(Old feed) Shedunnit Book Club — Seasoned Detectives

Not every mystery needs a murder.

There are minor details shared for all the novels and stories listed below, but no major plot revelations in this episode.

Mentioned in this episode: — “The Flying Stars” by G.K. Chesterton, collected in The Innocence of Father Brown — A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens — The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens — Hercule Poirot’s Christmas by Agatha Christie — An English Murder by Cyril Hare — Mystery in White by J. Jefferson Farjeon — The Santa Claus Murder by Mavis Doriel Hay — Murder After Christmas by Rupert Latimer — The Smiler with the Knife by Nicholas Blake — Tied Up in Tinsel by Ngaio Marsh — The Case of the Abominable Snowman by Nicholas Blake — "The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding" by Agatha Christie, collected in a book of the same name — "Stuffing" by Edgar Wallace, collected in Silent Nights, edited by Martin Edwards — "The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle" by Arthur Conan Doyle, collected in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes — “The Mystery of Mrs Bardell’s Xmas Pudding” by Gwyn Evans — “The Ghost’s Touch” by Fergus Hume, collected in The Big Book of Christmas Mysteries, edited by Otto Penzler — A Maigret Christmas by Georges Simenon — “The Reprisal” by Michael Innes — Catt Out of the Bag by Clifford Witting — "The Black Bag Left on a Doorstep” by Catharine Louisa Pirkis, collected in A Surprise for Christmas, edited by Martin Edwards — “Sister Bessie or Your Old Leech” by Cyril Hare, collected in The Christmas Card Crime, edited by Martin Edwards — A Highland Christmas by M.C. Beaton — Deck The Halls by Mary Higgins Clark and Carol Higgins Clark — “Christmas Eve” by S.C. Roberts, collected in The Big Book of Christmas Mysteries, edited by Otto Penzler — “The Necklace of Pearls” by Dorothy L. Sayers, collected in Silent Nights, edited by Martin Edwards

NB: Links to Blackwell's are affiliate links, meaning that the podcast receives a small commission when you purchase a book there (the price remains the same for you). Blackwell's is a UK bookselling chain that ships internationally at no extra charge.

This is the Shedunnit Book Club companion episode for December 2023, in which we are reading Murder After Christmas by Rupert Latimer. There are no major spoilers in this primer, but if you'd rather read the book with no knowledge of its plot or structure at all, I'd recommend listening only once you've finished reading. I’ll see you in the Shedunnit forum for our fully spoilered discussion thread on 18th December, opening earlier than usual so we can discuss the book before Christmas.

Links: — The reading themes for 2024 — The book suggestions thread — Watching party ideas thread

Sign up via email to be alerted when the watching party is about to start — next month's watching party will be happening on Sunday 10th December at 5pm GMT. Suggestions for what we watch are very welcome in this forum thread.

In January 2024, we are reading The Man in the Brown Suit by Agatha Christie, and in February our book is The Division Bell Mystery by Ellen Wilkinson.

NB: links to books at Blackwell’s are affiliate links, meaning that although the price remains the exactly same for you, the podcast receives a small commission on each purchase. Blackwell’s is a UK bookseller that ships internationally at no extra charge.

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.

NB: Links to Blackwell's are affiliate links, meaning that the podcast receives a small commission when you purchase a book there (the price remains the same for you). Blackwell's is a UK bookselling chain that ships internationally at no extra charge.

A riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.

Spoilers: there will be minor details shared for all the novels and stories listed below, and major spoilers towards the end for The Documents in the Case by Dorothy L. Sayers and Robert Eustace. The latter will be flagged just before I get to it, so you can safely listen to the rest of the episode and just skip that part when I tell you.

Mentioned in this episode: — A Master of Mysteries by L.T. Meade and Robert Eustace — The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins — An Honourable Miss by L.T. Meade — A World of Girls by L.T. Meade — Stories from the Diary of a Doctor by L.T. Meade and Clifford Halifax — The Experiences of the Oracle of Maddox Street by L.T. Meade and Robert Eustace — The Brotherhood of the Seven Kings by L.T. Meade and Robert Eustace — The Sorceress of the Strand by L.T. Meade and Robert Eustace — The Face in the Dark by L.T. Meade and Robert Eustace — Great Short Stories of Detection, Mystery and Horror edited by Dorothy L. Sayers — The Nursing Home Murder by Ngaio Marsh and Henry Jellett — "The Tea Leaf" by Edgar Jepson and Robert Eustace — The Documents in the Case by Dorothy L Sayers and Robert Eustace — Five Red Herrings by Dorothy L. Sayers — Unnatural Death by Dorothy L. Sayers — Clouds of Witness by Dorothy L. Sayers — The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club by Dorothy L. Sayers — Have His Carcase by Dorothy L. Sayers

Additional sources consulted: — “The Mystery of Robert Eustace” by Joe Christopher, The Armchair Detective Quarterly volume 13, issue 4, Fall 1980 — Rivaling Conan Doyle: L. T. Meade’s Medical Mysteries, New Woman Criminals, and Literary Celebrity at the Victorian Fin de Siècle by Janis Dawson, English Literature in Transition, 1880-1920, Volume 58, Number 1, 2015 — Dorothy L Sayers, Nine Literary Studies by Trevor H. Hall — Dorothy L. Sayers: A Companion to the Mystery Fiction by Eric Sandberg — “Nature Is Lopsided”: Muscarine as Scientific and Literary Fascinosum in Dorothy L. Sayers’ The Documents in the Case by Bettina Wahrig in Poison and Poisoning in Science, Fiction and Cinema: Precarious Identities, 2017

Related Shedunnit episodes: — Edith Thompson — The Dispenser — Dorothy's Secret

NB: Links to Blackwell's are affiliate links, meaning that the podcast receives a small commission when you purchase a book there (the price remains the same for you). Blackwell's is a UK bookselling chain that ships internationally at no extra charge.

This is your audiobook for November, and this month’s theme has the club reading a collection of short stories. Echoing our audiobook from July, which showcased Early Queens of Crime, I have selected three very short stories from a trio of new-to-us men writers: John Kendrick Bangs, Peter Cheyney, and Aidan de Brune. From a successful criminal to a suspicious game of cards to drug smuggling in Australia, I hope you enjoy these mini-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.

In this bonus episode, Caroline and Leandra discuss a recently popular topic within the Shedunnit book club forum: book afterlives.

Initiated by book club member Justin, the community has been sharing reading habits, book collection processes, and redistribution techniques. If you would like to see how other members feel about this subject, or you would like to weigh in, check out the original discussion thread: "What do you do with your books?"

Thank you, Justin, for introducing this topic to the Shedunnit book club.

Listen using the player above, your private podcast feed (instructions here) or download the mp3 directly.

This is the Shedunnit Book Club companion episode for November 2023, in which we are reading Murder in the Falling Snow, edited by Cecily Gayford. There are no major spoilers in this primer, but if you'd rather read the book with no knowledge of its plot or structure at all, I'd recommend listening only once you've finished reading. I’ll see you in the Shedunnit forum for our fully spoilered discussion thread on 30th November.

Links: — Vote for our February 2024 book — The reading themes for 2024 — The book suggestions thread — Watching party ideas thread

Sign up via email to be alerted when the watching party is about to start — next month's watching party will be happening on Sunday 26th November at 5pm GMT. Suggestions for what we watch are very welcome in this forum thread.

In November, we are reading Murder After Christmas by Rupert Latimer and in December our book is The Man in the Brown Suit by Agatha Christie.

NB: links to books at Blackwell’s are affiliate links, meaning that although the price remains the exactly same for you, the podcast receives a small commission on each purchase. Blackwell’s is a UK bookseller that ships internationally at no extra charge.

Private members’ clubs are surprisingly popular with corpses.

Mentioned in this episode: — The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club by Dorothy L Sayers — Death at the Club by Miles Burton — "The Angel in the House" by Coventry Patmore, collected in The Angel in the House — Maurice by E. M. Forster — Book of Household Management by Isabella Beeton — “The Case of the Old Man in the Window” by Margery Allingham, collected in Mr. Campion and Others — Keep It Quiet by Richard Hull

Related Shedunnit episodes: — The Mutual Admiration Society (Ad Free) — Back to School (Ad Free) — The Detection Club (Ad Free)

NB: Links to Blackwell's are affiliate links, meaning that the podcast receives a small commission when you purchase a book there (the price remains the same for you). Blackwell's is a UK bookselling chain that ships internationally at no extra charge.

How Adelaide Bartlett got away with murder.

Mentioned in this episode: — The Anatomy of Murder by the Detection Club — Sweet Adalaide by Julian Symons

Additional books consulted: — The Trial of Adelaide Bartlett, both 1886 and 1927 editions — Victorian Murderesses by Mary S. Hartman — Molecules of Murder by John Emsley — Crime and the Respectable Woman: Toward a Pattern of Middle-Class Female Criminality in Nineteenth-Century France and England by Mary S. Hartman — Chloroform: The Quest for Oblivion by Linda Stratmann — The Secret Poisoner by Linda Stratmann — Closing Argument to the Jury for the Defense in Criminal Cases by G. Arthur Martin

Related Shedunnit episodes: — Edith Thompson (Ad Free) — The Telephone Call (Ad Free) — The Kidnap of Elizabeth Canning

NB: Links to Blackwell's are affiliate links, meaning that the podcast receives a small commission when you purchase a book there (the price remains the same for you). Blackwell's is a UK bookselling chain that ships internationally at no extra charge.

This bonus episode is a bit of a patchwork quilt. First, I will be giving you my thoughts on the recently released film, A Haunting in Venice. Then, you will hear a section of conversation that I had with guest Carla Valentine during our interview recording for the Spooky Sleuthing episode, in which we discussed the film as well.

If you missed Carla's appearance in Spooky Sleuthing on the main podcast feed, you can listen to that episode here. You can learn more about Carla via her website: carlavalentine.co.uk/

Listen using the player above, your private podcast feed (instructions here).