of the year for Death of the Reader goes to, Sulari Gentill, and her 2018 book ‘Crossing the Lines’, also known as ‘After She Wrote Him’, or ‘A Line Once Crossed’ by me and like two other fans. Crossing the Lines makes a compelling case for why a sense of uncertainty can be a blessing in fiction, and it can really open up a door for your reading once it clicks.

Yukito Ayatsuji’s 'The Decagon House Murders' takes out second place for our recommendations, this Review Season. The novel achieves the rare feat of taking one of the most highly regarded mysteries of all time, spoofing it, and somehow, besting it. It’s incredibly clever, astonishingly memorable, and as the current wave of shin-honkaku translations hopefully continues, you will love seeing the work this did in inspiring a generation of writers. We do not have the time to name the dense list of people, who upon hearing we occasionally feature Japanese novels ask ‘have you read the Decagon House Murders?’.

For our final week of Review Season, Herds is set to deliver you into the third-last stop on our journey to rank our recommendations of all the murder mystery stories that we’ve enjoyed over the course of this year. Today, the unforgettable commercial-failure cult-classic train-mystery remembered as The Last Express by Jordan Mechner, a murder mystery video game that truly is one of a kind and that holds a special place in Hers' heart for being the story that got him interested in murder mysteries in the first place. Let’s step into the shoes of Robert Cath, American doctor, as he steps into the shoes of deceased friend Tyler Whitney, and boards The Orient Express for a journey across Europe.

Coming in fourth place on our recommendations for 2021 is 'The Tokyo Zodiac Murders' by Soji Shimada. Written in 1981 and considered to be the grandfather of Shin-Honkaku mystery (also known as modern deduction-based mysteries) it employs a combination of astrology and alchemy, straight up wizards, and hard clues to construct a devilish puzzle with an ending twist solution that would be quite the feat to determine before our detective does.

Richard Osman’s 'The Thursday Murder Club' comes in fifth place for our 2021 recommendations. One of the best-selling books in recent memory, this astonishingly accessible modern crime romp is a treasure, and I’m so grateful we got to feature it on the show. Television presenter Richard Osman debuted into crime fiction in 2020 with a mystery that took the classic mystery-club-out-of-their-depth format, aged it up a lot and made them all entertainingly talented swimmers.

Coming in at sixth place for our 2021 recommendations on Review Season is Emma Stonex's 'The Lamplighters'. One of the sad necessities of review season is that in order to numb the pain of making our list, criteria are king, and that often places our personal favourites outside the podium. The Lamplighters, is such a case. This haunting, lyrical and enveloping exploration into an impossible crime and the people left behind by it, made waves internationally this year, and Flex thinks it was well deserved.

If you peer just off the starboard bow you’ll be able to spot our 7th place entry into Review Season this year coming just over the horizon, but be warned, monsters spotted in the ocean may be larger than they appear… 'Return of the Obra Dinn' is a 2018 released video game by one Lucas Pope of 'Papers Please' fame, and once again tasks himself with making mundane bureaucracy fun for the whole family.

In 8th place for Review Season we will be recommending the lovely, the horrific, the whimsical 'Murder in Old Bombay' by Nev March. If you need any proof at all that every novel is beloved on this show then listen no further than the out pouring of love that Herds gives today. Are you looking to read an epic tale that is exactly one third murder mystery, one third romance, and one third war drama? If so, Murder in Old Bombay is the gift that keeps on giving.

In 9th place we have (and Knox help me on this ranking) 'And Then There Were None' by Agatha Christie, circa 1939. One of, if not the, best codifiers for the closed circle/farmhouse/impossible crime trifecta in the murder mystery space. It is into this mindset we must submerge ourselves to truly understand how Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None came to be, and how it’s construction is held in such a high regard to this day.