Death of the Reader
379 episodes - English - Latest episode: 16 days ago - ★★★★★ - 10 ratingsJoin Flex and Herds as they take you on a Murder Mystery World Tour in Death of the Reader. From classic British puzzles in the Golden Age of Detective Fiction to the weirdest of foreign detective fiction, explore everything in the grizzly world of the 'locked room'. Each week we'll feature academics, authors and more as we trace the influences of the genre around the world.
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Episodes
Death in Hilo by Eric Redman - Part Three
July 01, 2024 00:00 - 30 minutesWe discuss Part One, Chapters 12-27 of Eric Redman's new Hawaiian Noir novel, Death in Hilo. Kawika's wife, Elle, has gone missing, and the only person with information as to where she's gone is Jarvis. As the lines of Hawaii's biggest cases begin to cross, how can Kawika survive not just the brimming blood at his doorstep, and the axe of audit at his neck. This crime climbs right to the top. We also talk with Eric Redman himself about the rules of crime fiction, and his personal links with h...
Death in Hilo by Eric Redman - Part Two
June 24, 2024 00:00 - 30 minutesWe discuss Part One, Chapters 12-27 of Eric Redman's new Hawaiian Noir novel, Death in Hilo. At last, our outlier victim of the park slasher is identified - Keoni Parkes, a spokesperson for the controversial Thirty Metre Telescope on the big island. Unfortunately for Kawika, the skeletons in his closet have come out to play as it turns out Keoni has ties to the case that the press hav ebeen hounding him over. Where can Kawika hide even as he hunts for a killer on the loose? We also talk with ...
Death in Hilo by Eric Redman - Part One
June 17, 2024 00:00 - 30 minutesWe discuss Part One, Chapters 1-11 of Eric Redman's new Hawaiian Noir novel, Death in Hilo. Kawika Wong is in the prime of his career, leading the homicide squad at the Honolulu Police Department, but it all could come crumbling down when a criminal he put away a decade ago begins hinting towards the truth of a case Kawika thought he had put behind him. With a serial killer on the streets, and the bones of an old case peeking above the ground, Kawika's duties are torn. But he can't see everyt...
Too Much of Water by Bruce Hamilton - Part Three
June 10, 2024 00:00 - 30 minutesWe discuss Bruce Hamilton's 'Too Much of Water', chapters 9-12. Just when you thought the murderer was done, one more body finds itself committed to what we presume are watery depths. As the Goyaz ventures towards its last port of call, Edgar's list of suspects grows implausibly small, but will it point him in the right direction? A hearty twist and help from on high rattle the boat through to the conclusion of this gruesome voyage. We're also joined by Martin Edwards, chair of The Detection ...
Too Much of Water by Bruce Hamilton - Part Two
June 03, 2024 00:00 - 30 minutesWe discuss Bruce Hamilton's 'Too Much of Water', chapters 5-8. The deaths keep adding up - a child drowned by the pool, and a man found drowned in a bath. Only two suspects have alibis that make them possible suspects, but neither seems a likely culprit, so which way does the finger of blame point? Our unlikely detective Edgar is stuck on a boat with a serial killer, a friend under suspicion, and no clue as to when the killing spree might end. I suppose we might as well plan a concert to keep...
Too Much of Water by Bruce Hamilton - Part One
May 27, 2024 00:00 - 30 minutesWe discuss Bruce Hamilton's 'Too Much of Water', chapters 1-4. Flex is back, and it's time to dive into a water-based mystery aboard the Goyaz. Edgar Cantrell is bound for Barbados, and all manner of high society find themselves aboard the boat together. Singers, cricketers, barristers, and of course military-man Major Major. One too many bumps on a stormy night signals the pre-emptive departure of boat-enthusiast Mr. Rottentosser. Soon, the crew summons our unlikely hero Edgar to play detect...
Who Shot JR? from Dallas - Part Three
May 20, 2024 00:00 - 30 minutesThe finale of Who Shot JR at last. One of the most viewed episodes of American tv in history and the series that inspired Who Shot Mr Burns, Dallas spends most of their reveal episode recapping the last four epiusodes for those of us that weren't paying attention! Sue Ellen finally takes centre stage as our true detective when she is thrown in jail and bailed out overnight by a mysterious benefactor. The rest of the Ewing family is all but ready to throw Sue under the bus, but she's finally r...
Who Shot JR? from Dallas - Part Two
May 13, 2024 00:00 - 30 minutesHerds and Cam are back at it again, by popular demand, with the middle section of Dallas' 'Who Shot JR?' in which honestly, not much very important happens. The elusive 3rd Ewing brother Greg visits from his own spinoff show, JR struggles to run the Ewing oil company from his hospital bed, and Bobby is essentially forced to stay on the show when his father puts him in charge of everything (at least in theory). Cam may have lost one of his solving points after a blunder in the first episode, b...
Who Shot JR? from Dallas - Part One
May 06, 2024 00:00 - 30 minutesHerds and Cam discuss the season finale of Dallas' third season, 'A House Divided', and take a crack at solving the America-wide sensation 'Who Shot JR'? After JR, eldest son of the wealthy Ewing estate executes one too many backdoor oil schemes he is shot twice in the abdomen and left for dead. The episode explores the motivations of the many people who would have reasons to shoot him, whether for financial or personal reasons. From Marilee Stone, whose husband takes his own life in grief, t...
It Takes A Town by Aoife Clifford - Part Three
April 29, 2024 00:00 - 30 minutesWe discuss chapters 25-36 of Aoife Clifford's brand new collective-detective murder mystery, 'It Takes A Town'. Herds and Cam come to the end of all things, 'Jaz 'the visual' Langridge is kidnapped (for real) this time, incompetent cop Billy and town drunk Mer work together to navigate a sudden and dangerous showdown. The friendship of Mer and Frankie is put to the ultimate test and the final culprit is revealed in a classic confrontation between them and real detective of this collaborative ...
It Takes A Town by Aoife Clifford - Part Two
April 22, 2024 00:00 - 30 minutesWe discuss chapters 12-24 of Aoife Clifford's brand new collective-detective murder mystery, 'It Takes A Town'. Frankie and Mer move closer to center stage as their lives are compltely turned upside down. Frankie is asked to leave her teaching job as she is under suspicion of her once friend Vanessa Walton, the cops force her to make a very bad decision about handling some key evidence, and the dark secret her husband has been keeping from her finally comes to light... and Mer? well, Frankie ...
It Takes A Town by Aoife Clifford - Part One
April 15, 2024 00:00 - 30 minutesWe discuss chapters 1-11 of Aoife Clifford's brand new collective-detective murder mystery, 'It Takes A Town'. Policewoman Carole, distressed mother Frankie, town drunk Mer(maid) and a gaggle of schoolchildren reminiscent of the Scooby Gang all team up to corner the killer of local town star Vanessa Walton, recently returned from a grand tour of fame and fortune, now found dead in the cottage of local MP Barton Langridge. These various super sleuths may not see eye to eye, or even be aware of...
The Mystery Writer by Sulari Gentill - Part Three
April 08, 2024 00:00 - 29 minutesWe discuss chapters 26-42 of Sulari Gentill's brand new metafiction standalone, 'The Mystery Writer'. We come to the explosive finale as the evil Greek machinist Satan Herself is exposed to the world and characters we've never seen before swoop in on helicopters and take part in duels involving both pistols and large burly vehicles. The plot has gone a bit off the rails but Sulari is here to tell us about how much fun she's having. Much like the novel it's all worked out in the end (or has it...
The Mystery Writer by Sulari Gentill - Part Two
March 31, 2024 23:00 - 30 minutesWe discuss chapters 15-25 of Sulari Gentill's brand new metafiction standalone, 'The Mystery Writer'. Theo Benton is a law-school escapee from Tasmania, fled to her brother Gus' home in Lawrence, Kansas. She finds herself as the prime suspect in the murder of her almost-boyfriend Dan Murdoch, and now the conspiracy tightens its hold over her life as her home is besieged by journos and Murdoch fans alike caught up in the madness. We follow Theo as she is forced to flee from one safehouse to th...
The Mystery Writer by Sulari Gentill - Part One
March 24, 2024 23:00 - 30 minutesWe discuss chapters 1-14 of Sulari Gentill's brand new metafiction standalone, 'The Mystery Writer'. Theo Benton is a law-school escapee from Tasmania, fled to her brother Gus' home in Lawrence, Kansas. The world of law might have suited Gus, but Theo wants to be a writer, and her brother is ready to support Theo through that journey. Soon after committing to her new life, Theo meets Dan Murdoch, a famous writer who is usually a recluse. They bond over fiction and start writing together. Unfo...
The ABC Murders - Screen Special
March 17, 2024 23:00 - 30 minutesWe discuss the ITV (1992), BBC (2018), and Frank Tashlin (1965) screen adaptations of Agatha Christie's 'The ABC Murders'. An unusual plot for the mystery great, how have histories most lauded (and least) tweaked the plot for the moving image? From spellbinding performances by David Suchet, Donald Sumpter, and John Malkovich, to laughable replacement-by-buxom-blondes, you're spoiled for choice when it comes to the Queen of Crime. How can the various Poirots get to the bottom of this case, and...
The ABC Murders by Agatha Christie - Part Three
March 10, 2024 23:00 - 30 minutesWe discuss chapters 28-35 of Agatha Christie's notorious serial murder story, 'The ABC Murders'. Our criminal, Mr. ABC, has turned himself in. As Poirot prepares to interrogate the madman, he comments to Hastings that he expects to be lied to - only to have a twist dropped in his lap. How can the seemingly unbreakable alibi of our killer be broken? Perhaps the real lie is that this man is the killer at all. The papers are on the case's tail and hungry for justice, so what can Poirot do to fin...
The ABC Murders by Agatha Christie - Part Two
March 03, 2024 23:00 - 30 minutesWe discuss chapters 15-27 of Agatha Christie's notorious serial murder story, 'The ABC Murders'. A fourth murder has taken place, but breaks the pattern of alliteration. Is the killer getting sloppy? It certainly seems so, as Alexander Bonaparte Cust totters around right under the Legion's nose. As their faith in Poirot wavers as much as their reliance on him grows, the threat of impending murders lingers. How does one catch a serial killer whose calling card is so distinct but indecipherable...
The ABC Murders by Agatha Christie - Part One
February 25, 2024 23:00 - 30 minutesWe discuss chapters 1-14 of Agatha Christie's notorious serial murder story, 'The ABC Murders'. Captain Hastings has returned to London, and meets his friend Poirot reminiscing of their best days solving murders together. As they long for new thrills, one arrives in the post, as a series of letters herald the arrival of a new murderer in London. Three murders, each of victims with alliterative names, each accompanied by a copy of the ABC Rail Guide, are foretold by ominous, challenging letter...
Who Shot Mr. Burns? from The Simpsons - Part Two
February 18, 2024 23:00 - 30 minutesWe discuss the season debut of The Simpsons seventh season, and its infamous puzzle. It wasn't 16:9 that foiled Flex at all, it was his sheer lack of humour. Smithers is pinned as the culprit after he confesses to shooting an old man in the streets. Fortunately, there is more than one old man in Springfield for him to shoot. That leaves one suspect for the mob in Springfield to go after - but unfortunately nobody can quite remember who that is. We're also joined by Abby Corson to talk about h...
Death of the Reader UNDEAD - 15 February 2024
February 15, 2024 09:00 - 29 minutesWelcome to your Murder Mystery Detour! Once a whenever-we-can, Flex and Herds go live (or undead, as the case may be), to talk about their latest fixations in the crime fiction world, and we hear from you about yours! We're also joined by our editor, Cameron Furlong, producer Max Mahood, and feature an interview from Jonathan Chang. Our guests are Brydon Coverdale, Dinuka McKenzie, and Robert Connolly. This iteration, we spoke about: Good Old Colingwood Forever by Brydon Coverdale, winner of...
EXTRA: Quintin Smith from People Make Games on Jubensha
February 14, 2024 23:00 - 25 minutesWe talk with Quinns from People Make Games to about the Mystery Role-Play craze that has taken hold of China; Jubensha. What sets it apart from the Mystery Dinner Parties that accompany every crime fiction festival and book club? We also speak about role-play in the English speaking world, the complications of safety tools, and more of Quinns' experience playing Jubensha during his investigation. Make sure you also catch Quinns' work on Shut Up & Sit Down, and his new TTRPG channel Quinn's Qu...
Who Shot Mr. Burns? from The Simpsons - Part One
February 11, 2024 23:00 - 30 minutesWe discuss the season finale of The Simpsons sixth season, and its infamous puzzle. Springfield Elementary is almost destroyed in an eruption, but fortunately, it's an eruption of oil, so they're wealthy now. At least, they would be, if Mr. Burns wasn't up to his antics, preparing to destroy all that is good in the world. Nobody in Springfield is free from his cruel machinations, so when he dies, we shouldn't be surprised, but the killer has the perfect alibi. Can you solve this mystery? Flex...
Review Season: Everyone by Benjamin Stevenson - 2023 1st Place
February 08, 2024 23:00 - 6 minutesHerds presents the much coveted Golden pants award straight from Sulari Gentill’s wardrobe to… Everyone, and by that we don’t mean the heart-warming everyone, as in everyone’s a winner, but rather the Everyone series by Benjamin Stevenson. That’s right, two books can share a placement, as long as they’re written by the same author. There was much internal debate on the Death of the Reader team as to how we could possibly choose one over the other, but with the power of a year long symmetry an...
Review Season: Moriarty by Anthony Horowitz - 2023 2nd Place
February 06, 2024 23:00 - 5 minutesReview Season is about recommendations. You don’t need someone to recommend you Sherlock Holmes. Whether or not you have read Arthur Conan Doyle’s original stories, watched one of the many renditions, or experienced some form of pastiche, there is no doubt that some comparison to Sherlock Holmes worms its way into your life. Especially if you said something painfully obvious. What is far, far less common, is work endorsed by the Conan Doyle Estate. Coming in 2nd Place for our 2023 Recommendat...
Review Season: The Red Death Murders by Jim Noy - 2023 3rd Place
February 04, 2024 23:00 - 6 minutesThere are three entries here and only one can take back the coveted Sulari Gentill prize, winning for themselves eternal glory and golden dance pants to take home. In the bronze position, standing tall head and shoulders over a dozen others, the bloody, the historical, The Red Death Murders written by Jim Noy. Noy’s work brings together three of Herds favourite aspects of historical fiction. You’ve got your gothic horror, your old timey medieval politics, and your elaborate medieval castles. ...
Review Season: Glass Onion by Rian Johnson - 2023 4th Place
February 01, 2024 23:00 - 7 minutesIt’s time for the controversial entry in our list of high class detective fiction, there’s always one. Usually any films that we cover will be contentious in terms of placement, is it really fair to place a work of a visual medium in the same competition as some musty old books? Am I even qualified to talk about film theory? Well, I’ll have you know that I completed at least one, and I quote: “unspecified film studies unit” in the course of my school education, so I’m the most qualified perso...
Review Season: Eight Detectives by Alex Pavesi - 2023 5th Place
January 30, 2024 23:00 - 5 minutesWhy read one detective story, when you could have eight? Coming in 5th Place on Review Season for our 2023 Recommendations is Alex Pavesi, with his debut mystery novel ‘Eight Detectives’. Released in 2020, the novel takes Alex’s background in mathematics, and questions the numerical principles that define the genre, except, that’s not quite the whole story.
Review Season: The Innocence of Father Brown by G.K. Chesterton - 2023 6th Place
January 28, 2024 23:00 - 6 minutesTo follow up the historical supernatural mayhem that is the Chinese Gold Murders I couldn’t think of a more opposite yet familiar companion novel than our sixth place winner. I’m proud to grant G.K Chesterton’s The Innocence of Father Brown this position in our rankings. Father Brown is a detective who we’ve had literally tens of requests to cover, and that’s pretty high for us. He’s an unassuming father of the cloth, who uses a slow but determined application of observation and light questio...
Review Season: The Chinese Gold Murders by Robert van Gulik - 2023 7th Place
January 25, 2024 23:00 - 6 minutesWe’re officially in the upper half of the entries and it is with no small amount of nepotism that I would advocate to you a historical novel for seventh place. The Chinese Gold Murders, by Robert van Gulik occupy a bizarre place in the history of Chinese crime fiction, in that the credited author is as much an author as an adapter of foreign fiction. The myth goes that Robert, a Dutch diplomat on a mission to China, found a collection of 18th century Chinese murder mysteries, set in the Tang ...
Review Season: Silent Night by Sophie Hannah - 2023 8th Place
January 23, 2024 23:00 - 5 minutesSmack bang in the middle of our list is a novel that captured my heart when I first read it for its fun take on a distinguished no-introductions-needed character, in eighth place the always lovely Sophie Hannah’s Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot’s Silent Night, which we covered on the show quite late in our year. Silent Night is a new and ambitious look into the life and times of Poirot and is the fifth in a series of revival novels which we sought out after tackling Anthony Horowitz’s acclai...
Review Season: The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels by Janice Hallet - 2023 9th Place
January 21, 2024 23:00 - 5 minutesMystery always likes a new subgenre to keep things interesting, and over the past few years, a reimagining of ‘found footage’ storytelling has been working its way to the core of the whodunnit, championed by one author in particular. You’re listening to Death of the Reader, it’s review season, and breaking ground on our single digit recommendations is Janice Hallet, with her 2023 novel ‘The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels’.
Review Season: Death in the House of Rain by Szu Yen Lin - 2023 10th Place
January 18, 2024 23:00 - 5 minutesComing in at tenth place is one spooky entry, it sports a lively cast of college aged characters, a pair of gruesome parallel cases to solve, and a setting that is elevated by the very house that makes up its title. This is, Death in the House of Rain by Szu Yen Lin, Taiwanese murder mystery author. Out the gate I’d like to tell you that I can easily recommend this novel if you’re looking to sate your desire for Eastern murder mystery, particularly if you enjoy the various insane houses that ...
Review Season: The Mill House Murders by Yukito Ayatsuji - 2023 11th Place
January 16, 2024 23:00 - 6 minutesIn 2021, I said that Yukito Ayatsuji achieved a rare feat, with his first entry in the mansion murder series. As I described, he bested one of the most influential mysteries of all time in his own pastiche of it. Arguably, with the sequel, Ayatsuji did it again, although, I think the accomplishment is a little more manageable this time, as he lands in 11th place on Review Season. The Mill House Murders takes the core puzzle of the masked man mystery, brings the ghostly hand of his architect a...
Review Season: Death and the Seaside by Alison Moore - 2023 12th Place
January 14, 2024 23:00 - 5 minutesComing in 12th Place this Review Season, is our biggest outlier for 2023, Death and the Seaside by Alison Moore. Not a murder mystery, as such, but still a mysterious metafictional tale of a writer, her landlord, her character, and their trauma. We came to it on the recommendation of Alex Pavesi, exploring the ways it shaped his novel ‘Eight Detectives’. Bonnie Falls is a writer, recently moved out of home, recently dropped out of university, recently moved into the ground-floor apartment own...
Review Season: The Inugami Curse by Kon Ichikawa - 2023 13th Place
January 11, 2024 23:00 - 5 minutesIt's Review Season, and in 13th place, we’ve positioned several of Japan’s most renowned creative houses, with both film adaptations of ‘The Inugami Clan’. Author Seishi Yokomizo continues to haunt japanese mystery fiction, with spinoffs and adaptations of his leading detective, Kosuke Kindaichi, continuing production over forty years after his passing. Kon Ichikawa was perhaps more prolific, even if his comparisons to other contemporaneous Japanese directors are less universal.
Review Season: Death Comes to Marlow by Robert Thorogood - 2023 14th Place
January 09, 2024 23:00 - 5 minutesIs a murder mystery just a verbose cryptic crossword? Fans of Caroline Crampton’s excellent ‘Shedunnit’ podcast, might remember her episode on the topic from 2021. It turned me towards Robort Thorogood’s ‘The Marlow Murder Club’, published just a few months earlier. The novel follows crossword enthusiast Judith, and her quest for clues and friendship following a murder she witnesses whilst out on a swim. We didn’t end up fitting it into our 2021 run, so when the sequel launched this year, I k...
Review Season: Decapitation by NISIOISIN - 2023 15th Place
January 07, 2024 23:00 - 5 minutesWhat do you get when you take a classic Christie style murder mystery complete with a cast of characters invited by a rich benefactor, an island hemmed in from all sides by storms, and an absurdly powerful detective who swoops in at the last moment to blow everything else away, and combine all of that with a stylistically over the top pseudo-autobiographical musing on the nature of intellectual genius itself? I’d say you get Decapitation by NISIOISIN, but that couldn’t quite do this amazingly...
Everyone on this Train is a Suspect by Benjamin Stevenson - Part Three
December 31, 2023 23:00 - 30 minutesWe discuss chapters 28-36 of Benjamin Stevenson's 'Everyone on this Train is a Suspect', the second novel in his 'Everyone' series. A stop-off in Coober Pedy sees Ernest on a car-chase with a train, hurtling down the track after the enormous iron horse. Fortunately, the cows are on his side, and he is back on the case to identify the killer still on the train. Two bodies, two riddles, two methods of death, where are the parallels? With Alan's botched denouement out of the way, will the police...
EXTRA: Jack Heath on 'Kill Your Husbands'
December 27, 2023 23:00 - 30 minutesWe talk with Aussie author Jack Heath about his new horror-comedy murder mystery, 'Kill Your Husbands'. When Jack Heath isn't writing awesome stories for kids, or horrifying crime-solving-cannibal stories for adults, he likes to take relaxing breaks and write about deeply traumatised lesbians in life-threatening situations. I wonder how he relaxes on holidays? In Kill Your Husbands, Kiara Lui and Elise Glyk have rebuilt a strong relationship following the septic-tank horrors of 'Kill Your Bro...
Everyone on this Train is a Suspect by Benjamin Stevenson - Part Two
December 24, 2023 23:00 - 30 minutesWe discuss chapters 12-27 of Benjamin Stevenson's 'Everyone on this Train is a Suspect', the second novel in his 'Everyone' series. Alan Royce is on the hunt. He's confident that there's no way Ernest Cunningham has managed to stumble across a second true crime while trying to write the follow up to his previous true crime memoir. As the obviously incompetent forensic crime fiction author goes about trying to shoehorn his first inoperable theory from Ernest to another candidate, another death...
Everyone on this Train is a Suspect by Benjamin Stevenson - Part One
December 17, 2023 23:00 - 30 minutesWe discuss chapters 1-11 of Benjamin Stevenson's 'Everyone on this Train is a Suspect', the second novel in his 'Everyone' series. Ernest Cunningham is back, and even though you're reading the book he's written, he is really struggling to write it. His previous outing, a true-crime memoir of perhaps the darkest moment in his family's history, has seen him invited to a crime fiction festival travelling the length of Australia on The Ghan. His literary agent has given him a big advance for a se...
Silent Night by Sophie Hannah - Part Three
December 10, 2023 23:00 - 30 minutesWe discuss chapters 29-38 of Sophie Hannah's latest Hercule Poirot continuation novel, 'Silent Night'. Catchpool and Poirot are left with a hard task, the killing blow on Frelly itself. Stakeouts, emotional turmoil, and the unveiling of the final clues. A fun, quirky mystery in the world of Poirot draws to a close, but our protagonists cannot agree on their solution. How do the final dominoes fall, as the house threatens to fall into the sea? We want to hear from you for Review Season! Tell u...
Silent Night by Sophie Hannah - Part Two
December 03, 2023 23:00 - 30 minutesWe discuss chapters 13-28 of Sophie Hannah's latest Hercule Poirot continuation novel, 'Silent Night'. Edward Catchpool and Hercule Poirot find themselves the victim of a terrible poisoning, and will it lead them to the killer of Stanley Niven? Probably not, because Edward's mother confesses immediately, simply to tell the duo how good of an idea it was getting Poirot into hospital so he'd be closer to the case. I'm sure other things happen in this stretch of chapters, but I'm still very shak...
Silent Night by Sophie Hannah - Part One
November 26, 2023 23:00 - 30 minutesWe discuss chapters 1-12 of Sophie Hannah's latest Hercule Poirot continuation novel, 'Silent Night'. Officially avoiding our mystery-taxes for the year, we meet Poirot and his friend Edward Catchpool as they settle down for a quiet Christmas together. Unfortunately for them both, a mysterious woman arrives with a case, and it's straight out of Edward's nightmares. As his mother insists they travel to a dilapidated old house, Poirot's interest is piqued by the insinuation that the two men at ...
Moriarty by Anthony Horowitz - Part Three
November 19, 2023 23:00 - 30 minutesWe discuss chapter 17-22 of Anthony Horowitz' 2014 Sherlock Holmes continuation novel 'Moriarty'. Our tragedy, wrapped in romance, wrapped in mystery, arrives in its final form. The final showdown with Clarence Devereux is at hand. Jones and Chase stare down the American Vampire unaided. Once disposable, the now indispensable Athelney Jones is disposed, and this misdeed, among many others, cannot go unpunished. History's supposed greatest criminal mastermind has one final play before he leave...
No Escape: Closed Circle Mysteries - BAD: Sydney 2023
November 12, 2023 10:00 - 58 minutesWe took to the stage at BAD: Sydney Crime Writers' Festival this year to talk about mystery fiction. If you thought that closed circle mysteries had died with Agatha Christie, think again. They will never die although plenty of people do in the books in this session. Benjamin Stevenson’s new Everyone on this Train is a Suspect has several dead bodies on a literary festival train, Michael Trant’s Gabe Ahern in No Trace is keeping the lowest of profiles on a remote cattle property when death st...
EXTRA: Chris Hammer on 'The Seven' and 'Scrublands'
November 08, 2023 23:00 - 50 minutesChris Hammer superfan Dom Romeo is joined by Chris Hammer to talk about his latest novel, 'The Seven'. Fresh off the back of winning BAD: Sydney's 'Danger Award' for best crime novel with his previous book, 'The Tilt', the adventure continues. It's his third novel with Ivan Lucic and Nell Buchanan, as they are called to the Yuwonderie Irrigation Scheme along the Murrumbidgee River to investigate the body of an accountant found stabbed on the land of the local member of parliament. As with his...
Moriarty by Anthony Horowitz - Part Two
November 05, 2023 23:00 - 30 minutesWe discuss chapters 10-16 of Anthony Horowitz' 2014 Sherlock Holmes continuation novel 'Moriarty'. Our new lead duo, Athelney Jones and Frederick Chase, have found their man. A mysterious carriage leads them to the American Embassy in London, and the duo then decide that the best course of action is to contravene international law. I'm sure that will go down without a hitch... After it goes down with a hitch, the fight goes to the streets as they try to turn Devereux's goons against him. We'r...
Moriarty by Anthony Horowitz - Part One
October 29, 2023 23:00 - 30 minutesWe discuss Anthony Horowitz' 2014 Sherlock Holmes continuation novel 'Moriarty'. Despite continuing the Sherlock canon, it turns out, in fact, that Sherlock is not our hero! Instead, Holmes and Watson are replaced by Inspector Athelney Jones, and Pinkerton agent Frederick Chase. As far as they know, Holmes is dead, and with a new American crime boss recently emigrated to London, the duo band together after meeting aside Dr. Moriarty's corpse in Switzerland. Can the American and the once-sland...