Dear listeners,

A belated welcome back to our monthly book recommendations newsletter in which the Shedunnit team — that is, me and my production assistant Leandra — share what we have been reading while making the show. We missed April because I was unwell, but we're back now!

Caroline Has Read: The Frozen People by Elly Griffiths

Long-time listeners might remember that I like Elly Griffiths' crime fiction — especially her Ruth Galloway series. She's been a guest on the show a couple of times, too, most recently on the episode "A Detective's Farewell", which was about how an author says goodbye to a long-running character. I recently dived back into Elly's work with the audiobook of this recent novel that blends crime with science fiction. It follows a Scotland Yard cold case unit that uses time travel to go back and find the truth about unsolved crimes. I was intrigued by the premise (one of my favourite books ever is To Say Nothing Of The Dog by Connie Willis, which does something similar) and I found that the story lived up to its promise. It wasn't a particularly special audiobook reading, though, so if I decide to read the next one in this series I might seek out the physical book.

Caroline Will Read: The Final Problem by Arturo Pérez-Reverte

I came across this 2023 novel recently as I was scrolling on my library app (an activity I now do instead of looking at social media!) and decided to borrow it on a whim. It's recently been translated into English from Spanish and promises a murder mystery that is highly referential of both Arthur Conan Doyle and Agatha Christie, which sounded like it might suit me rather well. I'm reading another mystery in translation for the Shedunnit Book Club at the moment — The Hotel of the Three Roses by Augusto De Angelis — and enjoying being out of my usual settings and modes.

Leandra Has Read: Yule Be Sorry by Kim M. Watt

Did I read a Christmas mystery in spring? Yes, absolutely. And I’d do it again!!

Last fall, I read Baking Bad, the first book in the Beaufort Scales fantasy mystery series, and had a riot of a time. I was in the mood for that same humorous chaos and feel-good cozy cast of characters, so Christmas-themed mystery be darned! And I have no regrets. In this cozy mystery, delivery drivers are disappearing, Christmas turkeys have been stolen, and holiday gifts are...exploding. The members of the Women's Institute and their friends, the Cloverly Dragons, once again find themselves meddling in police business, and their shenanigans are two-for-two in making me laugh aloud.

I highly recommend this mystery series for fans of cozy fantasy, magical creature POVs, elderly main characters, and mystery plots not unlike The Marlow Murder Club or The Thursday Murder Club; the two leading women, Alice and Miriam, have a similar dynamic to those found in TTMC in particular.

Leandra Will Read: The Case of the Murdered Muckraker by Rob Osler

This year, I am trying to be better about keeping up to date with ongoing series, so I will be reading book two in the Harriet Morrow historical mystery series. Set in 1898 Chicago, our protagonist is a bike-riding lesbian private investigator, inspired by a real-life Windy City detective. In the first book, The Case of the Missing Maid, Harriet is tasked with proving herself as a worthy addition to the Prescott Investigative Agency. Now that she has convinced Prescott himself that a woman operative strengthens his team, she must tackle her biggest case yet in this sequel: a muckraker is found murdered in a southside tenement building after obtaining evidence of a powerful politician’s corruption. I'm looking forward to seeing how Harriet continues to grow, not only as a junior detective but as a queer woman about to enter the 21st century.

That's what we'll be reading this month — how about you? You can let us know by replying directly to this email or by leaving a comment to join the conversation with other readers. 

Until next time,

Caroline

Dear listeners,

Although you can hear me on the new episode of Shedunnit, I'm not the star of the show. This one is the creation of my husband, Guy Cuthbertson, who has spent the past several years working on his own book all about a fascinating work of twentieth century literature: Lady Chatterley's Lover. The initial publication of this book in Italy in the late 1920s coincides almost exactly with the first appearance of Miss Marple in print, and in his episode Guy explores all of the intriguing parallels between the work of D.H. Lawrence and Agatha Christie. Since he's in charge of the podcast today, it seems only fitting that I hand over this newsletter to him, too.

Guy says: I talk in this episode about Lady Chatterley’s Lover and the Miss Marple books, looking at similarities and differences. What I could also have discussed is the fact that, even though it is not a detective novel, Lady Chatterley’s Lover does have some of the elements of detective fiction. Lawrence does talk of "clues" and "evidence"; there are secrets and lies; there are lawyers; there are confessions and cover-ups. Clifford’s nurse Ivy Bolton, rather a nosey gossip, is a kind of detective, as is Mellors’ estranged wife Bertha. They both discover the affair. Bertha looks for evidence, finding a bottle of perfume and some scribbled initials "C.S.R." at Mellors’ cottage, and then a book with Lady Chatterley’s maiden name written inside it: Constance Stewart Reid. If only Connie had not read books she would not have been caught. In fact, there is some criticism of books, and popular fiction in particular. We are told that "most novels, especially popular ones, are humiliating" and ‘the public responds now only to an appeal to its vices’. The novel is likened to gossip, and it is, like gossip, "all the more vicious because it is always ostensibly on the side of the angels". 

There is even quite a bit of talk of murder and killing. And, by way of innuendo, of hoping to "plunge in the dagger a few more times yet". What if Connie and Mellors had decided to kill Clifford? What if Clifford had decided to kill Mellors? Well, that would have to be another version of the story. But the novel is "crime fiction" too in that the book that was the crime, and the book was discussed in court at the Old Bailey in 1960; or Lady Chatterley herself was spoken of as a criminal, as if the trial was a trial of Lady Chatterley herself and as if she were in the dock. Papers spoke of Lady Chatterley, the person, being found innocent. A cartoon from the time also showed an elderly Mellors making an appearance in court in 1960, admitting that he was once Lady Chatterley’s lover.

I mention Cecil Day Lewis, Nicholas Blake, appearing as a witness in defence of Lady Chatterley, and how Lady Chatterley’s Lover is mentioned in his fiction. Lady Chatterley’s Lover also appears in the work of other Golden Age novelists, such as Edmund Crispin (Bruce Montgomery) and Gladys Mitchell, some of whom are discussed in my book. Some people love Lady Chatterley’s Lover, others hate it, some will be bored by it; but it is a novel that has had a huge impact on the world. In that sense, too, it is like Agatha Christie’s books.

Caroline again: If you enjoyed hearing from Guy, you might like to pre-order Lady C or place a hold at your library — it's a clever, funny, well-researched account of a book with an extraordinary story.

And before we finish, I thought you might like to see a couple of photographs from what turned out to be an accidental research trip for both of us to Torquay in 2022. We went on a steam train trip, and look what the train's name was!

Our trip took a dramatic turn when a small fire broke out beside the track (it was a very hot July day) and our train had to halt for a while at an intermediate station. Full marks to all the Christie fans who can name the novel for which she borrowed this name, without looking it up:

I promise Morris had had plenty of water and is not expiring from heat as it looks here. He's just very dramatic about sunshine, which he does not approve of.

I hope you enjoy Guy's episode, and look forward to seeing as many of you as possible at the launch on 10th May!

Until next time,

Caroline (and Guy)

P.S. Many thanks for your patience over the past few weeks while the newsletter has been sporadic. I've been unwell and had to prioritise meeting deadlines for the actual episodes. Fingers crossed, I'm back now!

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,

Things have been a little hectic on my end the past few weeks, so I've missed a couple of newsletters. I'm sorry about that and hope to be resuming normal weekly service soon.

As such, there are two new episodes that I need to alert you to. The first concerns this book:

Jim Noy joined me for a Green Penguin Book Club discussion about The Sanfield Scandal by Richard Keverne — a golden-age era thriller from 1929 that, in one sense, was doing Enid Blyton before Enid Blyton was. It prompted some interesting discussion of how we appraise genre with hindsight versus in the moment. Keverne was also a brand new author to both of us, which as we're long-time fanatics about reading this stuff doesn't happen very often, so that was a lovely bonus of doing the episode.

And then today, I have a different kind of episode for you: I take a psychological deep dive into a single instance from Agatha Christie's autobiography and look at how it influenced her crime fiction. As a child, she experienced recurring nightmares of a "Gun Man", who appeared in a military uniform and with a musket. The terrifying thing about this figure wasn't his weapon, though, but the way he seemed to exist, unnoticed, in the happiest, most cheerful situations. In her dream, Christie would be enjoying a picnic until suddenly noticing that the person she had thought was her mother or her friend was actually this sinister Gun Man in disguise. He was always hiding in plain sight, casting an evil shadow over what had seemed to be a good day.

I'm sure you can see how this dream connects to golden age detective fiction, a style of crime writing that thrives on the closed circle of suspects and sudden revelations that characters are not all that they seem. Christie also expanded significantly on the Gun Man idea in the fiction she wrote under the Mary Westmacott pseudonym, so it was good to bring some of that into the episode as well. I recently re-read all of the Westmacott novels and feel like I have come to a greater appreciation for them than I had in the past. Absent in the Spring, in particular, is a book that I think holds up against the top rank of Christie's crime fiction.

I hope you enjoy these episodes, and I look forward to being back with more for you soon!

Until next time,

Caroline