Christianna Brand's Impossible Crimes

Which matters more in a murder mystery, plot or character?

• 22 mins

Mr Fortune, Please

Dolores Gordon-Smith joins Caroline to read this short story collection by H.C. Bailey.

• 59 mins

Instrument of Death

Beware the pipe organ.

• 21 mins

In the Dentist's Chair

Open wide! What could possibly go wrong?

• 23 mins

The Red Barn Murder

What connects a notorious 1827 murder case with the Detection Club’s cosy Soho clubrooms?

• 27 mins

The Poisoned Chocolates Case

Martin Edwards joins Caroline to revisit this icon of golden age detective fiction.

• 37 mins

Mysterious Knitting

How to weave the perfect murder mystery plot.

• 21 mins

Vanishing Corpses

Where did that dead body go? It was right there!

• 22 mins

The Mysterious Affair at Styles

Kathryn Harkup and Caroline reconsider Agatha Christe’s very first detective novel.

• 50 mins

Edmund Crispin's Inside Jokes

The creator of amateur sleuth Gervase Fen loved to make fun of detective fiction.

• 28 mins

The Box of Delights

Caroline and Guy discuss this beloved children's book by John Masefield.

• 43 mins

Father Christmas

The magical spirit of Christmas is the perfect cover for a murder mystery.

• 21 mins

Notes & Queries

There’s always more to say about detective fiction.

• 23 mins

Whodunnit Centenary: 1925

Reading the mysteries of the past 100 years.

• 31 mins

On Gaudy Night

Caroline goes deep on Dorothy L. Sayers’ 1935 masterpiece.

• 36 mins

The Missing Moneylender by W. Stanley Sykes (Green Penguin Book Club 7)

Moira Redmond joins Caroline to consider a surprising medical mystery from 1931.

• 49 mins

Agatha Christie’s Taste in Crime Fiction

She is beloved worldwide for her crime writing. But what did she like to read?

• 23 mins

The Lady Vanishes

On 3 December 1926, Agatha Christie vanished.

• 22 mins

The Mystery Short Story

A consideration of crime fiction’s more compact incarnation.

• 39 mins

Florence Maybrick I

One of the most notorious domestic poisoning cases in British history.

• 26 mins

Oxford vs Cambridge

Why do these two historic university cities appear in so many murder mysteries?

• 24 mins

Florence Maybrick II

Her trial gripped the nation and tested Britain's legal system to the limit.

• 32 mins

Raffles (Green Penguin Book Club 8)

Darryl Jones joins Caroline to discuss the first collection of Raffles stories.

• 38 mins

The Great Gladys

A reptilian sleuth with a mellifluous voice, and a small amount of witchcraft.

• 19 mins

Ranking Christianna Brand

Caroline dives deep into Brand’s work to find her favourite novel.

• 20 mins

The Secret Life of Ngaio Marsh

Who was Ngaio Marsh really?

• 19 mins

The Crimes of Dorothy Erskine Muir

Fact meets fiction in the work of this unjustly overlooked writer.

• 30 mins

The Hay Poisoner

All the best murder mysteries start with a scone laced with arsenic.

• 23 mins

The Four Just Men (Green Penguin Book Club 9)

Tom Mead joins Caroline to read Edgar Wallace’s 1905 thriller.

• 41 mins

E.C.R. Lorac

She wrote over 70 well-reviewed detective novels, yet disappeared from view. Why?

• 19 mins