(Old feed) Shedunnit Book Club — Seasoned Detectives

This is your audiobook for October 2022. Geraldine Bonner was an American writer of mystery and historical fiction in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, also sometimes known by her pseudonym “Hard Pan”.

"The Statement of Jared Johnson" first appeared in Black Cat magazine in 1899, and is a good example of an entire story set out in one first person statement.

This is another instalment of Caroline answering questions submitted by book club members in "quickfire", off-the-cuff mode — enjoy!

If you'd like to submit a question to be answered on a future bonus episode, you can do that in the forum here.

Could you beat the detective to the solution?

This live episode of Shedunnit was recorded at the 2022 International Agatha Christie Festival in Torquay.

Mentioned in this episode:

— The Wintringham Mystery by Anthony Berkeley — The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie — The Mystery of Norman's Court by John Chancellor — The Sittaford Mystery by Agatha Christie — The Man in the Brown Suit by Agatha Christie — Bleak House by Charles Dickens — The ABC Murders by Agatha Christie — The Four Just Men by Edgar Wallace — Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie — The Clocks by Agatha Christie — The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle — Memories and Adventures by Arthur Conan Doyle — Murder in Rockwater by Margot Neville — Murder of Olympia by Margot Neville — Forever England by Alison Light — “The Decline and Fall of the Detection Story” by W. Somerset Maugham collected in The Vagrant Mood — “Who Cares Who Killed Roger Ackroyd?” by Edmund Wilson in The New Yorker (20 June 1945) — “Manx Gold” by Agatha Christie collected in While The Light Lasts — Not To Be Taken by Anthony Berkeley — Death in the House by Anthony Berkeley — "Mr Cork's Secret” by MacDonald Hastings collected in Crimson Snow — The Crime of the Century by Kingsley Amis — Cain's Jawbone by E. Powys Mathers, aka Torquemada

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 September 2022, in which we are reading A Pin To See The Peepshow by F. Tennyson Jesse. 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 30th September.

Relevant links:

— Vote now for our December 2022 book

— Listen to the “Queen of True Crime” episode all about F. Tennyson Jesse

— Listen to the “Edith Thompson” episode about the real life case this novel is based on

— Sarah Waters' 2014 article about the real life case

In October we’re reading *Vintage Murder* by Ngaio Marsh, and in November the choice is the Detection Club short story collaboration Six Against The Yard.

I'm going to open the voting on what we read for MONTH 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.

How well do we really know the queen of crime?

Thanks to my guest, Lucy Worsley. Her book Agatha Christie: A Very Elusive Woman is out now.

Books and sources mentioned:

— An Autobiography by Agatha Christie

— Agatha Christie: A Biography by Janet P. Morgan

— Agatha Christie: A Mysterious Life by Laura Thompson

— Agatha Christie: The Woman And Her Mysteries by Gillian Gill

— Forever England: Literature, Femininity and Conservatism between the Wars by Alison Light

— “In The Shadow Of Hercule — The War Service Of Archibald Christie” by Peter Wright in Cross & Cockade International, vol 41/3 (2010)

— The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie

— “The Lady Vanishes” episode of Shedunnit

— “The Dispenser” episode of Shedunnit

— “Mary Westmacott” episode of Shedunnit

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 bookseller chain that ships internationally at no extra charge.

This is your audiobook for September 2022.

This story, "A Schoolmaster Abroad", comes from a collection titled The Crime Doctor by Ernest William Hornung, first published in 1914. Hornung was best known for his character A.J. Raffles, a gentleman thief, who first appeared in 1890, but these stories introduce a new character who is rather neglected these days. Dr John Dollar is a medical expert in criminology, a kind of proto criminal psychologist of the kind that is today such a staple of police procedurals. Dollar is a former soldier with a head injury and a somewhat startling manner, who nonetheless consults successfully on a wide variety of cases, often as a result of a recommendation by the Home Secretary. Hornung, by the way, was brother in law to Arthur Conan Doyle, having married his younger sister Constance. This collection sadly comes near the end of his extensive writing career — his son Oscar was killed at Ypres in 1915 and he didn’t publish any more crime fiction after that.

This story features another character, George Edenborough, who is introduced in the story that immediately preceeds this one in the collection. All you need to know is that he is a political secretary, recently married, and that Dollar helped him out of a sticky situation that involved strychnine.

This is your audiobook for August 2022. Technical issues with uploading large files are now resolved, and I am catching up! Thank you for your patience.

"The Case of Miss Elliott" is the title story from Baroness Orczy’s first collection of short stories, published in 1905. It features her recurring character “the old man in the corner”, Bill Owen, a nondescript armchair detective who spends his time eavesdropping on conversations at the ABC teashop on the corner of Norfolk Street and the Strand in London. The first person narrator of the stories, who is not always named, is one Polly Burton, a lady journalist and a protege of the old man’s who listens to tales of his exploits.

The old man had already appeared in a dozen stories before this one which had been serialised in The Royal Magazine and were very popular. "The Case of Miss Elliot" and the others that follow it in this volume were written in response to the public’s demand for more of Bill and Polly.

This is the full audio of my interview with Eric Sandberg, which appeared in The Challenge of Dorothy L Sayers episode of the main podcast.

This is the Shedunnit Book Club companion episode for August 2022, in which we are reading The 12.30 from Croydon by Freeman Wills Crofts. 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 August (you’ll get an email notification when it opens).

Relevant links:— Freeman Wills Crofts’ railway viaduct— The Malice Aforethought primer — Leandra's round up of 7 Golden Age Mysteries Set on Planes

Sign up via email to be alerted when the next watching party is about to start — it's happening on 25th September at 5pm BST. Suggestions for what we watch very welcome in this forum thread.

In September we are reading A Pin to See The Peepshow by F. Tennyson Jesse, in October it’s Vintage Murder by Ngaio Marsh, and in November we’re doing a short story collection created by the Detection Club, Six Against The Yard.

I'm going to open the voting on what we read for December soon, so if there's anything you’d like to see on that festive 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.

Should detective fiction be easy reading?

Thanks to my guest, Eric Sandberg. He is an assistant professor at City University of Hong Kong and the editor of Dorothy L. Sayers: A Companion to the Mystery Fiction.

Mentioned in this episode: — Whose Body? by Dorothy L. Sayers — The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins — The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins — Clouds of Witness by Dorothy L. Sayers — “The Case of Miss Dorothy Sayers” by Q. D. Leavis in Scrutiny (December 1937) — Gaudy Night by Dorothy L. Sayers — “Who Cares Who Killed Roger Ackroyd?” by Edmund Wilson in The New Yorker (20 June 1945) — The Nine Tailors by Dorothy L. Sayers — The “Happily Ever After” episode of Shedunnit — The “Dorothy’s Secret” episode of Shedunnit — The “Dorothy L. Sayers Solves Her Mystery” episode of Shedunnit — The “Detection Club” episode of Shedunnit

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.