Tea, Tonic & Toxin

Send us Fan Mail This masterpiece includes a stolen Indian gem with a bloody past, plot twists, red herrings, a small circle of suspects, and a couple amazing detectives. It’s a serious page-turner.   T. S. Eliot described The Moonstone as the “first … and greatest of modern English detective novels.” The story includes several features of contemporary detective fiction and helped establish many o...

Send us Fan Mail Tea, Tonic, and Toxin is a book club and podcast for anyone who loves mysteries and detective stories. We began with Edgar Allan Poe’s Dupin stories, Dickens’ Bleak House , and Wilkie Collins’ The Woman in White . Next up: Collins’ 1868 novel, The Moonstone . This masterpiece includes a stolen Indian gem with a bloody past, plot twists, red herrings, a small circle of suspects, an...

Send us Fan Mail The Notting Hill Mystery (1862-1863) by Charles Warren Adams is often called the first detective novel. In it, the wife of Baron R** dies after drinking acid. It looks like an accident until insurance investigator Ralph Henderson discovers that Baron R** took out several life insurance policies on her. From there, the plot continues to thicken.   Readers see everything Henderson s...

Send us Fan Mail In The Woman in White , Wilkie Collins tells the story of a woman locked away in an insane asylum. Well, sort of.   This 1860 thriller is considered to be among the first mystery novels (along with Bleak House , among others) and among the first and finest sensation novels. The story includes a ghostly woman, a secret society, switched identities, foreign agents, paranoia, bribery...

Send us Fan Mail In The Woman in White , Wilkie Collins tells the story of a woman wrongfully locked away in an insane asylum. This 1860 thriller includes a ghostly woman, a secret society, switched identities, foreign agents, paranoia, bribery, blackmail, and conspiracies. What’s not to love? 1.    Wilkie Collins has been called the creator of the sensation novel. The Woman in White includes a gh...

Send us Fan Mail In Bleak House , Charles Dickens’s tenacious criminal investigator, Inspector Bucket, is a London police detective who investigates a murder. Inspector Bucket and Poe’s amateur detective Auguste Dupin were the first professional criminal investigators in English literature. This is part two of a two part series, and covers chapter 32 to the end of the book.  1. Birthright: In Chap...

Send us Fan Mail It’s big, so start reading now. (Don’t fret – we’ll spend two months on this 1853 masterpiece.) Dickens addresses class and lineage, law vs. justice, social responsibility, guilt, and identity. And Inspector Bucket, the first important police detective in English literature, investigates a murder. In Bleak House , Charles Dickens’s tenacious criminal investigator, Inspector Bucket...

Send us Fan Mail Edgar Allan Poe called “The Purloined Letter” “perhaps the best of my tales of ratiocination.” The story, published in 1844, is an excellent mystery, minus the Gothic horror of “Rue Morgue.” Together, Poe’s stories form the foundation of the mystery novel as we know it. Support the show https://www.instagram.com/teatonicandtoxin/ https://www.facebook.com/teatonicandtoxin https://w...

Send us Fan Mail Tea, Tonic, and Toxin is a book club and podcast for people who love mysteries, thrillers, introspection, and good conversation. Each month, your hosts, Carolyn Daughters and Sarah Harrison, will discuss a game-changing mystery or thriller, starting in 1841 onward. Together, we’ll see firsthand how the genre evolved   Along the way, we’ll entertain ideas, prospects, theories, doub...

Send us Fan Mail Edgar Allan Poe is the master of mysteries and thrillers, and some consider “The Murders in the Rue Morgue,” published in 1841, to be the first detective story. Set in Paris, the story features amateur detective Auguste Dupin, along with his trusty sidekick who narrates the gruesome tale.  Support the show https://www.instagram.com/teatonicandtoxin/ https://www.facebook.com/teaton...