You’re the creator of the shedunnit podcast, where you’ve been running an advent calendar that highlights the best holiday mystery books before Christmas. can you tell us a bit more about shedunnit and what listeners can expect?
I describe it as “the podcast that unravels the mysteries behind the classic whodunit” and it’s pretty accurate. Episodes are bi-weekly and approximately 20 minutes long, each comprising an audio essay covering one aspect of detective fiction from the 1920s and 1930s: the books by Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. sayers and ngaio marsh make regular appearances.
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three recent favorite episodes: ‘the butler did it,’ about how murder mysteries incorporated the so-called ‘servant problem’ of the 1920s; ‘Lifelong Fan’, in which I spoke to New Zealand feminist playwright Renée, who read her first crime novel in the early 1930s and still reads it; and ‘a christie for christmas,’ which is about how our reading habits in 2020 reflect the post-1918 flu pandemic boom in crime fiction a century ago.
When we spoke before this interview, you described these books as belonging to the “golden age” of crime fiction. could you expand on that?
The golden age of crime fiction is often defined as the period between World War I and World War II, when authors such as Agatha Christie, John Dickson Carr, Ngaio Marsh, Dorothy L. Sayers, Anthony Berkeley, Josephine Tey, Freeman Wills Crofts, and Margery Allingham published crime novels, and the genre enjoyed great popularity. although all of these writers had distinctive styles and approaches, all of them, for the most part! – observed certain conventions that identify them as belonging to this tradition and time.
in particular, they adhered to the “fair game” doctrine, which dictates that the author should place all the clues necessary to solve the mystery before the reader, rather than reveal a hitherto unmentioned suspect right at the end, for example. Detective novelist and Catholic priest Ronald Knox codified these rules in his 1929 ‘Decalogue’, a text that partly pokes fun at his colleagues, but is also a decent summary of the goals of crime novelists at this time. There is a theory that the tremendous popularity of this type of book between 1918 and 1939 has something to do with the collective trauma experienced during the first world war and the flu pandemic: people longed for the simple pleasure and orderly world of a good crime novel.
Let’s talk about your first Christmas mystery book recommendation. This is a short story by Dorothy L Sayers, ‘The Pearl Necklace’, which can be found in the Silent Nights anthology published by the British Library. What is it about? what do you like about him?
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This is a classic ‘country house at christmas’ short story, first published in 1931. lord peter wimsey, the usual hound of sayers, is spending the festive period at a party thrown by a cool and wealthy old man who loves to have guests. he plays classic parlor games like slipper hunt and sardines. during a game of animal, vegetable or mineral? he notices that his daughter’s priceless pearl necklace is missing from the end table where she had put it for safety. a search quickly reveals that none of the guests have put it in his pocket and it is nowhere in the house, yet no one has left the property or been alone for more than a few seconds. It’s up to wimsey to track it down, and while I don’t want to spoil what is actually a very clever ending, suffice it to say that it’s a very appropriate seasonal solution.
Next, you want to recommend ngaio marsh’s tied up in tinsel. why?
tied with tinsel is actually one of the last marsh novels. he first published in 1934 during the golden age, but then lived into the 1980s and continued to write in a similar style throughout his life. This one is from 1972 and sees your regular Scotland Yard detective, Roderick Alleyn, embroiled in a country house murder mystery after someone goes missing from the house party. just to add flavor to the case, many of the servants in this house are convicted murderers who served their time and were released: altruism or cunning plan? the reader must decide!
funny. Ngaio Marsh is considered one of the ‘queens of crime’, along with Agatha Christie. What else could you recommend about her work?
marsh was a keen theater enthusiast and a celebrated director of amateur and collegiate productions of shakespeare in her native new zealand. she brought some of this dramatic experience to her detective fiction, with many of her novels starring actors or plays in some way, and I think she did some of her best writing on this stage. my particular favorites are Walking into a Killer, in which an actor is shot to death onstage during a performance by what was supposed to be a fictional gun, and Overture to Death, which is about an extraordinary murder among the actors in a parish play in a rural area. Dorset.
the j jefferson farjeon blank mystery: a christmas crime story is up next. It looks very festive from the cover! what can readers expect from this book?
This is a novel that was originally published in 1938 and was recently republished at the British Library’s Crime Classics imprint, becoming an unexpected bestseller when it was republished in 2014. I love it for the opening setting: a collection of strangers travels home in the same train car on christmas eve when the train gets stuck in a snowdrift. they are forced to pool their resources and trek through the snow to seek shelter for the night. the group finds a nearby house with its door ajar where a fire burns, tea has been placed on the table as if guests are expected, but no one is to be found. a pretty spooky mystery unfolds from there!
great concept. next we have an english murder by cyril hare. It originated as a radio play, I believe, and is known as ‘The Christmas Murder.’ tell us.
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This is another set in a country house during Christmas, a setting loved by mystery writers because it provides a conveniently limited circle of suspects and a nice festive atmosphere.
however, this one was published in 1951 and deals with the ways in which the second world war has changed British society. hare tackles aristocratic antisemitism and the post-war economic downturn, as well as delivering an entertaining murder mystery.
finally we have envious shell of georgette heyer. Another classic country house mystery, set at Christmas. why have you recommended this particular book?
This is a true classic from the golden age, first published in 1941, with the usual setting of a country house and a house party suddenly turned tragic by a murder. Ella Heyer is best known today for her historical and romantic novels, but beginning in 1932 she published twelve crime novels that really deserve more reading. it was also republished under the title a christmas party in case shakespeare’s julius caesar’s “envious casca” quote proves off-putting to the contemporary reader.
I admit it, I was surprised to discover that there are so many mysteries set around Christmas. why do you think that is?
many reasons! Christmas is a convenient and plausible reason for a novelist to bring characters together in one place, including those who don’t like each other but feel some sort of duty to be present at the celebrations. The festive season can also heighten existing tensions or cause hidden secrets to be revealed, which can result in tragedy. a house party, especially in a rural area, isolates and confines suspects to one place and usefully limits the scope of a detective’s investigation (a book where, in theory, anyone in the world could have committed the crime). crime is not fun).
yeah, I’ve seen the term “closed-loop mystery” used to describe books like this.
snow is also very useful for capturing or hiding tracks; I once did a whole podcast episode about this. the contrast between the “comfort and joy” of the holiday season and the darkness of a sudden murder is also a good boost for a plot. Finally, I think there’s something to the idea that the winter solstice is a time to gather around the fire and listen to scary stories, and what could be scarier than realizing there’s a killer on your wedding guest list? christmas?
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