Dear listeners,

There has been a lot going on chez moi, which is why I haven't been sending the Shedunnit newsletter as often as I would like. But earlier this month I got to do something very special because of the podcast and I wanted to tell you a bit about it.

I went to Torquay to take part in the 2026 Agatha Christie Festival! And I took almost no photographs of anything, which is how you know I had a really good time. Although I did wake up very early on the morning of my events and go for a walk by the sea, so we do have a couple of shots of that:

I started my busy festival day recording something with Mark Aldridge and Gray Robert Brown for one of their podcast projects, which you'll get to hear in a couple of months' time. I don't go to events like this very often, but whenever I do I'm struck by how nice it is to be in the physical presence of people I otherwise only experience as disembodied voices on the internet.

This year marks the fiftieth anniversary of Sleeping Murder, the final Miss Marple novel (the one she wrote in the early 1940s and then kept on ice until after her death, which I covered in this podcast episode from way back in 2021). My first festival event was panel held in honour of this milestone, alongside Professor Michelle Kazmer from Florida State University and the historian Rachel Trethewey, with the journalist Sarah Ransome in the chair. The festival was kind enough to let me record it, so you can all listen on the brand new episode that just came out today.

Everyone say "thank you Euan" to my podcast editor, Euan McAleece, who did a wonderful job of making a live recording from an echoey stone barn so lovely and listenable. Also, hello to the listeners who came along and spoke to me afterwards. Your desire to have your photographs taken with me made me feel, briefly, like I was Hudson Williams or something.

After the panel, I headed for the Grand Hotel with a group of Shedunnit Book Club members to have tea. Again, it was excellent to put faces and voices to the people I otherwise only talk to online. We ate sandwiches, drank a lot of tea and shared unbroadcastable opinions about recent TV and film adaptations... Then I pulled out the two entire bags of spare detective novels I had brought to pass on and enjoyed watching them find new homes.

Then it was back to the barn for my evening event — the festival's fundraiser, "A Gameshow is Announced". The first half took its format from the BBC Mastermind quiz, with some very brave Christie experts taking their turn in the famous chair to answer questions. I felt like I learned some things about quiz tactics (if you ever have to do this, make sure your specialist subject is narrow rather than broad). Then it was time to take to the stage for my part of the evening.

This took the form of a fiendishly difficult quiz devised by Kemper of All About Agatha. Two teams of four faced off University Challenge style, with buzzers and everything. I feel like I got a few good answers in, but I spent most of the event feeling extremely unprepared and confused. Especially on the questions about niche Christie adaptation trivia. Jamie Bernthal-Hooker (star of early Shedunnit episode Queer Clues) really thrived there and ended up leading his team to victory. John Curran, myself, and the rest of our teammates retreated to the hotel bar to recover our dignity. I will do more revision before the next time...

The gameshow officially wrapped up the festival for another year and the next morning I got on the road for the long drive back north. To keep things going a bit longer, though, I did put the audiobook of Sleeping Murder on in the car and managed to get through the whole thing before I arrived. As it happens, the version I was listening to was read by Stephanie Cole, the beloved actor in many things including Cabin Pressure who recently died. I would recommend it, she really nailed both Miss Marple and the New Zealand accents, it's a delightful performance.

I hope you enjoy the live episode from the festival, and that I get to see you at one of these in the future.

Until next time,

Caroline

You can listen to every episode of Shedunnit at shedunnitshow.com or on all major podcast apps. Selected episodes are available on BBC Sounds. There are also transcripts of all episodes on the website. The podcast is now newsletter-only — we're not updating social media — so if you'd like to spread the word about the show consider forwarding this email to a mystery-loving friend with the addition of a personal recommendation.

Dear listeners,

I'm hoping that today's new episode will prompt you to air some of your own opinions, or perhaps pick up a novel you haven't read in a while: in it, I'm discussing the ten Agatha Christie novels that I think are "underrated" compared to the rest of her work. Will you agree with my selections?

Of course, Christie herself is the furthest thing from underrated. But some of her books are so culturally dominant, constantly being re-adapted and re-mixed, that I feel like they can eclipse some of the rest. Once you've listened, let me know what you think. As long as what you think is that Murder in Mesopotamia deserves all the flowers. In a nice coincidence, the Re-Readers group from the Shedunnit Book Club is currently revisiting The Sittaford Mystery, which was another of my selections. Sign up or log in to join them.

Speaking of Christie, the British Library have just announced the book that will be accompanying their new exhibition about her. It's called Agatha Christie: A World of Mystery and three of the essays it contains are by me! Here's some details of the other contributors, from the Bookseller story:

I've been working with the British Library on some other things related to the exhibition too, so there will hopefully be more on this in near the future.

I tend to get more excited these days about audio adaptations of detective fiction than I do about screen ones. I'm not totally sure why — maybe it's just because I've been a books-on-tape obsessive since I was a small child. Anyway, I am eagerly anticipating the new full-cast version of The Murder at the Vicarage, which comes to Audible on 13th August. Toni Collette is playing Miss Marple, a casting choice I would not have predicted (mostly since Collette is Australian) and I'm keen to hear what she does with the role. Also very intriguing to me: Kit Harington as the book's narrator, the Reverend Leonard Clement. If you'd like to brush up on the book again before you listen, you might like to revisit the discussion that Leandra and I had on Shedunnit about it last year.

Continuing in the finest tradition of the 1930s, the Detection Club is doing another collaborative book project. The Detection Club Murders, lead by Martin Edwards, has just found a publisher. The full list of authors taking part is still to be announced, as is the publication date, but Martin says they will be writing it in "an original way". Hopefully Shedunnit can get more details about the process closer to the time... Refresh your memory on past Detection Club books by listening to the Round Robin episode from 2019.

This is an interesting essay about what might happen now that the first Miss Marple and Nancy Drew novels are entering the public domain in the US. What the writer rather overlooks, though, is that copyright rules vary widely by country. In America, most of the time the copyright term is determined by the publication date of the work, meaning that books come into the public domain year by year as time passes. In the UK, though, the law is focused on the author's death — "life plus seventy years" is the colloquial way those of us who have to care about these things describe it. This means that here, Agatha Christie's work won't enter the public domain until the start of the year 2047, because she died in 1976. Since her estate is based in the UK, I think this is an important factor in how her legacy will be shaped over the next twenty years, with big works freely available to use in America but not in her country of origin.

Until next time,

Caroline

You can listen to every episode of Shedunnit at shedunnitshow.com or on all major podcast apps. Selected episodes are available on BBC Sounds. There are also transcripts of all episodes on the website. The podcast is now newsletter-only — we're not updating social media — so if you'd like to spread the word about the show consider forwarding this email to a mystery-loving friend with the addition of a personal recommendation.

Dear listeners,

When I started Shedunnit back in October 2018, I wasn't sure of much. I was absolutely certain, though, that a successful podcast was a consistent podcast. Publishing on a predictable schedule, I thought, would help listeners trust me to entertain them and hopefully mean that they wouldn't forget about the show in between episodes. I decided to put out an episode every other Wednesday at 5am (UK time) and, with a couple of unavoidable exceptions, that's what I've done ever since.

I'm a bit less certain that consistency and predictability are so vital, now. There are plenty of podcasts and blogs that I love without a rigid schedule; I'm just pleased to see them when they pop up. If the material is good, I'll have it whenever it's ready. I think there are probably enough people these days who feel the same way about Shedunnit, but it's one thing to hypothesise that and quite another to actually uncouple my brain from the tyranny of the schedule after all this time.

As I mentioned last week, I've been dealing with some health issues lately that have disrupted my ability to work (thank you very much for all the kind responses and well wishes, by the way, it was quite overwhelming). I spent quite a lot of time over the past few months worrying about my self-imposed schedule, about episodes being ready out of order or not on time. And then, just recently, I thought, no. No more. That energy is much better spent on making the show than it is on fretting about making the show.

All of which is to say: there's a new episode out today, even though it's not the usual day for it. It was ready and I felt like giving it to you, so I did! It's an interview I did with the forensic anthropologist and bestselling crime writer Kathy Reichs all about combining science and fiction.

Don't be alarmed: I'm still going to aim for every other Wednesday and the podcast isn't going anywhere. I'll just be worrying a little less if I don't hit the exact same moment every time, or if there's a longer/shorter gap between Green Penguin Book Club episodes. I hope you will always think it's worth the wait.

As interest in golden age detective fiction has surged over the past few years, there has been more mainstream media coverage of it. Especially in the form of lists. Most of the time, I don't pay attention to these, largely because I don't think they're for me: I'm fairly deep in this genre/period already, so seeing the same few already-popular titles recommended over and over again isn't that interesting.

However, I must make an exception for this recent list from the New York Times, which I thought struck an excellent balance between well-known favourites and less popular gems. Of course, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie does appear first, but there are also titles from Henry Wade, Ethel Lina White (and not the one Hitchcock adapted), C.H.B. Kitchin, Freeman Wills Crofts and more. I think even dedicated golden age fans could find something worth reading or re-reading here.

I'm delighted to say that I will be back at the International Agatha Christie Festival in Torquay this year, taking part in two events. On Saturday 19th September at 3pm I'll be speaking on a panel celebrating fifty years since the publication of Sleeping Murder, and then that evening I'll be in attendance at the fundraising gameshow. I'll also be organising a meet-up at some point during the weekend for members of the Shedunnit Book Club. It should be fun!

When I was making the Agatha the Adventuress episode back in 2022, I learned more than I ever thought I could about the British Empire Exhibition of 1924 — this, you may remember, was the reason that Agatha Christie got to go on a year-long round the world trip. This isn't knowledge that I've really been able to use for any other purpose since, unfortunately. However, I was delighted to hear that the historian and broadcaster Neil McGregor has dedicated a whole episode of his BBC series commemorating 75 years since the Festival of Britain to it. Turns out, when you aren't quite so zoomed in on Christie, there's even more to know about the British Empire Exhibition... (Apologies to readers outside the UK who might not be able to access this programme, I'm never sure what BBC stuff is available worldwide and what isn't.)

Until next time,

Caroline

You can listen to every episode of Shedunnit at shedunnitshow.com or on all major podcast apps. Selected episodes are available on BBC Sounds. There are also transcripts of all episodes on the website. The podcast is now newsletter-only — we're not updating social media — so if you'd like to spread the word about the show consider forwarding this email to a mystery-loving friend with the addition of a personal recommendation.