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Having listened to this episode again in December 2024, I want to agree with you that Peter Ustinov is my favorite Hercule Poirot, even though he is rather physically larger than Poirot is described by Agatha Christie. For the overall quality of the film, my favorite adaptation is the 1974 “Murder on the Orient Express”.

Happy and magical holiday season!

One of mu favorite authors

Happy Christmas Caroline

One story that immediately springs to mind is 'Christmas Party' by American mystery writer Rex Stout. His corpulent genius detective, Nero Wolfe, is forced by circumstances to leave the comfort of his brownstone house, something he famously hates to do, to attend a Christmas party in disguise. Given his size, guess what it is. It's already a complicated situation, but it gets worse when the host of the party is found murdered. Suspicion falls on the Santa who was at the party and disappeared before the police showed up. Wolfe has to solve the mystery before the humiliating truth about his involvement comes out.

Very enjoyable. Always enjoy the Christmas Shedunnit. Just read Ngaio Marsh's "Death And The Dancing Footman". Not so Christmassy, but very wintry.

Merry Christmas!

My father introduced me to Edmund Crispin's books back when I was a teenage nerd. He drove a little two stroke Saab, and named it Lily Mungin, because of an L and M on two mysterious dashboard buttons on the radio. But it was named after Lily Christine. I've been investigating Bruce Montgomery every since. For somebody who wasn't prolific, he certainly did a lot. What we have is already everything I don't need a twelve foot shelf of Gervase Fen. Phases of the Moon is as darkly comic as anything James Thurber ever wrote.

A musician and a golden age mystery writer. Delightful stories roo. Esp the short stories. Sadly an alcoholic who died young.

Georgette Heyer is also one of my favorite authors. I especially love her mysteries with the combination of great plots, characters and writing, including humor. Georgette Heyer, Agatha Christie and Dorothy L Sayers’ Lord Peter Wimsey are definitely tops on my go-to list of most satisfying reads!

I just received “The Case of the Gilded Fly”, my first Edmund Crispin mystery. Thanks so much, Caroline, for introducing me to him and other Golden Age authors!

Spot on! - so glad you have included Crispin, one of my favourite authors, for all the reasons you list.

@ 10:06 I think you mean "it's impossible to overestimate" instead of "underestimate."

Buried for pleasure is my favourite. I loved the poltergeist ..... the 'thing' that 'continues to polter'. I felt sorry for the non-doing pig which I felt should have had a long and non-doing life.

Fun trivia fact: Montgomery both wrote the score and script of Raising the Wind, a comedy film from the Carry On team that has a ton of musical gags.

I am completely taken with the Quin/Satterthwaite stories. My favorite is The End Of The World. It’s just so complex in the psychology of the characters, as well as the spiritual insights.

I enjoy all of Agatha Christie’s detectives, especially Tommy and Tuppence, Ariadne Oliver and Mr. Satterthwaite. I have recently reread “Halloween Party”, “The Secret Adversary” and “N or M”, which is one of my very favorite Agatha Christie novels. I also have enjoyed all of Dorothy L Sayers’ mysteries, although I haven’t read the Montague Egg stories as often as the Lord Peter Wimseys, which are, along with Agatha Christie’s creations, my all-time favorites.

So glad you have covered Montague Egg - and that intriguing religious analysis! Thank you

I have always had a soft spot for Montague Egg and Parker Pyne as well.

Mr Satterthwaite stories make me sad somehow.

Tommy and Tuppence, and Mr Quinn, are my favourite Christie creations, no question. I've read all of them, and outside Postern of Fate, they all feel eminently re-readable. Another interesting Sayers story for me outside her usual canon is The Documents in the Case, because it was such a break from her standard material. Not that I don't like her other stuff, Sayers is one of my favourite writers and the Wimsey books underappreciated classics.

I love this idea. I will definitely check the gardening recommendations!

R.Austin Freeman used the idea several times, apart from 'The Silent Witness' (who was silent, by the way, because he was dead - cremated, indeed!). Another classic vanishing corpse is in Edmund Crispin's 'Moving Toyshop' - I'm not sure if you consider Crispin to be 'Golden Age' as he is mainly post WWII, and deals more in strange and unusual characters and story lines than classic puzzles (though perhaps not more strange and unusual that Albert Campion ...)

Thanks for this - I do just happen to be re-reading 'Styles' at the moment, and I think you and Kathryn are quite right that it is an amazing debut work. The point about 'the criminal tinkering to make themself safer, but in the process aiding the detective' was regularly made by Dr Thorndyke: I'm sure Christie would have read R.Austin Freeman, though she may have been put off by his tedious digs at votes-for-women advocates (obviously he had not read the Loveday Brooke stories). Looking forward very much to your next production.

I enjoyed this conversation so much. Thank you. I also love Kathryn's AC poisons book. I have listened to it at least three times. It is excellent.

This was such fun! I will definitely be giving their books a try. Thank you for being a kind, generous host to your guests!

Really enjoyed this analysis. I always enjoy listening to the BBC radio drama version, in which Hastings is played by Jeremy Clyde; Simon Williams does the other 'Hastings stories' - both are excellent foils to John Moffatt as Poirot. I had not realised there was any connection to a real murder, so thanks for that detail. Nor did I realise it was such an early Christie: it comes over - to me at least - as quite a mature and well-developed plot, so it was interseting to hear your discussion about the plot episodes, and the limiting factor of the 'stooge/narrator' character. Conan Doyle appeared to have no issue with this, and R.Austin Freeman's Dr Thorndyke novels which use the device somehow seem to run more freely that the occasional ones where there is no narrating persona, so I am intrigued that Christie did feel less comfortable with it.

I too am glad to have discovered your great channel - and, yes, I too am a Loveday Brooke (by author Catherne Loiuisa Pirkis) fan

There was also Philip Boyes in Strong Poison, the victim who has already died...

My first thought was Have His Carcase....

I thoroughly enjoy your channel and hope to be able in the future to help your podcast stay on the air... this year is just very tight financially (we are buying a house in just a few weeks.)

Thank you so much for these episodes

Smashing Caroline, thanks

I came here trying to find out who the author was after reading some of his short stories out of a collection called :"The World's Best 100 Detective Stories". 10 little pretty green volumes, issued 1929 by Mr Eugene Thwing, Funk and Wagnalls, Co, printed in the USA. Present to my granddaughter who loves detective stories.. . I wanted to read them first. . Got this at Half-priced books for usd50.

How very interesting---thank you.

Regarding the oft repeated assertion that Agatha Christie disappeared in order to frame her husband for her murder, that sounds to me like a totally ridiculous idea. As a plotter of mysteries, she knew quite well what doing that would mean. She wasn’t dead. If she framed him for her murder, did she intend to stay in hiding the rest of her life? Would she have thought that she could remain invisible, which she would have to do for the frame-up to succeed since it would be shattered the first time she was seen alive by anyone else? As she didn’t try to be invisible while she was at the hotel in Harrogate, it should have been obvious to anyone with any sense at all that she wasn’t trying to frame her husband for a non-existent crime!

Excellent video,as always!

In “4:50 from Paddington”, two of the sons of the hypochondriac Luther Crackenthorpe die - they are both murdered - but Luther Crackenthorpe himself does not die, although if Miss Marple had not exposed the murderer, he probably would have been killed eventually as well.

Wow what a great video

This is one of my favorite books that I have discovered since listening to this channel. My favorite part is how each solution progresses from the obvious but plausible, to more and more surprising solutions, until the final one. This would bear reading again.

Shedunnit is fast becoming one of my favourite channels.

Miss Marple looks up the meaning of “tontine” in the dictionary in “4:50 From Paddington”.

I’m now running off to search for all of HC Bailey 😊 Love your podcasts. Just discovered you a week ago.

Super episode! Elated to have found your channel ❤

Maria was the cousin of my 3rd great grandmother. As a child I several times had weird nightmares that involved the sudden appearance of a decomposing head! Some years later, when I found out about my relationship to Maria, I read that at Corder's trial the pathologist caused a sensation by producing Maria's head from a bag and showing the court her injuries. There have been other reports of bizarre "psychic" experiences by people related to Maria. Maria's stepmother had come to believe that Maria was buried in the barn because she also had a "psychic experience" that appeared to emanate from Maria's after-death consciousness.

Another perfectly crafted episode. Thank you.

Thanks very much all. Only discovered your channel recently and am very much enjoying catching up. I’ve also just bought “The Way To the Sea” and very much looking forward to reading that.

Thank you so much for putting these podcasts on TH-cam! We just love them😊

A fun look behind the scenes. I enjoyed it a lot, thankyou.

Lo mismo, 9/15