Death of the Reader

We discuss Parts 5-6 (up to the Road to Framlingham) of 'Magpie Murders' by Anthony Horowitz, with Andrew Pople from 2SER's 'Final Draft' in the hotseat. The end of Alan Conway's 'Magpie Murders' is missing, and the author himself has turned up dead in dramatic circumstances. Can his discovering editor Susan Ryeland find out what happened before things collapse further, or did she do the crime her...

We discuss Parts 1-4 of 'Magpie Murders' by Anthony Horowitz, with Andrew Pople from 2SER's 'Final Draft' in the hotseat. A murder occurs in Saxby-on-Avon, and detective Atticus Pund refuses the call. A second murder occurs in Saxby-on-Avon, and Atticus Pund answers the call, only to find a history of death and deceit in the small town. Above all this, an unnamed editor warns us that Alan Conway's...

In case you missed it, we had a lovely long chat with Sulari Gentill as part of our recent episodes on her award-winning 'Crossing the Lines', also known as 'After She Wrote Him'. From the book's writing, to its publishing and reception, we do our best to cover it all! Listen in to hear our full discussion including more reality-bending, sausage-roll-logistics, and more!

We discuss chapters 20-24 of Sulari Gentill's 'Crossing the Lines'. Ned and Maddie's spiral into madness approaches its crescendo as their relationships with the people around them start to crumble. Maddie's relationship with her husband begins to collapse after Ned writes him potentially having an affair, and Ned's relationship with Willow dissolves as it becomes clear what the truth is behind th...

We discuss chapters 9-19 of Sulari Gentill's 'Crossing the Lines'. As the two writers slowly pull each other closer, the lines between reality are blurred, and things go a little off the rails. Madeleine and Edward begin to crave one another, at the expense of the people around them. When they're in control of each other's lives, is there any way they can pull away before it's all too late? We're...

We discuss chapters 1-8 of Sulari Gentill's 'Crossing the Lines'. Nobody saw the writer do it, but you're about to. Edward McGinnity has come up with this wonderful new character, crime fiction writer Madeleine d'Leon. She's a bit tired of writing her detective serials and wants to do something new, so she's come up with this wonderful new character, Edward McGinnity, a literary author. He's about...

We discuss chapters 64-115 of Richard Osman's 'The Thursday Murder Club'. This sprightly novel comes to a surprisingly sombre end. The balancing act of Richard Osman's bouncy characters and delivery against the heavy implications of each crime helps this novel sing. The club solves the case, Donna solves hers, and the most underestimated character of all manages to win our grizzled hearts in the e...

We discuss chapters 33-63 of Richard Osman's 'The Thursday Murder Club'. As the club continues to get ahead of the police investigation, Tony Curran continues his plans to excavate the graveyard, at least until he is rudely interrupted by becoming deceased. Two deaths are now on the cards, and the residents of Cooper's Chase are only drawn in closer as they themselves become suspects. We're also j...

We discuss chapters 1-32 of Richard Osman's 'The Thursday Murder Club'. Joyce is the newest member of the titular club, a group of crime enthusiasts at Coopers' Chase. When one of the retirement home's purveyors winds up dead in his own home, the club springs into action to ensure things are solved, and also just because it's good fun. Whether it's getting the local police detective drunk or makin...

We discuss episodes 7-8 of Rooster Teeth's 'Dead Little Roosters', directed by Josh Flanagan and Fiona Nova. Most of the cast is dead, the end of the Dead Little Roosters Addendum approaches, the truth becomes increasingly apparent, but the game is not yet done. The killer still has their justice fated, and someone supposedly survives. How many steps of the riddle did you get right? We're also joi...

We sat down with Inkle Studios' Narrative Designer, Jon Ingold, to talk about their new surprise-release mystery game Overboard! On a trip from London to New York, you get sick of your husband and throw him overboard, and now you've got to get away with it. Set in the 1930s, this youdunnit takes the ideas we explored in The Last Express, flips them on their head and dials up the urgency. From hidi...

We discuss episodes 1-6 of Rooster Teeth's 'Dead Little Roosters', directed by Josh Flanagan and Fiona Nova. Ten of Rooster Teeth's staff arrive for a party at the estate of the wealthy Nicodemus, only for the old man to turn up dead. The ten are then locked in their rooms, and as the gang keep themselves entertained, the body count starts to rise in rhythm with a mysterious poem, the 'Dead Little...

We discuss all the way to the true ending of Lucas Pope's 'Return of the Obra Dinn'. A year after finishing your work aboard the ghost ship, a package arrives that promises to answer your remaining questions, but it seems only more ambiguity is abound. We're super excited to be joined by Lucas Pope himself to talk about what went into making the game, the tough journey that nearly sank the game, a...

We discuss up to the incomplete end of Lucas Pope's modern classic mystery game 'Return of the Obra Dinn'. The highest body-count we've ever encountered is a vast challenge as Herds takes the wheel for our second step into interactive fiction. After the titular ship appears, unmanned, off the coast of Falmouth in the UK, you're sent on as an insurance assessor to find out why the good ship never m...

We discuss from Munich to the end of the game from Jordan Mechner's 'The Last Express'. After a bit more success in navigating the social charades aboard the Orient Express, Robert Cath finds himself with new friends, plenty more new foes, and the train now hijacked by the Serbians. As the end of the line approaches, your actions controlling Cath will decide the fate of the journey, culminating wi...

We discuss from the beginning to Vienna's bad ending in Jordan Mechner's 1997 game 'The Last Express'. After years of pestering, Herds finally gets his way as we begin our detour into interactive mystery fiction with his favourite classic adventure game. We board the Orient Express alongside Robert Cath, who finds his acquaintance Tyler Whitney dead on the floor of his carriage. With no ticket, no...

Listen to our full chat with Dr. Catherine Noske for her novel 'The Salt Madonna'! We discuss why stories with such tight confines take so long to put together, why twisting well-worn narratives can be so important, and why horses are wiser than we can ever know. Get yourself a copy of The Salt Madonna: Pan Macmillan AU || Booktopia || Goodreads

We discuss chapters 14 to the end of Agatha Christie's 'And Then There Were None'. Sean Britten's valiant attempts to solve the novel have concluded, and it's time for the post-mortem. Soldier Island's unwitting residents grow increasingly distrusting, a bear manages to kill someone, and the final showdown creates only a temporary truth. Did you manage to solve it? We're also joined by Dr. Catheri...

We discuss chapters 7-13 of Agatha Christie's 'And Then There Were None', with Sean Britten in the hotseat. As the deaths to the tune of the poem continue, the list of suspects shrinks, and so does the distrust of everyone on the island. With the only firearm missing, the death starting to abandon the poison-driven method that had everyone distrusting the doctor, and no help in sight, what happens...

We discuss chapters 1-6 of Agatha Christie's iconic 'And Then There Were None'. Ten people arrive on Soldier Island, invited at the behest of one U.N. Owen, only to find no host, no answers and only almost perfect strangers to keep them company. A record player recounts their sins, and then the death of Anthony Marston begins the recitation of a poem fixed to the walls, threatening that none shall...

We discuss chapters 10-12, the sixth through eighth days of Yukito Ayatsuji's 'The Decagon House Murders'. When the Police see the island of Tsunojima light yet again, they set about trying to unravel the Decagon House Murders, recovering the six bodies of the K University Mystery Club, and the missing corpse from the earlier Blue Mansion Murders. Will they ever find out there's one too few bodies...

We discuss chapters 7-9, the fourth and fifth days of Yukito Ayatsuji's 'The Decagon House Murders'. With the number of survivors on the island continuing to thin, so too does the list of culprits. A suspicious set of footprints found alongside a body on the island affirms Ellery's theory that Seiji is alive and out for vengeance, whilst on the mainland, Kojiro tells Conan quite the opposite. The...

Today on the podcast, we have the extended cut of our discussion with Dr. Satomi Saito, including more about the social contexts that helped murder mystery fiction blossom in Japan, from its post-war spiritual contexts, to the inexplicable audience Soji Shimada found with a younger audience, and Dr. Saito's research into Online Novels and the way they continue the social discourse that spurred det...

We discuss chapters 1-6, the first three days, of Yukito Ayatsuji's The Decagon House Murders. A team of students from the K University Mystery Club take a week away to Tsunojima to work on the next issue of their club magazine. Tsunojima, a few months before, was the site of a gruesome series of murders that the police have called a murder-suicide, and soon after arriving on the island, the group...

We discuss chapter 8 and the epilogue of Masako Togawa's 'The Master Key'. This back-loaded mystery closes out with spectacular fashion, the culprit revealed, the various sub-plots untangled and almost all your questions answered. How well does this approach suit the work, and does it fit in to our normal cat-and-mouse game? With such a heavy focus on motherhood and the expectations placed on wome...