Get weekly updates from Caroline all about golden age detective fiction.
The Murder Mystery Hotline Is Open
Lighthouses, chocolate, harps, China and more.
Dear listeners,
There are many, many things that I love about interwar detective fiction — I wouldn't have been doing a podcast about it for coming up to seven years otherwise — but one of my favourite aspects is its variety. The sheer number of different authors, plots, settings and styles never ceases to amaze and delight me. The fact that this one genre and period unites books as different as, say, And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie and Mystery in the Channel by Freeman Wills Crofts is both weird and wonderful.
I'll take any excuse to explore this vast literary terrain. And today's new episode gives me the best possible reason to do so: listeners wanting book recommendations! I've brought back the Murder Mystery Hotline from 2023 and it's open to new calls.
Once again, members of the Shedunnit Book Club provided a wide variety of interesting requests. For their prompts, I went looking for mysteries set in lighthouses and in Ireland, as well as ones that involved Chinese artefacts and Easter chocolates. Along the way, I learned fascinating things about Norwegian crime fiction publishing traditions and the career of Irish writer Sheila Pim, among many other things. I got to read a play by Wilkie Collins, a photographically illustrated short story by Rex Stout and multiple tales involving vanishing harps. Truly, this was one of the most fun reading lists for an episode I've ever had.
And if you'd like to be able to submit a request for a future murder mystery hotline episode, become a member of the Shedunnit Book Club today. As well as the chance to take part in episodes like this, members get ad free episodes, extra audio content and access to a marvellous community that reads a different murder mystery together every month. We are currently reading Lady Molly of Scotland Yard by Baroness Orczy, a slightly pre-golden age story collection, and I'd love for you to join us in time to discuss it together at the end of the month.
Before I go, here is a picture of Morris the dog swimming around a lighthouse near where we live:
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.
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, so please do let us know your own reading plans for this month if you have a moment.
I picked up this 1933 novel by "Anthony Rolls", the pseudonym of the Welsh critic Colwyn Edward Vulliamy, as part of my research for an upcoming episode of the podcast. I was reading a lot of books very quickly to prepare for an interview and when I do that I don't tend to savour them, just absorb the key points as quickly as possible. However, I found that I couldn't not slow down and enjoy Family Mattersto the full.
The influence of Anthony Berkeley's Francis Iles books is clear here, in a good way. Family Matters is written as a howdunnit — in the sense that we know all along who is trying to poison the principal murder victim and why — but with an unusual take on the format that I had not encountered before. Said victim is an unpleasant eccentric with a handful of all-consuming passions: for his terrible amateur archaeology collection, for the Mosley-esque club he belongs to called the Rule Britannia League, and for his own health, which he constantly attempts to improve with various crackpot home remedies. His wife and son do not number among his interests. Could there be a more ideal poisoning victim for a golden age mystery?
Martin Edwards notes in his introduction to this British Library edition that Dorothy L. Sayers was a big fan of this book, even to the point that she was willing to suspend disbelief on some of its scientific details — unusual for her, a stickler for accuracy. "I am quite ready to accept anything that is told me by so convincing an author," she wrote in her review. I felt the same! In the best detective fiction, the technicalities are there only in service of a great story, and that's the case here.
I did also follow my plan from last month and read A Blunt Instrument by Georgette Heyer, but I think you'll have to wait for the Heyer episode that's coming later in the year to hear my thoughts on that.
The next title coming up in the Green Penguin Book Club series is The Man in the Dark by John Ferguson, an entirely new author to me. In an attempt to deepen my knowledge before I record the episode with my guest, I'm going to read this other Ferguson title that was republished by the British Library Crime Classics series in 2023. The cover says it is a "London bibliomystery", which bodes well, I feel.
When Prior Robert of Shrewsbury Abbey decides to acquire the remains of Saint Winifred for his Benedictine order, Brother Cadfael joins the group of monks sent to her final resting place: Gwytherin, Wales. Not long after their arrival, the man in greatest opposition to moving the grave is found dead, having been killed with an arrow. Some say Winifred herself dealt the blow, but Brother Cadfael knows this was a murder committed by human hands.
I finally read the first book in Ellis Peters' Cadfael Chronicles! While I love historical mysteries, I don't often linger outside of the 19th- and 20th-century settings. So starting this well-loved series set in the 12th century was definitely a step outside my comfort zone. I thoroughly enjoyed the mystery plot, even though the whodunnit's solution was quite predictable. My favourite elements include Peters' imagery, the tension between English and Welsh characters built from a long and turbulent history, and the linguistic moments with Brother Cadfael acting as translator. Throughout the entire story, I rooted for the residents of Gwytherin to keep Saint Winifred in her rightful place!
The residents of Crescent Place become a sensation in the papers when one of them is killed with an ax. Decades-worth of family secrets and drama among neighbours rise to the surface, and it seems the murderer is just getting started.
I am five chapters into this nearly 400-page mystery by the author frequently described as the "American Agatha Christie". While I see no resemblance to Christie yet, in either writing style nor plotting, I am intrigued so far. We follow the case through the eyes of Louisa Hall, described by one reporter as: "Twenty-eight and attractive, but wilting under the thumb of her domineering mother." Perhaps it's too soon to make this comparison, but Louisa's narrative voice reminds me of the narrator in Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier.
Tune in next time for my final thoughts.
That's what we've got coming up reading-wise. What are you planning to read this month? Let us know by replying directly or by leaving a comment to join the conversation with other readers. If you'd like to follow our reading adventures in between these posts, I (try to) publish monthly reading updates on my blog/newsletter and Leandra documents what she's reading on her YouTube channel.
Until next time,
Caroline
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An Inspector Calls
It's a detective showdown: amateur vs professional.
Dear friends,
This newsletter is by way of being a two-for-one deal, because I haven't been very well the last couple of weeks and thus did not have the bandwidth to send one for the last new episode. However, I am now back in your inbox and I would like you to look at these four books and think about what they have in common:
They are all detective novels. They are all Penguin Crime paperbacks (known affectionately in this parish as "green penguins"). And they are all books that I happen to own. But for our purposes today, the salient point is that these are all murder mysteries in which a professional detective — a police inspector — takes the starring role. Reading from left to right, we have cases conducted by Inspectors Cockrill, Bridie, Owen and French.
This is the motif that I'm focusing on in the new episode of the podcast, "An Inspector Calls". While I have always enjoyed the exploits of both amateur and professional golden age sleuths, I think it's fair to say that it's the amateurs who get most of the attention from crime fiction fans. Poirot, Marple, Campion, Holmes — these are the names in lights.
But recently I have found myself very much enjoying quieter, more unassuming characters like E.C.R. Lorac's Inspector Macdonald, who hold themselves to a certain standard of professional ethics and get the job done with a reassuring level of efficiency. There's plenty to be said for a pro that works in partnership with an amateur, as Lestrade did with Holmes or Japp with Poirot, but I'm curious about those steadfast, play-by-the-rules detectives who can carry an entire novel by themselves.
Lorac's work was sadly never added to the Penguin series, but I do have a White Circle edition of Macdonald's 1946 Devon-set adventure Fire in the Thatch:
These five professional detectives — E.C.R. Lorac's Macdonald, Christianna Brand's Cockrill, Margery Allingham's Bridie, E.R. Punshon's Owen and Freeman Wills Crofts' French — each bring something different to a professional-led murder mystery. I work my way through all of their characters and case histories on the new episode, and I hope you will find something new to think about or perhaps a new series to explore as you listen.
And while I'm here, I must draw your attention to the last episode of Shedunnit, which did not get its own newsletter. That was an instalment of Green Penguin Book Club all about Penguin 64, The Four Just Men by Edgar Wallace. My guest was mystery writer and locked room specialist Tom Mead, and I greatly enjoyed diving into this impossible crime thriller with him.
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.
