Death of the Reader

We'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...

We 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 petr...

We 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...

A 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 unsett...

We 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 intervi...

You 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 abou...

We 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 Detectiv...

We 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 t...

A 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...

We 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...

We 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 fr...

We 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 ha...

In 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 a...

Coming 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 f...

It 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. On...

Coming 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-t...

In 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 El...

Our 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 ‘...

Taking 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 represent...

'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 tha...

We’ve read a lot of murder mysteries off the beaten track this year but by far Dinuka Mckenzie’s 'The Torrent' stood out to Herds as the closest to the beating heart of what we do here on Death of the Reader. The Torrent is such a fantastic tale with how it takes the typical tropes of a police drama and turns them on their head, we’re all familiar with the cop just one week from breaking retiremen...

2022 on your Murder Mystery World Tour featured more than our usual share of thrillers, both in our interviews with authors, and our full-features on the show. Coming in at 8th place for our 2022 recommendations is 'The Shadows of Men', Abir Mukherjee’s fifth Sam Wyndham and Surendrenath Banerjee novel. Sam and Suren have been through a lot, over their tenure together. Over the course of their ser...

Coming in 9th place for our 2022 recommendations is RV Raman’s ‘A Dire Isle’, which must be said very slowly in an Australian accent to not sound like you’re reciting your vowels. RV Raman has been one of India’s best barely-kept secrets since his 2014 fiction debut ‘Fraudster’, one of a growing number of authors opening the door to their relatively young slice of our crime fiction world. The book...

Our 2022 Honourable Mentions begin with Flex's first pick; 'When We Fall' by Aoife Clifford. They may thwart our escape by land or sea, but the sky is surely open to us: we will go that way. Under an oppressive sky, take the middle way, lest the moisture weigh down your wings, or the sun scorch them. Summoning the art of Dutch masters, ancient poets and present day foibles, ‘When We Fall’ is an el...

Agatha Christie’s The Body in the Library achieves a place amongst the top ten this year, bringing us the second full novel appearance of her famous detective the humble yet deadly Miss Marple. The story revolves around the titular Body in the titular library, a woman found dead in the morning by an unsuspecting household of seeming no relation to the poor girl. As this is a Christie murder myster...