(Old feed) Shedunnit Book Club — Seasoned Detectives

This is your audiobook for February 2023. Our theme for our main book club read this month is “impossble crimes”, and so we’ve chosen this story to fit into that as well. This is a locked room puzzle from 1925, in which a man is stabbed to death inside a Turkish bath with nobody else around, and with a weapon that was seemingly never there in the first place.

Edgar Jepson was a journalist and writer who is probably best known today for his translations of the Arsene Lupin stories into English, but who did also write a lot of crime and adventure stories for the press. His collaborator for this tale, Robert Eustace, as a frequent co-author for Edwardian and golden age crime writers — he was a medical doctor who specialised in bringing scientific knowledge to detective ficiton. Two of his other notable collaborators were Dorothy L. Sayers, on the 1930 novel The Documents in the Case, and the Irish writer L.T. Meade, with whom he wrote dozens of mystery stories.

After listening, if you'd like to discuss this story 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.

This is the Shedunnit Book Club companion episode for February 2023, in which we are reading Death of Jezebel by Christianna Brand. There is a non-spoilery plot summary included (ie no major clues or twists), but you've been warned! I’ll see you in the Shedunnit forum for our fully spoilered discussion thread on 28th February.

Links:

— The reading themes for 2023

— The book suggestions thread

— Watching party ideas thread

— The primer for Suddenly At His Residence by Christianna Brand

— The Locked Room episode with Jim Noy

Sign up via email to be alerted when the watching party is about to start — the next one is happening on Sunday 26th February at 5pm GMT.

Coming up: in March we are reading Death on the Cherwell by Mavis Doriel Hay, and in April our book is The Laughing Policeman by Maj Sjöwall & Per Wahlöö.

The voting for what we read for May will be opening very soon, so if there's anything you’d like to see on the shortlist then please do post about it in the forum or email me on [email protected].

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.

She wrote five successful murder mysteries and then vanished without a trace.

Mentioned in this episode:

— Postscript to Poison by Dorothy Bowers

— Shadows Before by Dorothy Bowers

— A Deed Without A Name by Dorothy Bowers

— Fear For Miss Betony by Dorothy Bowers

— The Bells at Old Bailey by Dorothy Bowers

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.

Caroline and Leandra discuss reading intentions for the new year, as well as methods of tracking the books you read.

For more book chatter, you might want to follow the podcast on Instagram @ShedunnitShow, or follow Caroline @cacrampton and Leandra @leandra_thetbrzero individually. Leandra also has a great bookish YouTube channel.

She created Lord Peter Wimsey — and also some excellent slogans about mustard.

Mentioned in this episode: — The Mutual Admiration Society by Mo Moulton — Dorothy L. Sayers: Her Life And Soul by Barbara Reynolds — Dorothy L. Sayers: A Careless Rage for Life by David Coomes — Dorothy L. Sayers: A Companion to the Mystery Fiction by Eric Sandberg — Dorothy L. Sayers: A Biography by James Brabazon — Whose Body? by Dorothy L. Sayers — Clouds of Witness by Dorothy L. Sayers — "The Psychology of Advertising" by Dorothy L. Sayers in the Spectator — Murder Must Advertise by Dorothy L. Sayers — The Nine Tailors by Dorothy L. Sayers — The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club by Dorothy L. Sayers

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 January 2023, in which we are reading Whose Body? by Dorothy L. Sayers. There is a non-spoilery plot summary included (ie no major clues or twists), but you've been warned! I’ll see you in the Shedunnit forum for our fully spoilered discussion thread on 31st January.

Further reading and listening:

— The Complete Annotated Whose Body

— An interesting article on Sayers and anti semitism

— The Mutual Admiration Society episode with Mo Moulton

— The Room of One’s Own episode with Francesca Wade

— Primer: Strong Poison

— Primer: Busman’s Honeymoon

— Dorothy L. Sayers Solves Her Mystery (Queens of Crime at War 6)

— The Challenge of Dorothy L. Sayers

— Bonus Episode: Eric Sandberg on Dorothy L. Sayers

Sign up via email to be alerted when the watching party is about to start — it's happening on 29th January at 5pm GMT. Suggestions for what we watch very welcome in this forum thread.

In February we are reading Death of Jezebel by Christianna Brand and in March we’ll be trying Death on the Cherwell by Mavis Doriel Hay.

I'm going to open the voting on what we read for April (Mysteries in Translation theme) very soon, so if there's anything you’d like to see on the shortlist then please do post about it in the forum or email me on [email protected].

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.

This is your audiobook for January 2023: in keeping with our centenary theme for our main book club read, we’ve chosen a short story that was also published a hundred years ago — well, almost.

It first appeared in the UK in the Strand magazine in March 1923, and at the same time was also published in the US in Hearst’s International. It was then collected with eleven other “late” Sherlock Holmes stories in Conan Doyle’s final collection, The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes, in 1927.

It is, as many of the Holmes stories are, narrated by his faithful friend Dr Watson.

After listening, if you'd like to discuss this story 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 right now. 

Snow is a very powerful tool for a detective novelist. It can create a sinister atmosphere, keep suspects and murderer stormbound, and preserve the footprints of anyone who dares to escape. What could be more seasonal or festive than that?

This episode of Shedunnit first aired on 11th December 2019. Caroline is currently recovering from Covid; the next new episode will be in January 2023.

Mentioned in this episode: —Murder on the Orient Express (1934) by Agatha Christie —Hercule Poirot’s Christmas (1938) by Agatha Christie —Mystery in White  (1937) by J. Jefferson Farjeon —Silent Nights: Christmas Mysteries  (2015) edited by Martin Edwards —The Sittaford Mystery  (1931) by Agatha Christie —The Nine Tailors  (1934) by Dorothy L. Sayers —“The Erymanthian Boar” in The Labours of Hercules  (1947) by Agatha Christie —An English Murder  (1951) by Cyril Hare —Death and the Dancing Footman  (1942) by Ngaio Marsh —Three Blind Mice and Other Stories  (1950) by Agatha Christie —Stairway to Murder (1959) by Osmington Mills —There Came Both Mist and Snow  (1940) by Michael Innes —The Sad Variety  (1964) by Nicholas Blake —Blood Upon the Snow  (1944) by Hilda Lawrence —The Slype (1927) by by Russell Thorndike — Hangman’s Holiday  (1933) by Dorothy L. Sayers —Groaning Spinney / Murder in the Snow  (1950) by Gladys Mitchell —The Case of the Abominable Snowman (1941) by Nicholas Blake —1222 (2011) by Anne Holt —The Snowman (2007) by Jo Nesbo —Whiteout (2011) by Ragnar Jonasson

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 2022, in which we are reading *Tied Up In Tinsel* by Ngaio Marsh. There is a non-spoilery plot summary included (ie no major clues or twists), but you've been warned! I’ll see you in the Shedunnit forum for our fully spoilered discussion thread on 18th December 2022 — you’ll get an email alert when it opens.

Other festive listening:

• Audiobook: “The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle” by Arthur Conan Doyle
• Bonus: “Caroline’s Top 5 Mysteries to Read at Christmas”
• Primer: “Groaning Spinney by Gladys Mitchell”
• “A Christie for Christmas”
• Primer: “Hercule Poirot’s Christmas by Agatha Christie”
• “Let it Snow”
• “Crime at Christmas”

Sign up via email to be alerted when the watching party is about to start — it's happening on 17th December 2022 at 5pm GMT. Suggestions for what we watch very welcome in this forum thread.

We’ve already chosen our next two books. In January we’ll be reading *Whose Body?* by Dorothy L. Sayers, and for February we’ve selected *Death of Jezebel* by Christianna Brand.

The voting is currently open for what we read in February 2023, so head over to the forum now to have your say.

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 bookselling chain that ships internationally at no extra charge.

This is your audiobook for December 2022: two festive mysteries by masters of the early 20th century detective story. Both centre around a theft that is perpetrated during Christmas festivities. The first, The Flying Stars by GK Chesterton, features his regular sleuth Father Brown, but is told from the perspective of his greate nemesis, the jewel thief Flambeau. It was first published in The Saturday Evening Post on 20 May 1911 and collected in the anthology The Innocence of Father Brown later the same year.

The second story, Stuffing by Edgar Wallace, was also first published in The Saturday Evening Post, appearing on 11 December, 1926. It is an entirely standalone tale, likely written by Wallace as a festive commission for the newspaper, and draws on the pre-existing tradition established by Conan Doyle and others of using the Dickensian trappings of Christmas for nefarious purposes in a crime story.