Death of the Reader

To not recommend ‘the first’ Golden Age Detective Fiction novel, on a show founded upon the tenets of the era, would be sacrilege. Coming in at 11th place for our 2022 recommendations is E.C. Bentley’s ‘Trent’s Last Case’, also published as ‘The Woman in Black’. Released in 1913 as a response to ‘The Man Who Was Thursday’ by Bentley’s friend G.K. Chesterton, the novel has been crowned by many with...

Here on Death of the Reader, it’s a rare stop on your Murder Mystery World Tour that gets a double-feature. Often it’s to show the stark contrast between two portrayals, sometimes over decades, and the chosen double for this year was Albert Campion. Coming in at 12th for our 2022 recommendations, Cargo of Eagles was the final Campion novel penned by the series’ creator, Margery Allingham, one of t...

In thirteenth place we have a bold novel, one that’s not afraid to challenge modern political issues while still remaining firmly entrenched in the politics of a post WWII world, it is 'The Ghosts of Paris' by Tara Moss. This was one of our favourite general reads on the show. Giving us the opportunity to drag close friend of the show Dom Romeo onto the stage and subject him to the interrogation o...

Easily our highest-profile inclusion for 2022, Death on the Nile by Kenneth Branagh comes in at 14th Place for our recommendations. Four and a bit years on from the release of the previous film in Branagh’s Poirot adaptation, Murder on the Orient Express, a pandemic-et-al turmoiled production gave us a hotly debated adaptation of Agatha Christie’s novel of the same name. Whilst there’s plenty of i...

Coming in 15th place for our 2022 recommendations is Dorothy L. Sayers with ‘Whose Body?’. One of the Golden Age of Murder Mystery’s four ‘Queens of Crime’, alongside Christie, Marsh & Allingham, it would be difficult to overstate the significance of Sayers’ contribution to the genre, as founding member and third president of The Detection Club, as well as a trailblazer in arts academia for women....

It’s always hard to find the lowest rung of the ladder every year, we generally try to cover stories that are worth our time and yours, and this year’s least exceptional entry coming in at 16th place is still not quite an exception. Taking out our lowest rung of the most-recommended ladder this Review Season are TV adaptations of The Body in the Library by Agatha Christie. When deciding which adap...

Martin Edwards is the current president of The Detection Club, a CWA Diamond Dagger winner, and those are just a few clues to the nigh-unsolvable mystery of how much one man has contributed to the genre. With the recent release of his latest non-fiction 'The Life of Crime', just months after his most recent fiction 'Blackstone Fell', there was only one such man we could turn to when it came to que...

We discuss Martin Edwards' latest novel, 'Blackstone Fell', from chapters 24-33. Our final full-length discussion of the year, Martin Edwards continues in his quest to provide perpetual energy to the planet by rotating S.S. Van Dine in his grave. The body count continues to rise as one Harold Lejeune is found at the foot of the leap, followed shortly by the murder-suicide of the Royle family. With...

We discuss Martin Edwards' latest novel, 'Blackstone Fell', from chapters 12-23. Rachel Savernake begins her militaristic campaign against the town of Blackstone, sending her forward force in the form of Cliff Trueman, ready to get his imaginary uncle whacked by whoever may have been committing crimes at the sanatorium. Meanwhile, Rachel ingratiates herself in the town and gets to work on the myst...

We discuss Martin Edwards' latest novel, 'Blackstone Fell', from chapters 1-11. Firebrand journalist Nell Fagan is in the small Yorkshire town of Blackstone Fell, investigating the death of Ursula Murray, after her son, Vernon, alerted Nell to potential foul play. Nell suspects there is something more going on in the town, and returns to London to blackmail Jacob Flint into arranging an audience w...

We discuss Edmund Clerihew Bentley's iconic novel, 'Trent's Last Case', from chapters 12-16. The case is over, Trent takes his standard journalist's pay for his work, and resorts back to his artistic exploits and a jaunt through Europe. Soon though, the death of Sigsbee Manderson becomes a ghost of its' own sort, haunting Trent's journey and ensuing romance with Mabel. After a long wait, Cupples r...

Andrew Pople from Final Draft talks with Matthew Spencer about his debut thriller, 'Black River'. Journalist Adam Bowman and Detective Sergeant Rose Riley find their lives in orbit as a serial killer patrols Sydney's Parramatta River. Bowman is convinced it'll be the story of his career, with the press clawing for news of what they recalcitrantly dub the 'Blue Moon Killer'. Career-making or not, R...

We discuss Edmund Clerihew Bentley's iconic novel, 'Trent's Last Case', from chapters 6-11. Our third venture to a coroner's inquest this year sees us delving into the many oddities of the presentation of Sigsby Manderson's corpse. From scratched wrists to a peculiar state of dress and a nigh-inexplicable lack of blood, there's no doubt of foul play, but what ties it all together. Trent meets with...

We discuss Edmund Clerihew Bentley's iconic novel, 'Trent's Last Case', from chapters 1-5. Said by many to be the progenitor of the Golden Age of Detective Fiction, this friendly rebuttal to G.K. Chesterton's 'The Man Who Was Thursday' can feel eerily familiar if you've read much of our back catalogue on the program. It may not be the best plotted or most challenging novel of the Golden Age, but i...

We discuss chapters 16-20 of Margery Allingham's final Albert Campion novel, 'Cargo of Eagles', completed posthumously by her husband Philip Youngman Carter. Campion visits Elsy, Oates, and other allies from his venture thus far, gearing up for a final showdown, rescuing Dido and Morty in the dying seconds. Can the gang clear out all the skeletons in the closet? Our intrepid newcomer on Death of t...

We talk with acclaimed television writer, now novelist, Roger Simpson, about his debut venture in our world, 'Halifax: Transgression'. Bringing his long-running telemovie protagonist, Dr. Jane Halifax, forensic psychologist, to the printed page, was a frightening endeavour, but compared to what Roger put her through in the book, we'd say he got off pretty easy. A bizarre string of grotesque murder...

We're joined by acclaimed Australian author Chris Hammer to talk about his latest release, 'The Tilt'. Named after an iconic geographic feature in the Murray-Darling region, the novel sees Ivan Lucic and Nell Buchanan return from their last venture in 'Treasure and Dirt'. Nell has been awarded a role as a homicide detective, and fate (or Chris Hammer, as the case may be), has played her a cruel ha...

To celebrate the release of Jamie West's debut novel 'Death on the Pier', we sit down with the author to talk in depth about the decisions, intricacies, and motivations of his murder mysterious revival of a long-lost theatre; the Brighton Palace Pier. An actress is shot under the cover of her character dying in a play, and it falls to Bertie Carroll to translate the oddities of theatre to his old...

We discuss chapters 9-15 of Margery Allingham's final Albert Campion novel, 'Cargo of Eagles', completed posthumously by her husband Philip Youngman Carter. The Demon of Saltey seems alive and well, as the last person to see it is found succumbed to its power. With Mossy dead, it's clear to Campion and Morty that time is of the essence. As the town starts to fill up with gawkers, can the spies see...

We discuss chapters 1-8 of Margery Allingham's final Albert Campion novel, 'Cargo of Eagles', completed posthumously by her husband Philip Youngman Carter. An aged Campion finds himself the spymaster as the American spy Morty makes his way to the small Essex town of Saltey. As the investigation arrives in the town, their primary contact, lawyer Hector Askew is found dead, a radio playing in his ha...

We discuss chapters 15-21 of the eleventh Albert Campion novel by Margery Allingham. Campion is on the run from the rozzers, and in his escape finds himself in an awkward conversation with a strange man in the back carriage of a train on the way to a meeting with one 'Sir Henry Bull', who just so happens to be that strange man. The nature of our arch-nemesis' scheme is finally revealed, and Campio...

We were joined by author Michael Mohammed Ahmad, founding director of the Sweatshop Literary Movement, to talk about his latest novel 'The Other Half Of You', reframing your relationships, and why Western Sydney sees so little crime fiction. This extended discussion goes into deeper detail on what fictions about Western Sydney we still see in the press, the growing literary scene, including the su...

We discuss chapters 8-14 of the eleventh Albert Campion novel by Margery Allingham. While committing some form of espionage he's probably supposed to know about, Albert Campion is shown the grand scale of the Bridge Institute's power, from dozens of lorries gathered in a cave, to powerful remote detonators that could change the face of warfare. The investigation is upended when his budding ally Su...

We were joined by Pamela Hart, acclaimed author of historical fiction and recent convert to the world of crime fiction authorship, to talk about her latest novel 'An A-List for Death', the second novel in the Poppy McGowan series. While looking after her aunt Mary, Poppy goes to find out why Mary's neighbour is late to visit, only to find Daisy bleeding with a wound to her head in her home. The po...

We were joined by the Artistic Director of BAD: Sydney Crime Writers Festival, Catherine du Peloux Menage to talk about this year's program. Featuring many friends of the show, including recent guests Sulari Gentill, Margaret Hickey, Pamela Hart and Benjamin Stevenson, the program covers our beloved metafictional whodunnits, socially conscious conversations about the broader scope of crime, Sydney...