Lighting the Pipes

When old age hands you lemons... it's time to take monkey gland injections from a quack Czech doctor! Or, at least, that's what Professor Presbury might have once suggested. This curious tale is as close as Conan Doyle ever gets to showcasing the hardships of graceful aging to the love-struck pensioner. Yes, "The Adventure of the Creeping Man" is full of crazy moments but it is not bereft of relevance: anti-aging creams, experimental diets, airbrushed photographs... how many of us wish for greater powers of attraction and vitality? Presbury might be an unhinged "monkey man" but his actions hold an awkward mirror up to ourselves. We had a fun time talking over this tale back in September of 2018 and are excited to revive it now for our Summer series!

In this gritty crime thriller, Detective Sergeant John Rebus makes his literary debut. Ian Rankin draws on rich material from the city of Edinburgh and his native Scotland in sculpting his protagonist's first adventure. From the dank alleyways of Auld Reekie to the spirited influence of Stevenson's "Jekyll and Hyde", Rankin works hard with his first Rebus novel to establish an immersive world of conflict and consequence.

A grizzly harpoon murder and a protégé inspector lure Sherlock and Watson out of London and into the remote Weald of East Sussex in this atmospheric adventure. Originally published in 1904, this yarn was collected and re-published a year later in "The Return of Sherlock Holmes". Our "Sherlock Selects" Summer mini-series continues here with a return to this dark story of revenge and retribution sparked years previously upon the open sea. All aboard!

Our "Sherlock Selects" mini-series continues to buffer the Summer's bigger reads, this time with a conversation on "The Bruce Partington Plans" from May 2018. Originally published in 1908 (and featured in the later collection "His Last Bow") this story of stolen government plans in a fog-draped London overflows with intrigue and eventually ranked as one of Conan Doyle's own favourites. We had fun revisiting this tale and stoking the fire over its slow-burning charm.

Published in 1977, "A Morbid Taste For Bones" introduced Brother Cadfael to the world, a Welsh Benedictine monk of the 12th Century with a penchant for solving crimes. Although Ellis Peters establishes a dynamic back-story for her protagonist, set amidst the turmoil of the First Crusade, the vibe of his first adventure is decidedly more "crofter intrigue" than "conflicts of war". Led by the suspect vision of an ambitious monk, the Brothers of Shrewsbury Abbey feel entitled to the nearby relics of Saint Winifred, Welsh virgin martyr, and travel to rural Gwytherin in hopes of exhuming and obtaining them. Things go from bad to worse when bribery and murder enter the plot and Cadfael is soon forced to intercede to arbitrate, explicate and ameliorate events. Complete with a mini-history on the First Crusade, in this episode we guide you through the bell-tolls of Cadfael's first monastic mystery.

Second in our series of "Sherlock Selects" for the Summer is "The Adventure of the Cardboard Box". Originally published in January of 1893 (and first covered on LTP in June of 2017), Conan Doyle himself ruled against anthologizing this tale due to its controversial subject matter. But you can't keep a good story down and "The Cardboard Box" would soon enough see wide release in both the UK and America. We had a lot of fun chatting through this twisted tale of morbid mail and jealous love!

This season, we'll be buffering new episodes with re-introduced and smaller story reviews. For these selections, we reach back into our first season vaults and renew our love for some favourite Sherlock pieces and chats. First up is "The Abbey Grange", one of Josh's choices from The Return of Sherlock Holmes. Originally published in March of 2018, we had a great time talking through the beats of this locked room mystery.

"Later" marks the third and most recent crime story written by Stephen King for the Hard Case Crime label. Offering readers a predictable mix of the supernatural and police procedural, the horror master's latest tale continues his career penchant for coming-of-age narratives with soul-searching themes. Josh and Scott break down the narrative and weigh its subtle strengths as series three of LTP picks up momentum.

Josh and Scott kick off a new series of crime story explorations with a trip to Lindsey Davis's Ancient Rome, guided by Imperial Informant, Marcus Didius Falco. "The Silver Pigs" is set in AD 70, during the rule of Vespasian, and travels from the Aventine to Roman Britain where a conspiracy involving the trade of silver ingots propels Falco further into deep and dangerous territory. Join us for a time-travelling romp through antiquity as Davis reconstructs ancient Rome for modern crime readers through the lens of her cynical detective.

For their series finale on the Philip Marlowe novels, Scott and Josh reflect on their reading of the canonical sweep and rank the stories and features of Raymond Chandler's enduring collection.