Hunting For My Perfect Short Story

Dear listeners,

I've been reading lots more short stories in the last couple of months, as I continue trying to cultivate the habit of not staying up too late reading "just one more chapter" of a novel. I talked about this recently in a bonus episode for Shedunnit Book Club members, and it's been going well. As a result, I've been building quite the list of favourite short crime fiction and also honing my ideas about what my "perfect" one would contain.

As you'll here on today's new episode, I came pretty close with "The Perfect Plan" by James Hilton. I enjoy mysteries that involve secretaries, details about journalism and/or the media, clever twists, moral commentary, compelling narrators and, sometimes, inverted plots where you are told who commits the crime at the beginning. This one has them all! Which is why I thought I'd vary the podcast's format a little and read it for you, in full.

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You can listen to this episode right now on all major audio platforms (just click the icon of your preferred app here to jump right in) as well as on the podcast's website, where there is also a full transcript to read if you prefer that. New episodes are also available on YouTube. If you're in the UK, you can listen ad free on BBC Sounds.

There are other contenders, of course. Here are three other recent favourites from anthologies I would recommend seeking out if you're in the market for more short fiction yourself.

"The Elusive Bullet" by John Rhode, from Bodies in the Library Vol 1

This is a wonderful twist on the "impossible crime in a train carriage" format — I won't say any more in case of spoilers! It also stood out to me because of its setting. As some listeners might know, I am a big fan of the Thames estuary and wrote a book about my personal connection with it that was published in 2019, so getting to see places like "Purfleet" namechecked in a work of golden age detective fiction made me smile.

"Mr Ponting's Alibi" by R. Austin Freeman, from Murder in the Falling Snow

I'm not always the biggest fan of Dr John Thorndyke, R. Austin Freeman's medical jurispractitioner. He can be a shade too didactic for my liking. However, the careful building of a case from forensic clues in this story tickled my brain in just the right way. There's also an element that corresponds to a famous 1920s Agatha Christie solution, for those who enjoy spotting that sort of thing.

"An Intangible Clue" by Anna Katharine Green, from The Dead Witness

Anna Katharine Green, a nineteenth century American crime writer, created a woman sleuth named Violet Strange. This is one of her stories. I greatly enjoy how haughty Violet is and how she handles the appeal for help from a male colleague. The mystery is fairly standard fare, but the character of the detective elevates it wonderfully. We learned more about Green and her contemporaries in the Victorian Pioneers episode a few years ago.

Until next time,

Caroline

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