(Old feed) Shedunnit Book Club — Seasoned Detectives

I made a reading of The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle by Arthur Conan Doyle for you, because it’s one of my favourite Christmas mysteries. I hope you like it!

I talk you through my five favourite festive whodunnits, plus five more runners up.

This is the Shedunnit Book Club companion episode for December 2020, in which we are reading Groaning Spinney by Gladys Mitchell (also found under the title Murder in the Snow). There is a non-spoilery plot summary included (ie no major clues or twists), you’ve been warned! I’ll see you in the Shedunnit forum for our fully spoilered discussion thread on 22 December.

Further listening for this month: — The Great Gladys episode of the main podcast — The “Where To Start With Gladys Mitchell” bonus episode — The recently rebroadcast radio adaptation of the first Gladys Mitchell novel, Speedy Death

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The original golden age of detective fiction in the 1920s followed on from a devastating global pandemic. Is it any wonder, then, that we’ve read so much crime fiction in 2020?

No major spoilers in this episode.

Listen using the player on the page at shedunnitbookclub.com/achristieforchristmasadfree, your private podcast feed (instructions here) or download the mp3 directly here.

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I’ve read a lot of Agatha Christie, but I’ve never read all of her books in order. What insights are there to be had by doing so? Christie completists Catherine Brobeck and Kemper Donovan of the All About Agatha podcast join me to talk about the Queen of Crime’s clever way with characters, the “stuck in its time” elements of some of her plots, and how they rank her novels from best to worst.

No major spoilers in this episode. However, there is some mention or discussion of the books listed below.

Books and sources: —Elephants Can Remember by Agatha Christie (UK version / US version) —Halloween Party by Agatha Christie (UK version / US version) —An Autobiography by Agatha Christie (UK version / US version) —The Secret of Chimneys by Agatha Christie (UK version / US version) —A Murder is Announced by Agatha Christie (UK version / US version) —Taken at the Flood by Agatha Christie (UK version / US version) — by Agatha Christie (UK version / US version) —Ordeal by Innocence by Agatha Christie (UK version / US version) —Lord Edgware Dies by Agatha Christie (UK version / US version) —Peril at End House by Agatha Christie (UK version / US version) —Sad Cypress by Agatha Christie (UK version / US version) —Five Little Pigs by Agatha Christie (UK version / US version) —And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie (UK version / US version) —The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie (UK version / US version) —The Hollow by Agatha Christie (UK version / US version) —Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie (UK version / US version) —Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie (UK version / US version) —The Murder at the Vicarage by Agatha Christie (UK version / US version) —The Pale Horse by Agatha Christie (UK version / US version) —Endless Night by Agatha Christie (UK version / US version) —They Came To Baghdad by Agatha Christie (UK version / US version) —Destination Unknown by Agatha Christie (UK version / US version) —The Man in the Brown Suit by Agatha Christie (UK version / US version)

Please note that some of the links here are affiliate links — if you buy from an independent bookshop via bookshop.org the sale price remains the same but podcast receives a small commission.

Listen using the player on the page at shedunnitbookclub.com/thechristiecompletistsadfree, your private podcast feed (instructions here) or download the mp3 directly here.

Full shownotes are available at shedunnitshow.com/christiecompletists.

This is my full interview with Jim Noy, the impossible crime expert who I interviewed for the Locked Room episode of the main podcast. We start out historical, move through science fiction, and end up sharing our personal book collection habits. Be aware, there are spoilers here — see the list of books here for ones mentioned. Also spoiled:  episode five of series one of the TV show Brooklyn Nine Nine.

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Is it still worth reading a whodunnit if you know… who done it?

NB: Despite the title, there are no major spoilers in this episode. However, there is some structural discussion of the books listed below.

Books and sources: —Antidote to Venom by Freeman Wills Crofts —The Julius Caesar Murder Case by Wallace Irwin —Post Mortem by Guy Cullingford —Gaudy Night by Dorothy L. Sayers

Please note that some of the links here are affiliate links — if you buy from an independent bookshop via bookshop.org the sale price remains the same but podcast receives a small commission.

Listen using the player on the page at shedunnitbookclub.com/spoilerwarningadfree, your private podcast feed (instructions here) or download the mp3 directly here.

Full shownotes are available at shedunnitshow.com/nile.

This is the Shedunnit Book Club companion episode for November 2020, in which we are reading The Poisoned Chocolates by Anthony Berkeley. There is a non-spoilery plot summary included (ie no major clues or twists), but I do discuss some elements of the novel’s structure that you might want to discover on your own — you’ve been warned! I’ll see you in the Shedunnit forum for our fully spoilered discussion thread on 30 November.

Further listening for this month: — The Anthony Berkeley episode of the main podcast — The Detection Club episode of the main podcast — The recently rebroadcast radio adaptation of The Poisoned Chocolates Case

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To get to the bottom of why the Nile is a murder mystery location that has bewitched readers for decades, I decided to talk to an author who has just published an Egypt based whodunnit: Robin Stevens. We talk about how she finalised the plot of Death Sets Sail  while on a Nile cruise, what it was about 1930s Egypt that held such a fascination for white British writers,  and why the boat in Agatha Christie’s Death on the Nile is a character in its own right.

NB: There is some discussion of the plot of both Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie and Death Sets Sail by Robin Stevens in this episode, but no major plot points are revealed.

Listen using the player on the page at shedunnitbookclub.com/peaceatlastadfree, your private podcast feed (instructions here) or download the mp3 directly here.

Full shownotes are available at shedunnitshow.com/nile.

The day the First World War ended, 11 November 1918, marked the beginning of a new era in which detective fiction would flourish. How did Britain go from "peace at last" to "whodunnit"?

Thanks to my guest (and husband) Guy Cuthbertson. His book about Armistice Day is Peace At Last and he’s on Twitter as @guywjc.

The Shedunnit Pledge Drive is still underway, and we're over two thirds of the way to hitting the target already. If I can add 100 new members to the Shedunnit Book Club by the end of 2020, I can start releasing episodes more regularly and expanding what the podcast covers. If you’d like to be part of that and feel able to offer some support, please visit shedunnitshow.com/pledgedrive.

Books and sources: —Peace At Last by Guy Cuthbertson —Forever England: Femininity, Literature and Conservatism Between the Wars by Alison Light —An Autobiography by Agatha Christie —The Mysterious Affair At Styles by Agatha Christie —"The Affair at the Victory Ball" by Agatha Christie, collected in Poirot's Early Cases —The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club by Dorothy L. Sayers

Thanks to today’s sponsor, Dear Holmes, a mail-based Victorian mystery game in which you can pit your wits against Sherlock Holmes. Get $5 off your first order by visiting dearholmes.com and use code Shedunnit at checkout.

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Find a full transcript of this episode at shedunnitshow.com/peaceatlasttranscript.

Music by Audioblocks and Blue Dot Sessions. See shedunnitshow.com/musiccredits for more details.