Dear listeners, One might assume that, with all of its emphasis on logical deduction and empirical evidence, classic detective fiction would give all things spooky and supernatural a wide berth. And yet right from the very start with Edgar Allen Poe's short stories from the 1840s, writers have
A murder mystery can be spooky, too.
Caroline: A good murder mystery has a lot in common with a good magic trick. Both art forms combine an emphasis on transparency with their audience while simultaneously trying their best to deceive. The writer of a fair play mystery has an obligation not to conceal clues from their reader,
A murder mystery can be spooky, too.
Dear listeners, Do you like to read seasonally, matching your crime fiction to your own calendar? Or does it not matter to you whether there's snow on the ground outside when snow is falling in your book? Autumn is in full swing where both Leandra and I live,
Dear listeners, Part of what makes reading classic murder mysteries so enjoyable is the glimpse it offers into a world that is so unlike the one we inhabit today. Nothing makes the interwar "golden age" of detective fiction feel more alien to me than the ubiquity of servants.
How the interwar servant shortage changed detective fiction.
Caroline: In the autumn of 1919, Agatha Christie left Torquay and travelled by train to London. She had given birth to her daughter, Rosalind, at Ashfield, her childhood home, just a few days before. But now she was on the brink of a new era in her life, and she
On Murder!, Suspicion and more.
Dear listeners, Inspiration comes from the most unlikely places. Given all of the time that I spend reading the words that are inside books, it slightly took me by surprise when it was the image on the front of this one that gave me the idea for this episode: This
Do secret societies have any place in murder mysteries?
Do secret societies have any place in murder mysteries?
Dear listeners, We're back with more reading updates! I hope this month has brought you some good crime fiction. This time, we have a fairly classic line up for you, with both Shedunnit production assistant Leandra and I revisiting some Agatha Christie. You can catch up with our
A closer look at Trent's Last Case.
Australian mystery reading duo Flex and Herds join Caroline to look at this influential whodunnit.
Australian mystery reading duo Flex and Herds join Caroline to look at this influential whodunnit.
Australian mystery reading duo Flex and Herds join Caroline to look at this influential whodunnit.
I do read things from the 2020s as well as the 1920s.
Dear listeners, Are you the kind of reader who likes to solve the mystery as you read, racing the detective to the solution, or do you prefer to spectate and allow the author to lay out the resolution for you? Personally, I flip between these two styles: there are some
A literary device from the golden age of detective fiction is making a comeback.
Caroline: The classic murder mystery is full of tropes. You will be familiar with lots of them: the closed circle of suspects, the automatic suspicion of the least likely perpetrator, the impossible crime, the locked room mystery, the final chapter reveal, the last minute twist. In addition to these, a
Dear listeners, Summer holidays are coming to an end at Shedunnit HQ and I'm excited about the planning I've been doing for the next few months of podcasting. I think there are some good episodes coming up between now and the end of the year. Meanwhile,
Reading Agatha Christie like it's 1930.
Getting back in touch with the foremost citizen of St Mary Mead.
Caroline: Some characters are so popular and recognisable that they can become detached from their point of origin. Miss Marple is such a one. There were elderly women sleuths before her, but every single village busybody who solves crimes since has existed in her shadow. Her stories and novels are
A trip into the Shedunnit archive.
Here are some bibliomysteries that you might want to try.
Death lurks among the shelves — in crime fiction, that is.
Caroline: Certain jobs and pastimes come with a higher degree of risk. This we know. I hope that everyone who decides to become a racing driver, or climb a mountain without ropes, or chase tornados, understands that their chosen activity comes with a heightened chance of injury or death. What
Dear listeners, The month of July has flown by and it's time for another book recommendation newsletter, in which I and Shedunnit production assistant Leandra offer you a peek into our personal reading experience while we are working on the podcast. You can catch up with the last
Dear listener, For today's new episode, I am venturing into the world of epistolary crime novels. This is the kind of mystery where the story is told through a series of letters or documents rather than a continuous prose narrative. There is a strong tradition of this format
There’s a lot of fun to be had with an epistolary mystery.
Caroline: Dear listener, I trust this letter finds you well. Perhaps you are curled up somewhere cosy, pressing play as a break from reading your favourite detective novel. Or maybe you are out and about, using the podcast to stay connected to the golden age of detective fiction even while
What we're doing and reading this month.
The reference works that make Shedunnit possible.
A closer look at John Ferguson's foggy 1928 "Ealing mystery".
Golden age expert Kate Jackson joins Caroline to read John Ferguson’s intriguing “Ealing mystery”.
Green Penguin Music Caroline: Welcome to Shedunnit. I’m Caroline Crampton. And welcome back to Green Penguin Book Club, a series within Shedunnit that documents my journey of reading and discussing every crime or green title from the main Penguin series, in order. Our book today is The Man in
Dear listeners, It's time for another monthly book recommendation newsletter, in which I and Shedunnit production assistant Leandra offer you a peek of our personal reading experience. There was some excellent chat in the comments of last month's edition, so if you have suggestions for what
Dear friends, It was last autumn, when I was rereading Agatha Christie's The Mysterious Affair at Styles for the Green Penguin Book Club episode on that book, that I began to wonder what the point of the "poison book" really was. I'm sure you
Caroline: "Poison book" or "poison register" is a phrase that crops up quite a bit in golden age detective fiction. I'm sure lots of you have come across it in this fictional context, where a character is asked to sign such a volume so
How crime writers turned pharmaceutical regulations into plot points. Apple Podcasts | Spotify | BBC Sounds | Other apps | RSS | Transcript My guest for this episode is Dr Kathryn Harkup. Her book V is for Venom: Agatha Christie’s Chemicals of Death is available now. Support the podcast by joining the Shedunnit Book
A trip into the Shedunnit archive.
Lighthouses, chocolate, harps, China and more.
Our golden age detective fiction recommendation line is at your service. Apple Podcasts | Spotify | BBC Sounds | Other apps | RSS | Transcript Support the podcast by joining the Shedunnit Book Club and get extra Shedunnit episodes every month plus access to the monthly reading discussions and community: shedunnitbookclub.com/join. Books mentioned
Caroline: Over the almost seven years that I have been making Shedunnit, I have seen over and over again that a really considered and specific book recommendation can be a way of demonstrating care and affection. So many of the lists and suggestions that appear out there in the wider
Dear listeners, We're back with another monthly book recommendation newsletter, sharing what I and Shedunnit production assistant Leandra have been spending our reading time on recently. I really enjoyed chatting to some of you in the comments last time and got some good ideas there for future reads,
It's a detective showdown: amateur vs professional.
The stock detective of golden age detective fiction is definitely an amateur. It's someone at the country house party who has the role of sleuth thrust upon them by circumstance, or a person with known criminological interests who has built up a reputation for repeatedly solving crimes simply
Because sometimes, only a professional will do. Apple Podcasts | Spotify | BBC Sounds | Other apps | RSS | Transcript Support the podcast by joining the Shedunnit Book Club and get extra Shedunnit episodes every month plus access to the monthly reading discussions and community: shedunnitbookclub.com/join. Books mentioned in this episode: — The
Locked room mystery specialist Tom Mead joins Caroline to read Edgar Wallace’s sensational 1905 thriller.
Green Penguin Music Caroline: Welcome to Shedunnit. I’m Caroline Crampton. And welcome back to Green Penguin Book Club, a series within Shedunnit that documents my journey of reading and discussing every crime or green title from the main Penguin series, in order. Our book today is The Four Just
Dear listeners, At the very start of the year, when the weather was an awful lot colder than it is now, I got to pay a visit to the birthplace and longtime home of Josephine Tey: Inverness. My husband Guy and I, along with Morris the dog, were on the
Dear listeners, Shedunnit has joyfully shaken the dust of social media from its shoes — I truly do not miss it at all — but I still want to have a place for sharing and discussing reading recommendations with you all. And so from now on, on the first Monday of each
Dear listeners, One of the best things about making Shedunnit is getting to introduce people to lesser-known books and writers that I think are really good. And that's what today's new episode and newsletter are all about: bringing the life and work of Dorothy Erskine Muir
Caroline: Reading crime fiction is about curiosity and the desire for knowledge. We start each book with no idea what has happened in the story's pivotal scenario and, at least in the certainty-orientated golden age tradition from the interwar years, by the end we will know all about
Fact meets fiction in the work of this unjustly overlooked writer. Apple Podcasts | Spotify | BBC Sounds | Other apps | RSS | Transcript Moonstone Press are very kindly running a special offer for the 30 days after this episode airs: if you buy the paperback set of Erskine Muir's three novels,
A little trip into the Shedunnit archive.
Dear listeners, Christianna Brand is an author that I had long admired from afar. I had loved the 1946 film adaptation of Green for Danger starring Alastair Sim for years before I even read the novel, and other than a couple of her other titles that had been chosen as
Caroline: One of the great pleasures of golden age detective fiction, I think, is that some of its best writers were very prolific. It makes it easy to fall down a bibliography shaped rabbit hole. You liked your first Agatha Christie? Don't worry, there are at least sixty
Caroline dives deep into Brand’s work to find her favourite novel. Apple Podcasts | Spotify | BBC Sounds | Other apps | RSS | Transcript Back in July of last year, I did an episode titled Christianna Brand's Impossible Crimes. During the research and preparation for that episode, I read quite a
Let's see what's in the Green Penguin postbag.
Green Penguin Music Caroline: Welcome to Shedunnit. I’m Caroline Crampton. And welcome back to Green Penguin Book Club, a series within Shedunnit that documents my journey of reading and discussing every crime or green title from the main Penguin series, in order. Our book today is Raffles by E.
Darryl Jones joins Caroline to discuss the first collection of Raffles stories. Apple Podcasts | Spotify | BBC Sounds | Other apps | RSS | Transcript No major plot spoilers until you hear Caroline say we are "entering the spoiler zone", at 10:30. After that, expect full spoilers. A full list of
Why do these two historic university cities appear in so many murder mysteries? Apple Podcasts | Spotify | BBC Sounds | Other apps | RSS | Transcript Books mentioned in this episode: — The Masters by C.P. Snow — Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis — Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh — Zuleika Dobson by Max Beerbohm — Gaudy Night
