Tea, Tonic, and Toxin: Recent Episodes
TEA, TONIC & TOXIN
Dorothy L. Sayers is one of the Queens of Crime, and we dig deep into Strong Poison and Gaudy Night with the help of our fabulous guest, Z.J. Czupor (pen name Zoltan James). We thought we didn’t like Harriet Vane. But we were wrong. She’s complex, no question, but she won us over.
Christine Carbo keeps Sarah and Carolyn turning pages because the suspense is killing us. She also reminds us why we both love Glacier National Park so very much. It’s The Wild Inside, folks. Listen in (no spoilers, we promise!) and buy the book!
You've heard of Georgette Heyer. Or you haven't. Either way, you'll want to get in on this episode. Our guest, Jennifer Kloester, is a font of knowledge on 1930s mysteries and regency romances. Listen, then prepare to set aside ~$1,487 to buy all 50+ of Heyer's books.
Jennifer Kloester, expert on all things Georgette Heyer, joins Sarah and Carolyn from her home in Melbourne, Australia, to talk about regency romance mystery Death in the Stocks. Georgette and Jennifer make quite the team. We were riveted. You will want to listen in.
David Ignatius is known for his uncanny ability to predict the next great national security headline, and his newest book, Phantom Orbit, had us on the edge of our seats. We’re talking space warfare, folks. This gripping story is intriguing from start to finish. READ THIS BOOK!
Okay, so we said we love Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin, but what we really meant is that we like Nero and love Archie! Rex Stout, you created a gem of a character in Archie. We talk all about it with Ira Brad Matetsky (The Wolfe Pack), who joins Sarah and Carolyn on a second episode!
Ira Brad Matetsky (Werowance, The Wolfe Pack) joins Sarah and Carolyn to talk all things Nero Wolfe and never once asks how in creation they’ve never read a Nero Wolfe novel before now. It’s a mystery, folks, one that will be remedied because we LOVE Nero and Archie Goodwin!
James A. McLaughlin is the author of Panther Gap and Bearskin, which won the 2019 Edgar Award for Best First Novel and roughly a million more awards. The book’s a marvel, folks, and we’re still thinking about it long after reading. Listen in (no spoilers, so it’s safe!) and then get the book!
Norman Shabel is the author of eight novels, praised by Judge Andrew P. Napolitano as “terrific, fast-paced reads about the dark side of law enforcement and the judiciary.” Many of his stories are inspired by his career as a plaintiff’s attorney and prosecutor, where he witnessed injustice and oppression on a daily basis.
Locked room mysteries are the bomb, folks. Are they still saying that? “The bomb?” Well, here at Tea, Tonic & Toxin we’re still saying it. And we mean it. Fun, short, enjoyable read. Get your Hollow Man on. Unless you’re in the UK, where you’ll get your Three Coffins on. Oh, and listen in.
Carter Wilson is the USA Today bestselling author of nine standalone psychological thrillers. He's an ITV Thriller Award finalist and five-time Colorado Book Award winner. We met with him and his cat, MacGuffin, at his home in Colorado to discuss his latest book, The Father She Went to Find.
In a dusty roadside diner, love ignites a murderous plot. Or maybe it’s just lust. Or maybe it’s shared psychopathology. Special guest Rebecca Heisler joins Sarah and Carolyn to talk about this groundbreaking noir tale. The postman does indeed rings twice. This story’s dark, folks.
Barbara Nickless is a Wall Street Journal and #1 Amazon Charts bestselling crime novelist who joined Sarah and Carolyn in their makeshift studio for a heartfelt discussion about her writing and research process, her travels, and her latest book, Play of Shadows. Amazing woman, amazing writer. You’ll love her.
Dashiell Hammett’s granddaughter Julie Rivett joins us on a second episode to discuss The Thin Man, Nick and Nora Charles, and all things Dashiell Hammett. Color us honored, which I envision as pleurigloss with a hint of alpha plaid. What a DELIGHTFUL conversation. Folks, you want to hear what Julie has to say. Trust me.
We could have interviewed Julie M. Rivett for days on end. She’s fascinating in her own right, and she shared AMAZING information about her grandfather, Dashiell Hammett. This one’s a must-listen, folks. Well, they’re all must-listens in our biased opinions, but this one belongs at the top of the must-listen list.
Wow, what a year. In 2023, our listener base grew by 223%, and we had the great fortune to read and discuss Murder on the Orient Express, The Maltese Falcon, The Innocence of Father Brown, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, The Thirty-Nine Steps, and the very first Perry Mason novel. Get the scoop on 2023 here!
Autodesk cofounder and Dorothy L. Sayers super scholar Dan Drake joins Sarah and Carolyn on a second episode celebrating The Nine Tailors. Dan introduced us to the word “Sayersiana,” and we feel all the smarter for it. Get your Sayersiana fix by listening to, learning about, and loving all things Dorothy Sayers!
The Tea, Tonic & Toxin book club and podcast is on FIRE. Our 2024 book club picks are live and kicking, and in this bonus episode we’d love to introduce all 12 of them to you. We’re reading mysteries published from 1934-1939. And we'll have lots of guests and author interviews — BIG things on the horizon, folks!
Oh, those bells! Tis the season for The Nine Tailors, whose story begins on New Year’s Eve and includes an immense amount of bell-ringing. (“Tailors” are church bell strokes that announce a death.) Joining Sarah and Carolyn is Dorothy L. Sayers aficionado Dan Drake. So much holiday goodness -- we almost can't stand it!
Author Mike Nugent joins Sarah and Carolyn to talk about noir, crime fiction, and all things Sam Spade (who’s described as resembling a blond satan). The Maltese Falcon changed the way crime fiction was written. You’ll want to read it in one sitting and then give our podcast a listen.
Sarah, Carolyn, and Mike Nugent keep the Maltese Falcon conversation flowing with LOADS more thoughts about Sam Spade, Effie Perine, Casper Gutman, Joel Cairo, and, of course, the ever-elusive Brigid O'Shaughnessy. Folks, we have a lot of ground to cover. Join us, won’t you?
Author Mike Nugent joins Sarah and Carolyn to talk about noir, crime fiction, and all things Sam Spade (who’s described as resembling a blond satan). The Maltese Falcon changed the way crime fiction was written. You’ll want to read it in one sitting and then give our podcast a listen.
Hey, Continental Op, what’s your deal? Are you a hero? Anti-hero? Something else altogether? Hear our thoughts about the Op, Dinah Brand, Whisper, and all the gang – and let us know your tally of how many people wind up dead in the book. It’s hard to keep track.
What a bloody, crime-filled, mindbender of a novel. There’s no delightful married couple with a fox terrier in this one, and Poisonville lacks the seedy charm of 1920s San Francisco. Red Harvest is a bona fide crime thriller masterpiece, and the Continental Op is an anti-hero for the ages.
As Sir Walter Scott once wrote, “what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive.” In The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, most everyone’s lying about something – and one of those liars is both a blackmailer and a killer. Eli Milliman joins Sarah and Carolyn to hash it out!
The super smart, highly creative, and always entertaining Eli Milliman joins Sarah and Carolyn in a lively, introspective discussion of Agatha Christie’s rightfully famous The Murder of Roger Ackroyd. The book’s ending is a shocker, no question. Christie was a genius, no two ways about it.
Carolyn did not expect Lord Peter Wimsey to be so interesting and complex. He suffers from PTSD and panic attacks, and in her opinion Dorothy Sayers does a bang-up job of conveying the otherworldly disconnect people experience during a panic attack. He won Carolyn over. The always insightful Sarah liked him all along.
Sarah, Carolyn, and special guest Jill Carstens would like to spend some time at Styles Court. Strolls around the grounds, hours spent reading each day, afternoon tea, evening libations … An outlier among a cast of selfish characters, Hercule Poirot is sympathetic, smart, and, of course, THE foremost master of detection.
Sarah and Carolyn and special guest Wendi Anderson discuss approximately 492 topics related to but not directly about John Buchan’s short, fast-paced espionage thriller The Thirty-Nine Steps. We learn that both Sarah and Wendi will open the door when a stranger knocks. Sarah will even let that someone use her phone.
Sarah and Carolyn and special guest Wendi Anderson love The Thirty-Nine Steps, a fast-paced man on the run thriller published in 1915. Warning: Listening to this episode will make you want to become a freelance spy and move to Scotland. If you’re already a freelance spy and live in Scotland, we’re jealous.
Carolyn dislikes Trent, and she would not invite him to her dinner party. Sarah, on the other hand, would probably bring Trent as her guest to Carolyn’s dinner party, putting Carolyn in an awkward hostess-ly position. The Golden Age begins here, folks, and we are too excited to type more words.
Trent’s Last Case is one of the best mystery stories of all time according to Agatha Christie, Dorothy Sayers, and The New York Times. What do YOU think? Does the book live up to the hype? Carolyn and Sarah have some strong opinions to share. You’ll want to listen in!
Oh, yeah, Sarah and Carolyn are unreasonably excited about the books we’ll be reading and discussing in 2023. We’re diving head first into the Golden Age of Detective Fiction, dear listeners. We’re talking Agatha Christie, Dorothy Sayers, Dashiell Hammett … It’s gonna be a wild ride. Join us, won’t you?
Holy moly, we read and discussed some amazing mysteries and detective stories in 2022: “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” by Edgar Allan Poe, The Moonstone and The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins, The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle, and loads more. Check out our 2022 retrospective!
Sarah and Carolyn discuss this AMAZING collection of Father Brown mysteries with their first Tea, Tonic & Toxin podcast guest, Deb Donner! Deb is wise, insightful, and patient. She didn’t complain once during the ~14 hours it took Sarah and Carolyn to get their act together. Way to go, Deb!
Sarah and Carolyn adore Lady Molly of Scotland Yard and Mary, her devoted friend (servant?). Molly’s like Charlie Cale in Poker Face (if Charlie Cale had more social graces, that is). Molly instinctively knows when people are lying and solves cases that the Scotland Yard guys can’t. Rock on, Molly.
Holmes and Watson are an amazing pair. Sherlock Holmes is a force of nature, and Watson’s a pretty impressive investigator in his own right. Both are terrified of supernatural hounds. To be fair, we’re also terrified of supernatural hounds. We are, however, BIG fans of The Hound of the Baskervilles.
The curse of the Baskervilles is scary stuff, and Dartmoor is terrifying. Until, that is, you realize that Dartmoor is stunning. (Seriously, Arthur Conan Doyle, it’s a lovely area.) Would you move into the Dartmoor family mansion if given the chance? We would. Most definitely, curse or no curse.
Israel Zangwill may not be a household name, but it should be. His 1892 novel, The Big Bow Mystery, is a locked-room mystery set in London’s working-class East End. Two detectives race to solve a murder, an innocent man is condemned, and the solution’s a shocker. (And it’s laugh-out-loud funny.)
We weren’t familiar with locked room mysteries when we started The Big Bow Mystery, but now we’re way into them. Many books have since borrowed the book’s twist ending, but Israel Zangwill did it first. What twist, you ask? Um, you really need to read the book AND listen in!
Carolyn and Sarah are both confused by the narrator’s description of the hellish wasteland known as the Salt Lake Valley. Did you know that much of A Study in Scarlet takes place in Utah of all places? We didn’t. We’re behind on our Sherlock Holmes studies. Anyhow, minds blown.
Carolyn wishes she could invite Sherlock Holmes and Watson to a dinner party. Sarah finds Holmes off-putting. Both Carolyn and Sarah love Holmes’s concept of a “brain attic,” wherein the brain can store only a limited amount of information at any given time. That, dear friend, is a true story.
Sarah and Carolyn dig into the second part of Wilkie Collins’ 1868 novel, The Moonstone. Who stole the Indian gem from the young woman who inherits it from the guy who initially stole it. (You tracking?) The second part (second period) is called The Discovery of the Truth. It's SO good!
Sarah and Carolyn dig into the second part of Wilkie Collins’ 1868 novel, The Moonstone. Who stole the Indian gem from the young woman who inherits it from the guy who initially stole it. (You tracking?) The second part (second period) is called The Discovery of the Truth. It's SO good!
Sarah and Carolyn discuss the first part of Wilkie 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, and a couple amazing detectives. The first part (first period) is called The Loss of the Diamond, and it’s a serious page-turner.
Sarah and Carolyn discuss a little-known 1865 mystery that's purportedly set in London’s Notting Hill neighborhood. The New York Times Book Review called the story “both utterly of its time and utterly ahead of it.” Sarah also discusses her hatred of italics, and Carolyn regrets stealing a French fry back when she worked at McDonald’s.
Sarah and Carolyn discuss Edgar Allan Poe's famous "howdunit" starring C. Auguste Dupin. We determine that Dupin and the narrator would make terrible dinner guests, as they both seem sort of hermit-like and night-owl-ish and full of themselves. However, we do wish Poe had written a dozen more mystery stories with Dupin at the helm.
Sarah and Carolyn discuss the near impossibility that anyone could figure out who murdered those two women in Edgar Allan Poe's “The Murders in the Rue Morgue.” The story introduces amateur detective Auguste Dupin. He’s as annoying as he is smart, and he could give Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot a run for their money.
Sarah and Carolyn debate whether Wilkie Collins' 1860 thriller The Woman in White is a sensation novel or detective story … or both. See, we’re playing both sides here, because books can be many things. And because Carolyn’s annoyed by Hartright and Sarah’s annoyed by all of the women characters. Or something along those lines.
Sarah and Carolyn discuss Wilkie Collins' masterpiece. And by masterpiece, Carolyn means The Woman in White. Though Sarah might argue his masterpiece is The Moonstone. Thing is, The Moonstone doesn’t have Marian Halcombe in it. Or Count Fosco, for that matter. If you’re picking up what I’m putting down, then you’re on Team Carolyn.