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
Zaregoto: Decapitation by NISIOISIN - Anime Special
October 22, 2023 23:00 - 30 minutesAfter suffering through the original NISIOISIN novel, Flex just had to find out how you could adapt the anarchy of 'Decapitation'. Produced by Studio Shaft, released across 2016 and 2017, recently re-released on Blu-Ray, the eight episodes of this Original Video Animation closely follow the book. Almost too closely. With astonishing geometry, gorgeous backdrops, questionable pacing and pure betrayal of one Maki Himena, how does it stack up compared to its source material?
Decapitation by NISIOISIN - Part Three
October 14, 2023 23:00 - 30 minutesWe discuss chapters 7-8 of 'Decapitation' by NISIOISIN. Flex has discovered the true source of the famous author's power, and it's not pretty, or maybe it is. Through all the weirdness and clunk in the writing, NISIOISIN has left behind some interesting messaging, engaging hooks, and memorable characters. Where the series goes from here is anyone's guess, but somehow, it sounds like Flex and Herds actually walked away...enjoying this one? Anime next, too. We're also joined by LJM Owen, the Fe...
Decapitation by NISIOISIN - Part Two
October 08, 2023 23:00 - 30 minutesWe discuss chapters 4-6 of 'Decapitation' by NISIOISIN. A second murder occurs. The two rivals, Kanami Ibuki and Akane Sonoyama, are both decapitated. The protagonist's plan to keep everyone safe from the killer using Mafia strategy has backfired. His reputation is starting to fray as even the silent maid, Teruko, confronts him for his incompetence. Kunagisa's computers are destroyed, and what little evidence it stored along with it. How can this ordinary boy on an island full of geniuses kee...
Decapitation by NISIOISIN - Part One
October 01, 2023 23:00 - 30 minutesWe discuss chapters 1-3 of 'Decapitation' by NISIOISIN. One of Japan's bestselling authors, NISIOISIN's debut sees his bizarre, monologue-heavy absurdism in full force. Our protagonist and his companion, Kunagisa, are among the latest batches of geniuses invited to the island mansion of Iria Akagami. When an earthquake ends in the death of the famous painter Kanami Ibuki, can the smartest people on the planet solve the case, or will the author's self-insert beat them all to the punch. We prob...
The Red Death Murders by Jim Noy - Part Three
September 11, 2023 00:00 - 30 minutesWe discuss Parts 4 & 5, comprising Chapters 25-28 of Jim Noy from The Invisible Event's 2022 debut murder mystery, 'The Red Death Murders'. The locked rooms are solved, the killer is all but identified, yet mysteries still remain. Why put the questions to the reader after we know whodunnit? There's only one person we could ask these questions, and it's Jim Noy himself. We talk about curating puzzles, disorienting perspectives, unintentional metafiction, and the intended messages of the story....
The Red Death Murders by Jim Noy - Part Two
September 04, 2023 00:00 - 30 minutesWe discuss Parts 3 & a portion of part 4, Chapters 16-24 of Jim Noy from The Invisible Event's 2022 debut murder mystery, 'The Red Death Murders'. Prince Prospero has died, poisoned by a cup Thomas last touched himself. The explanations are few, and the prime suspects fewer. How can one thirteen-year-old boy cope with the pressure as rumours abound that his life is about to take a turn greater than he ever could have predicted? Jim Noy has left Herds with a dastardly list of questions, but wi...
The Red Death Murders by Jim Noy - Part One
August 28, 2023 00:00 - 30 minutesWe discuss Parts 1 & 2 of Jim Noy from The Invisible Event's 2022 debut murder mystery, 'The Red Death Murders'. Based on 'Masque of the Red Death' by Edgar Allan Poe, we find ourselves looking through the eyes of a young boy named Thomas, as the plague assailing the kingdom of Prince Prospero has finally broken the Prince's quarantine. A knight is found dead with slit wrists atop the Prince's tower, and soon thereafter another trusted ally dies before their very eyes. How can the peace conti...
The Chinese Gold Murders by Robert van Gulik - Part Three
August 21, 2023 00:00 - 30 minutesWe discuss chapters 14-18 of Dutch diplomat Robert van Gulik's reinterpretation of an 18th-century Chinese magistrate-detective, Judge Dee. One of the Judge's associates invites him to see a play about a fictional magistrate solving three mysteries. Despite his bewilderment at the convolutions of theatre, Judge Dee realises that he's just watched a meta-narrative, and goes about unravelling the final clues keeping him from understanding the grand conspiracy operating right under his nose. Wil...
The Chinese Gold Murders by Robert van Gulik - Part Two
August 14, 2023 00:00 - 30 minutesWe discuss chapters 8-13 of Dutch diplomat Robert van Gulik's reinterpretation of an 18th-century Chinese magistrate-detective, Judge Dee. With a growing surety of how his predecessor was killed, speakers bring new cases before the tribunal, telling stories of missing women, abandoned marriages, and the ever-present threat of a tiger, potentially of supernatural persuasion. As religious affiliations begin to complicate district politics, how does Judge Dee keep his house in order?
The Chinese Gold Murders by Robert van Gulik - Part One
August 07, 2023 00:00 - 30 minutesWe discuss chapters 1-7 of Dutch diplomat Robert van Gulik's reinterpretation of an 18th-century Chinese magistrate-detective, Judge Dee. In the fifth book in Robert's series, we revisit Judge Dee's appointment to Peng Lai, witness him meeting his aides, and solving his first three cases as the lead magistrate of the district. The Bolting Bride, the Butchered Bully, and his murdered predecessor all paint a picture of a town with a darkness at its core, but Judge Dee is determined to have is o...
The Inugami Curse by Kon Ichikawa - Movie Special
July 31, 2023 00:00 - 30 minutesWe discuss two films adapted from Seishi Yokomizo's 'The Inugami Curse', both made by Kon Ichikawa, both starring Kōji Ishizaka as Kosuke Kindaichi. Originally adapted in 1976, then remade in 2006, the film follows the inheritance dispute of the powerful Inugami pharmaceutical family. The patriarch passes, and his various wives and their children have their claim to wealth upended by the return of Sukekiyo, a grandson scarred unrecognisable in the second world war. The death of a legal repres...
Death in the House of Rain by Szu-Yen Lin - Part Three
July 23, 2023 00:00 - 30 minutesWe discuss chapter 6 of Szu-Yen Lin's impossible-house impossible-crime novel, 'Death in the House of Rain'. Translated by the author himself, the House of Rain is an enormous mansion in the shape of the Chinese character for rain. Device X rears its dubious head as Ruoping Lin has to complete his picture of four horror-movie deaths in eerily similar circumstances. Do they all point to one killer? Did Flex's hail-mary solution actually work? Check out Jim Noy's list of 100 Mysteries at The In...
Death in the House of Rain by Szu-Yen Lin - Part Two
July 17, 2023 00:00 - 30 minutesWe discuss chapters 1-4, and later 5, of Szu-Yen Lin's impossible-house impossible-crime novel, 'Death in the House of Rain'. Translated by the author himself, the House of Rain is an enormous mansion in the shape of the Chinese character for rain. Bodies keep dropping in mysterious, small rooms around the House of Rain. Cranial injuries galore, who is bloodthirsty enough to be rid of these young women? Herds also challenges Flex to one extra chapter to see how that alters the scope of the cr...
Death in the House of Rain by Szu-Yen Lin - Part One
July 10, 2023 00:00 - 30 minutesWe discuss the first chapter of Szu-Yen Lin's impossible-house impossible-crime novel, 'Death in the House of Rain'. Translated by the author himself, the House of Rain is an enormous mansion in the shape of the Chinese character for rain. A year ago, three gruesome and stomach-turning murders took the original inhabitants of the house. A year later, the family of the deceased, and their daughter's university classmates, arrive for an ill-fated vacation. Dark, grizzly, and drenched in rain, t...
The Mill House Murders by Yukito Ayatsuji - Part Three
July 03, 2023 00:00 - 30 minutesWe're joined by Brad Friedman of 'Ah Sweet Mystery' to discuss chapters 12-14 of Yukito Ayatsuji's second outing in his Mansion Murder series. Two more murders have taken place, and Shimada has to accept his role as detective before more blood is spilled. Brad and Herds unite to burn Felix at the stake for his ridiculous gambit to solve the unsolvable. How does this novel stack up against the iconic 'Decagon House' that preceded it, and where can the series go from here? We also have a conver...
The Mill House Murders by Yukito Ayatsuji - Part Two
June 26, 2023 00:00 - 30 minutesWe're joined by Brad Friedman of 'Ah Sweet Mystery' to discuss chapters 6-11 of Yukito Ayatsuji's second outing in his Mansion Murder series. Brad and Herds are convinced they know what the trick is, and how the trick works, but can they figure out why it happened, and to whom? A simple mystery may not be as simple as it seems, as the doom befalling the Mill House draws out further accounts of the past, and the cruel motives of the less murderous crimes. We also speak with Robert Gott about h...
The Mill House Murders by Yukito Ayatsuji - Part One
June 19, 2023 00:00 - 30 minutesWe're joined by Brad Friedman of 'Ah Sweet Mystery' to discuss chapters 1-5 of Yukito Ayatsuji's second outing in his Mansion Murder series. Entering into a relentless writing pace that saw two books published in 1988, Ayatsuji welcomes us into the struggle between Shimada Kyoshi and the enigmatic, deceased Seiji Nakamura. Every year, the son of a famous artist begrudgingly invites guests to view his father's collection. One year ago, two people died and one disappeared during the visit, and ...
The Innocence of Father Brown by G.K. Chesterton - Part Three
June 12, 2023 00:00 - 30 minutesWe discuss stories ten to twelve in G.K. Chesterton's debut outing with his most iconic detective, Father Brown. An innocuous preacher with an eye for the human spirit, Father Brown cares less for the wrong and right of the law, than the soul. As the collection closes, leadership upends trust, religion is turned on its head, and an impossible crime is committed. Truly there is no better man for the case.
The Innocence of Father Brown by G.K. Chesterton - Part Two
June 05, 2023 00:00 - 30 minutesWe discuss stories six to ten in G.K. Chesterton's debut outing with his most iconic detective, Father Brown. An innocuous preacher with an eye for the human spirit, Father Brown cares less for the wrong and right of the law, than the soul. Can Flex solve 'The Hammer of God' without being abducted by United States intelligence? Did 'The Sins of Prince Saradine' even really happen? The subdued surrealism of Chesterton is on full display.
The Innocence of Father Brown by G.K. Chesterton - Part One
May 29, 2023 00:00 - 30 minutesWe discuss the first five stories in G.K. Chesterton's debut outing with his most iconic detective, Father Brown. An innocuous preacher with an eye for the human spirit, Father Brown cares less for the wrong and right of the law, than the soul. In The Blue Cross, the great detective Valentin hunts down the notorious Flambeau, one of the world's most famous criminals, only to be met with a curious trail of evidence on the tail of two men of the cloth. How Father Brown's clergy led him to learn...
Death and the Seaside by Allison Moore - Part Three
May 22, 2023 00:00 - 30 minutesWe discuss Part 3, chapters 13-21, of 'Death and the Seaside' by Allison Moore, a creepy, ominous tale of women learning each others' secrets and demons. Bonnie's holiday to Seaton, or is it Seatown, with her landlady Sylvia, is off to a very strange start. Sylvia, a lady who preaches order and method, arrives late covered in some sort of glue. Strange, but I'm sure there's a perfectly reasonable explanation. How do the final strands of Bonnie, Sylvia, and Susan's stories collide. What consti...
Death and the Seaside by Allison Moore - Part Two
May 15, 2023 00:00 - 30 minutesWe discuss Part 2, chapters 7-12, of 'Death and the Seaside' by Allison Moore, a creepy, ominous tale of women learning each others' secrets and demons. It's Bonnie's birthday, which means everyone is going to take a small break from their constant one-on-one bullying of her to bully her as a group. But at least to break up the monotony, Sylvia Slythe, her landlady, is going to take a holiday with her. Really what more can you ask for, as a birthday gift? It's a good thing she isn't a crazed ...
Death and the Seaside by Allison Moore - Part One
May 08, 2023 00:00 - 30 minutesWe discuss Part 1, chapters 1-6, of 'Death and the Seaside' by Allison Moore, a creepy, ominous tale of women learning each others' secrets and demons. Set between two bleak homes, one by the sea, another as far from it as possible, author Bonnie Falls and landlady Sylvia Slythe discuss their future and pasts in the shadow of Bonnie's character Susan. Personal links and splintering secrets unsettle the story while a predator hunts its prey, but which is which? Flex also takes us on a journey ...
Death Comes to Marlow by Robert Thorogood - Part Three
April 24, 2023 00:00 - 30 minutesWe discuss chapters 33-41 of Robert Thorogood's second Marlow Murder Club novel, Death Comes to Marlow. The hunt for our culprit reaches its head, but so does the police department's hunt for itself. Tanika has a pivotal role to play in unraveling this case, but it's going to take guile to get the Marlow Murder Club to their destination. Will Flex accept the answers, and did they make sense? We're also joined by Rae Cairns, speaking with Irene Diakanastasis, to talk about Rae's latest novel '...
Death Comes to Marlow by Robert Thorogood - Part Two
April 17, 2023 00:00 - 30 minutesWe discuss chapters 15-32 of Robert Thorogood's second Marlow Murder Club novel, Death Comes to Marlow. If you thought Judith, Suzie and Becks weren't going to be able to keep up with young modern crime protagonists, you'll be pleased to discover that this sequence includes car chases, technological espionage, high-value financial crime, climate protests, tense pub showdowns, and somehow they all still fit. Our mysterious boot-printer is identified, and our two lead suspects continue to trade...
Death Comes to Marlow by Robert Thorogood - Part One
April 10, 2023 00:00 - 30 minutesWe discuss chapters 1-14 of Robert Thorogood's second Marlow Murder Club novel, Death Comes to Marlow. Judith and her unlikely friends are back in action solving crime in their quaint hometown. Sir Peter Bailey, perhaps the biggest name in Marlow, calls Judith to ask for her insights on his impending wedding, as he fears for his life. Perplexed by the request, Judith gathers Suzie (because Becks will, of course, already be there), and makes her way to the party. Soon after arriving, a loud th...
Eight Detectives by Alex Pavesi - Part Three
April 03, 2023 00:00 - 30 minutesWe discuss chapters 14-17 of Alex Pavesi's innovative 2020 metafiction 'Eight Detectives'. The White Murders are over, or are they? In their final conversations, Grant and Julia unveil the secrets still held, both of their own, and within the pages of The White Murders. Herds' solution may have been dense and wonderful, but we break down the weird tricks that make it harder than usual to unravel this mystery. Alex's deft expertise and particular flavour of mystery shine as 'Eight Detectives' ...
Eight Detectives by Alex Pavesi - Part Two
March 26, 2023 23:00 - 30 minutesWe discuss chapters 6-13 of Alex Pavesi's innovative 2020 metafiction 'Eight Detectives'. Grant and Julia continue going through the remaining chapters of 'The White Murders', and the inconsistencies continue getting more bizarre. A dead man investigating his own death? A surprise birthday party where the surprise was that it's a birthday? An impossible crime owned and operated by Device X? The conundrums this Grant McAllister fellow came up with seem to know no bounds, nor does his ability t...
Eight Detectives by Alex Pavesi - Part One
March 19, 2023 23:00 - 30 minutesWe discuss chapters 1-5 of Alex Pavesi's innovative 2020 metafiction 'Eight Detectives'. Decades ago, Grant McAllister put his mathematician's mind to writing 'The Permutations of Detective Fiction', which explored the quantifiable bounds that make murder mysteries what they are. Soon thereafter, an accompanying novel 'The White Murders' brought his theorems to life. Before it was released, Grant disappeared, but now editor Julia Hart has found his home and wants to get the book published. As...
The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels by Janice Hallett - Part Three
March 12, 2023 23:00 - 30 minutesWe discuss chapters 6-8 of Janice Hallett's bizarre media-meta-fiction 'Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels'. Amanda Bailey's toying with Oliver Menzies has taken the investigation to a new extreme. Oliver's delusions are pushing him to action, and as Amanda approaches the actual truth, he fabricates a whole new one, and takes action. How do the disparate pieces of both fact and fiction collide in the ominous night that became the Alperton Angels suicide? Only a few players know all, and t...
EXTRA: Ashley Kalagian Blunt on 'Dark Mode'
March 08, 2023 23:00 - 29 minutesWe're joined by Ashley Kalagian Blunt to talk about her new crime thriller, 'Dark Mode', hours before its' Sydney Launch. Isolated from the internet, flower-shop owner Reagan Carsen is afraid her past has come back to haunt her when a severed corpse that looks just like her is left on the street outside her apartment. As echoes of her past begin to stalk her every footstep, Reagan is caught on the edge between the up and downsides of finally taking her life, and business, online. We talk with...
The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels by Janice Hallett - Part Two
March 05, 2023 23:00 - 30 minutesWe discuss chapters 3-5 of Janice Hallett's bizarre media-meta-fiction 'Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels'. Oliver Menzies grows increasingly unhinged as Amanda Bailey tries to keep her investigation of the Alperton Angels as close to the rails as it can hurtle. Outside threats and late-night interrogations grow more menacing, the voices of past writers grow louder, and Ellie Cooper sits petrified on the fences. Will Amanda get the truth, or will getting close enough to it be her demise?...
EXTRA: Ben Hobson on 'The Death of John Lacey'
February 26, 2023 23:00 - 46 minutesWe talk with author Ben Hobson about his newest novel, the Western-inspired Aussie outback thriller 'The Death of John Lacey'. Etched in a strange sort of stone, following the turmoil in the aftermath of the most evil man Hobson has ever written, the book explores familial bonds, hard conversations, and the chaos of early Ballarat. We talk about Ben's motivations behind the novel's complex family structures, writing with self-imposed restrictions, and the tough conversations in our own lives....
EXTRA: Kerryn Mayne talks 'Lenny Marks Gets Away With Murder' with Irene Diakanastasis
February 22, 2023 23:00 - 25 minutesA guest episode where 2SER's Irene Diakanastasis is joined in conversation by debut novelist Kerryn Mayne to talk about her new book 'Lenny Marks Gets Away With Murder'. Lenny Marks is woman whose life was shaped by a trauma she can’t remember. What happens when it all comes back to her, and how does she deal with the unavoidable encroachment of her past? Bridging an uplifting tale with the unsettling world of a child having to live in the shadow of being told 'you did this'. From a brilliant...
The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels by Janice Hallett - Part One
February 19, 2023 23:00 - 30 minutesWe discuss chapters 1-2 of Janice Hallett's bizarre media-meta-fiction 'Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels'. Journalist and true crime author Amanda Bailey is on the hunt for a new story. Her editors put her onto the case of the Alperton Angels, a perplexing cult-suicide from the early 2000s involving ritual sacrifice and a missing baby. As Amanda begins to work through her wishlist of interviewees for the novel, her old arch rival Oliver Menzies shows up investigating the same case, and ...
EXTRA: Benjamin Stevenson on 'Everyone in my Family has Killed Someone' (SPOILERS)
February 13, 2023 23:00 - 37 minutesYou know by now that we absolutely loved Benjamin Stevenson's phenomenal 2022 metafictional mystery, 'Everyone in my Family has Killed Someone'. Ben was out on tour while we were covering the book, but now that he's back, we sat down to talk about all the juicy details of the book's creation. Be warned, this conversation features full, unrestrained spoilers after the first two questions. Hear about the reasons he included many of the more harrowing and sincere moments of the story, the things...
Glass Onion by Rian Johnson - Movie Special
February 12, 2023 23:00 - 30 minutesWe discuss Rian Johnson's second outing with Benoit Blanc, the 2022 mystery extravaganza 'Glass Onion'. A group of successful friends are invited to a mystery weekend on the private Greek island of their mutual benefactor Miles Bron. Upon arrival, Blanc discovers his invitation to the weekend was not from Bron himself, and so the mystery weekend begins to unravel. Soon thereafter, Blanc's Detective's Curse seems to strike again as one of the participants is murdered. From scripted puzzle to p...
EXTRA: Michael Stanley on 'A Deadly Covenant'
February 08, 2023 23:00 - 25 minutesWe talk with Michael Stanley (AKA Michael Sears and Stanley Trollip) about their latest Detective Kubu novel, 'A Deadly Covenant'. The second prequel telling of Kubu's early career in the Botswana Criminal Investigations Department, we follow Detective Kubu to Shakawe, Botswana on a case investigating a mass grave of first nations Africans hoed up amidst preparations for a new water line through the Kalahari desert. His long-tenured friends and mentors are new acquaintances, and his later-wif...
EXTRA: Dinuka McKenzie talks 'Taken' with Irene Diakanastasis
February 06, 2023 23:00 - 24 minutesA guest episode where 2SER's Irene Diakanastasis is joined in conversation by Dinuka McKenzie to talk about her latest novel 'Taken'. A brilliant follow-up to her debut novel ‘The Torrent’, Detective Sergeant Kate Miles is back from maternity leave and faced with a whole new set of challenges. Torn between her own spiraling personal life and taking charge of a child abduction case, this novel is a thrilling, action-packed and touching read that will have you hooked from the start. They talk h...
Everyone in my Family has Killed Someone by Benjamin Stevenson - Part Three
February 05, 2023 23:00 - 30 minutesWe discuss chapters 33-41 of Benjamin Stevenson's phenomenal 2022 metafictional mystery, 'Everyone in my Family has Killed Someone'. What would a murder mystery be without a bizarre detour right before the explanation. A jaunt with heavy machinery over to a party at another nearby lodge introduces us to a distraught couple it seems were being blackmailed by one of the Cunninghams, but why? Ern has to piece together the scraps of this mystery on his feet as Chekov's innumerable guns all collid...
Everyone in my Family has Killed Someone by Benjamin Stevenson - Part Two
January 29, 2023 23:00 - 30 minutesWe discuss chapters 16-32 of Benjamin Stevenson's phenomenal 2022 metafictional mystery, 'Everyone in my Family has Killed Someone'. The secrets are finally disclosed as Michael tells Ern to go look in the back of his truck. Unfortunately, because this is a crime novel, opening a coffin involves a little more mutilation and practitioner-death than the average autopsy. Though Ern is resuscitated from his visit to the bottom of a frozen lake, Michael is not so lucky, and the harrowing Cunningha...
Everyone in my Family has Killed Someone by Benjamin Stevenson - Part One
January 22, 2023 23:00 - 30 minutesWe discuss chapters 1-15 of Benjamin Stevenson's phenomenal 2022 metafictional mystery, 'Everyone in my Family has Killed Someone'. Ernest Cunningham is a writer of murder-mystery how-to books, and is already Flex's new best friend because he put the Knox Decalogue at the start of his book. Summoned to a family reunion in the mountains, Ern takes us on a tour of the terrible misdeeds his family has gotten up to, and, he promises, how it leads into the mysterious murder at said reunion. Armed ...
Review Season: Blackstone Fell by Martin Edwards - 2022 1st Place
January 19, 2023 23:00 - 6 minutesIn first place for the year of our lord 2022, winner of the coveted prize, the Sulari Gentill Award, is 'Blackstone Fell' by Martin Edwards. We talk a lot on this show about the way that murder mystery has evolved over the centuries, nay millennia, but I haven’t read a piece of detective fiction in a long while that manages to feel so very familiar while also taking me by surprise at every twist and turn of the deep-flowing river at the centre of Blackstone Fell. This is the third book in the...
Review Season: Traitor's Purse by Margery Allingham - 2022 2nd Place
January 17, 2023 23:00 - 5 minutesComing in second place for your Murder Mystery World Tour’s 2022 recommendations is Traitor’s Purse by Margery Allingham. A spy novel, on the podium of a Detective Fiction show? A curious choice to be sure, but Traitor’s Purse is a powerful tale marking a moment in crime fiction history that echoes into modern classics. There’s enough Golden Age goodness to scratch your mystery itch, and the spy fiction speeds this novel through a string of stunning setpieces.
Review Season: The Woman in the Library by Sulari Gentill - 2022 3rd Place
January 15, 2023 23:00 - 6 minutesIt gives us great pleasure to once again welcome Sulari Gentill to the stand, this time for her 2022 metafictional mystery, ‘The Woman in the Library’, as our third-place recommendation on your Murder Mystery World Tour for 2022. It will come as absolutely no surprise to you that this was Flex's favourite book of the year. Sulari just keeps managing to write the sort of fiction he like to read. Once again, Sulari has come to the page with the question, ‘what if the writer I’m writing, was wri...
Review Season: The Dying Day by Vaseem Khan - 2022 4th Place
January 12, 2023 23:00 - 5 minutesComing in 4th on our Review Season 2022 recommendations, 'The Dying Day' is a master class in puzzle construction, containing within its leaves the most devilish historical maze that I’ve had the pleasure of solving this year. As I was the rookie when we covered the book early on this year I was able to grab it by the proverbial horns and indulge in Vaseem Khan’s love of historical trivia, brain-teasers, and Indian architecture. We once again find ourselves swept up in the arms of Bombay, mod...
Review Season: Absolution by Murder by Peter Tremayne - 2022 5th Place
January 10, 2023 23:00 - 6 minutesIn fifth place this Review Season, Herds takes us back to a simpler time, one where Saxons roamed the countryside and the black plague was the hottest new piece of goss on the market. That novel is Absolution by Murder, authored by Peter Tremayne as the first entry in the Sister Fidelma series. Not just a piece of historical fiction, but also written by acclaimed Celtic scholar Peter Berresford Ellis. The story takes place at a real event that happened to real people, and mixes in fictional w...
Review Season: The Tilt by Chris Hammer - 2022 Honourable Mention
January 08, 2023 23:00 - 8 minutesOur final honourable mention Review Season 2022, 'The Tilt' by Chris Hammer, provides a daunting task. The second novel in the Nell Buchanan and Ivan Lukic series is vast, spanning three timelines and uncountable stories. Flex couldn't quite figure out how to sum it all up, so instead, it's time to talk about why this novel matters so much in the scope of Australia's Outback Noir. Chris Hammer’s ‘The Tilt’ is an executional masterpiece in Outback Noir, collating the hallmarks of Australia’s n...
Review Season: The Crooked Hinge by John Dickson Carr - 2022 6th Place
January 05, 2023 23:00 - 5 minutesTaking out our 6th highest recommendation for Review Season 2022, we have placed the fantastically whacky The Crooked Hinge by John Dickson Carr. We have been looking for an excuse to include the tomes of Carr on the show for some time now, and when we heard that ambitious friend of the show Brad Friedman of ‘Ah Sweet Mystery’ was keen to chat about it, we jumped at the chance. The Hinge represents a unique facet of the Death of the Reader lexicon, being a novel which outwardly claims to be a...
Review Season: The Bombay Prince by Sujata Massey - 2022 7th Place
January 03, 2023 23:00 - 5 minutes'The Bombay Prince' by Sujata Massey takes out 7th place on our 2022 Review Season recommendations. The novel, which covers the arrival of Prince Edward the 8th in Bombay through the eyes of India’s first and only female lawyer, Perveen Mistry, is primed to open our eyes to the everyday conflicts that erupt between the British powers and the everyday Indian citizen, as well as every in between that is caught up in this historical struggle of identity. As part of our breakdown in 2021 we had a...