Death of the Reader

Smack 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...

Mystery 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 Myster...

Coming 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...

In 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 Mu...

Coming 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 ou...

It'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...

Is 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...

What 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 ge...

We 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...

We 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...

We 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 abo...

We 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 travel...

We 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...

We 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 clos...

We 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 trave...

We 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...

We 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 G...

Chris 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 t...

We 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 w...

We 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 toget...

After 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 betray...

We 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...

We 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 lit...

We 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 o...

We 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 puzzl...