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Maureen and Jay join us to discuss their wonderful interactive whodunit, You Are the Detective: The Creeping Hand Murder. It’s 1933, and your job is to help Scotland Yard solve an impossible murder. Are you up to the task?

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November 1933. London. Seven people receive mysterious letters. Someone knows their terrible secrets. They are summoned to a posh townhouse where one is stabbed right in front of the others, but somehow no one saw a thing.

Can you help Scotland Yard solve the mystery? An interactive murder mystery from the bestselling author and illustrator of Your Guide to Not Getting Murdered in a Quaint English Village

Dear Detective, Have you seen the story in the papers about the dreadful murder of the American novelist? The crime is so devious, so logistically impossible, that it seems to have been committed not by a person but by a disembodied hand. I must confess that we are at a loss. Who wrote the poison pen letters that lured these seven people to this deadly gathering? What do a poet, an earl, an actress, a cook, a telephone operator, and a lothario have in common? And how can a man be stabbed in a room full of suspects when none of them went near him or saw a thing? We have had our best people on the case, Detective, and we still can’t make heads or tails of it. We are giving this case file to you. Can you decipher the clues, decode the witness statements, and identify the murderer? You are our last hope. Can you help us crack the Creeping Hand Murder? Yours truly,

Detective Chief Inspector of the Metropolitan Police

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Special guests Ruta Sepetys and Steve Sheinkin join Tea, Tonic & Toxin to discuss their book The Bletchley Riddle.

Remember, you are bound by the Official Secrets Act…

Summer, 1940. Nineteen-year-old Jakob Novis and his quirky younger sister, Lizzie, share a love of riddles and puzzles. And now they’re living inside of one. The quarrelsome siblings find themselves amid one of the greatest secrets of World War II—Britain’s eccentric codebreaking factory at Bletchley Park. As Jakob joins Bletchley’s top minds to crack the Nazi’s Enigma cipher, fourteen-year-old Lizzie embarks on a mission to solve the mysterious disappearance of their mother.

The Battle of Britain rages and Hitler’s invasion creeps closer. And at the same time, baffling messages and codes arrive on their doorstep while a menacing inspector lurks outside the gates of the Bletchley mansion. Are the messages truly for them, or are they a trap? Could the riddles of Enigma and their mother’s disappearance be somehow connected? Jakob and Lizzie must find a way to work together as they race to decipher clues that unravel a shocking puzzle that presents the ultimate challenge: How long must a secret be kept?

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Ruta Sepetys (Rūta Šepetys) is an internationally acclaimed, #1 New York Times bestselling author of historical fiction published in over sixty countries and forty languages. Considered a “crossover” novelist, her books are read by both students and adults worldwide. Winner of the Carnegie Medal and honored by the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Ruta is renowned for giving voice to underrepresented history and those who experienced it. Her books have won or been shortlisted for more than fifty book prizes, appear on over forty state reading lists, and are currently in development for film and television.

A former textbook writer, Steve Sheinkin is now making amends by writing books young people might actually want to read.

He’s the author of fast-paced, cinematic, nonfiction page-turners, including Bomb, Fallout, Undefeated, Born to Fly, The Port Chicago 50, and Impossible Escape.

He is also the author of The Bletchley Riddle, a middle grade novel written with Ruta Sepetys. The historical mystery is set in Bletchley Park, Britain’s top secret codebreaking factory during World War II.

Steve’s many accolades include a Newbery Honor, three Boston Globe-Horn Book Awards, a Sibert Medal and Honor, three National Book Award finalist honors, and the Margaret A. Edwards Award. He lives with his family in Saratoga Springs, New York.

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We were delighted to discuss all things mysterious with Otto Penzler in this episode.

Otto Penzler joins Tea, Tonic & Toxin to discuss the Golden Age of Mystery.

Otto Penzler is president and CEO of MysteriousPress.com and proprietor of New York City’s Mysterious Bookshop.

Widely regarded as a leading authority on crime, mystery, and suspense fiction, he founded The Mysterious Press in 1975 and later launched Penzler Publishers, including American Mystery Classics and Scarlet. A prolific editor and publisher, he has received two Edgar Awards, the Ellery Queen Award, and the Raven.

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Otto Penzler is president and CEO of MysteriousPress.com and proprietor of The Mysterious Bookshop in New York City. Long regarded as one of the world’s foremost authorities on crime, mystery, and suspense fiction, he has spent decades shaping the field as a publisher, editor, bookseller, and champion of both classic and contemporary crime writing.

In 1975, Penzler founded The Mysterious Press, a publishing house that became one of the most respected names in mystery and suspense fiction. He sold the company to Warner Books in 1989, reacquired the imprint in 2010, and continued publishing literary crime fiction through Grove/Atlantic. Since January 2021, The Mysterious Press has again been independently owned. Through MysteriousPress.com, in partnership with Open Road Integrated Media, he publishes both original works and classic crime fiction.

In fall 2018, Penzler established Penzler Publishers, which introduced American Mystery Classics, a line dedicated to bringing distinguished mystery and detective novels back into print, many after decades of unavailability. In September 2020, he launched Scarlet, an imprint devoted to psychological and domestic suspense. Charles Perry serves as publisher of all Penzler Publishers imprints, and Luisa Smith is editor-in-chief of Scarlet.

Penzler’s contributions to the mystery world extend well beyond book publishing. For seventeen years, he published The Armchair Detective, the Edgar Award-winning quarterly journal devoted to the study of mystery and suspense fiction. He also created Otto Penzler Books and The Armchair Detective Library, further expanding his influence on the genre’s publishing landscape.

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Sergio Angelini joins Tea, Tonic & Toxin to discuss Green for Danger (1944) by Christianna Brand.

Sergio was born and bred in Rome, Italy, moving to Singapore for 5 years in the 1980s before settling in the UK. He studied Law at London School of Economics and got a joint MA in Film Studies and Film Archiving from the University of East Anglia. He hosts a podcast focused on crime and film noir called Tipping My Fedora.

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Sergio has worked in film and education for over thirty years. He edited the educational media quarterly Viewfinder for a decade and for over eight years was the reviewer of TV home video releases for Sight & Sound magazine. For 15 years he was involved in the development and running of the educational streaming resource, BoB (Box of Broadcasts). He has provided video essays, audio commentaries and booklet notes for various DVD and Blu-ray releases for such labels as Arrow, BFI, Eureka (Masters of Cinema), Hammer Films, Imprint and Indicator.

Previous print publications include contributions to Gilbert Adair (Verbivoracious Festschrift, 2014), Mysteries Unlocked (McFarland, 2014), The Cult TV Book (IB Tauris 2010) and Directors in British and Irish Cinema (BFI, 2006).

Special guest Sergio Angelini joined Tea, Tonic & Toxin to discuss Christianna Brand’s Green for Danger, published in 1943.

Green for Danger is a Golden Age masterclass of red herrings and twists. The story, set during World War II, features a tense and claustrophobic investigation with a close-knit circle of suspects.

It’s 1942, and struggling up the hill to the new Kent military hospital, Heron’s Park, postman Joseph Higgins is soon to deliver seven acceptance letters for roles at the infirmary. He has no idea that the sender of one of the letters will be the cause of his death in just one year’s time.

When Higgins returns to Heron’s Park with injuries from a bombing raid in 1943, his death by asphyxiation in the operating theatre casts four nurses and three doctors under suspicion. When a second death occurs in quick succession, the moody, yet shrewd, Inspector Cockrill arrives on the scene. The stage is set for a tense and claustrophobic investigation. One of the doctors and nurses in this close-knit group must be the murderer. But who did it? And why?

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GREEN FOR DANGER by Christianna Brand is a masterful wartime mystery set in a British hospital during the Blitz. When a patient dies under suspicious circumstances, Inspector Cockrill investigates a web of secrets among the medical staff. It’s a standout in Golden Age detective fiction.

Get your copy of all of our History of Mystery book selections here! (including even some 2027 selections)

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Characters & Relationships in Green for Danger by Christianna Brand

1. The characters are intensely intertwined—romantically, professionally, emotionally. Did that closeness heighten the tension for you, or did the story veer into melodrama?
2. Several characters fall hard and fast in love. Marion loves Gervase, who toys with her affections. Barney loves less-than-steady Freddi, who has a thing for Gervase. Barney tells Freddi, “I’d rather have cruelty than dishonesty. I’d rather be hurt than deceived.” If given the choice, which would you prefer? And is this type of emotional intensity convincing given the historical moment—or did it feel exaggerated?
3. Gervase “looked at his ugly face and greying hair, at his thin, angular body and restless hands—and wondered what on earth women saw in him, and wished they wouldn’t” (2). He’s also married: “Once, long ago, one of the lovely ladies had been importunate, and he had not then acquired his skill in evading desperate situations. He had not seen her for several years, but she formed a shield against similar assaults upon his liberty” (32). Esther is the “only female in the hospital who can see Gervase Eden without swooning at his feet” (35). What exactly do the female characters see in “Don Juan” Gervase?
4. Some characters are haunted by loss. Esther left her mother behind to volunteer. After her mother’s building was hit, and “For two days and two nights she had waited in anguish while men toiled unceasingly at the mountain of rubble” (20). Major Moon mourns his dead son. Did you feel more for some characters than others?

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We are so excited to expand our discussion of the transcendant The Ministry of Fear by Graham Greene with special guest Dr. Robert Willingham.

Rob Willingham is a history professor at Roanoke College. After receiving his doctorate from UT-Austin (where he shared office space with future Heritage Foundation head, Kevin Roberts, oddly), he’s gone on to write and teach about 20th century Europe, specializing in the era of War and Holocaust. He is the author of Jews in Leipzig and has won the distinguished teaching award at Roanoke and served two terms as chair of the history department. He lives in Salem with his wife, twin daughters and cats. He thinks Graham Greene is a great writer and also just found out there’s a movie of the book; as a teacher, he would never watch it before reading the novel.

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For a long time Sarah & Carolyn have wanted to do more of an in depth conversation with someone who really knows the history of the times these books are being written in and about, and we are delighted that Rob is just that guy.

Published in 1943, THE MINISTRY OF FEAR by Graham Greene blends espionage and psychological mystery set in wartime London. The story follows Arthur Rowe, an ordinary man caught up in Nazi intrigue, navigating a world where nothing is as it seems. The story’s moral complexity redefined the boundaries of the mystery genre.

The title reflects the pervasive atmosphere of dread and paranoia in wartime Britain, where fear itself becomes a tool of control. The ministry of fear represents an institution or force that spreads fear to undermine trust and stability, both on a personal and societal level.

We also touch on the Fritz Lang film, Ministry of Fear, to be discussed futher in upcoming bonus content! Wikipedia summarizes:

Ministry of Fear is a 1944 American spy thriller film noir directed by Fritz Lang, and starring Ray Milland and Marjorie Reynolds. Based on the 1943 novel by Graham Greene, the film tells the story of a man just released from a mental asylum who finds himself caught up in an international spy ring and pursued by Nazi agents after inadvertently receiving something they want. The original music for the film was composed by Victor Young.

We can't wait to hear your take on this discussion.

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THE MINISTRY OF FEAR by Graham Greene is a thrilling blend of espionage and psychological mystery set in wartime London. The story follows Arthur Rowe, an ordinary man caught up in Nazi intrigue. Celebrated for its moral complexity, it redefined the boundaries of the mystery genre.

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The title reflects the pervasive atmosphere of dread and paranoia in wartime Britain, where fear itself becomes a tool of control. The ministry of fear represents an institution or force that spreads fear to undermine trust and stability, both on a personal and societal level.

Is The Ministry of Fear a Spy Thriller? An Entertainment? A Study of What It Is to Be Human?

Once the police are involved, the “murky trail leads to a Thirty-Nine Steps type of organization and a microfilm” that must be found. (Tom Ruffles, The Joy of Mere Words)

It’s a page-turning thriller combined with psychological nuance, interesting characters, believable settings, and an exploration of what it means to be human. The Ministry of Fear was billed as an “entertainment” — much-needed escapism from wartime life. The “somewhat preposterous spy thriller [is] a dark analysis of personal responsibility, loss, and the obligations that go with love. (Tom Ruffles, The Joy of Mere Words)

Greeneland: the seedy, dangerous, and politically charged world of Greene’s novels. Greene believed the real world could often be more horrific than fiction. The term describes a milieu charged with existential or religious questions and implications.

References to The Little Duke – Richard the Fearless (1854) in The Ministry of Fear

Set in 943, the children’s adventure story by Charlotte Yonge concerns the young Duke of Normandy who must avenge his father’s death while keeping the King of France from absorbing his independent dukedom. The war that breaks out draws in the Danes and the young Duke’s Danish bodyguard. The young Duke eventually learns forgiveness towards his enemies, the French king’s sons.

Why is Rowe drawn to The Little Duke? How do explorers, heroes, and high ideals fit into the real world, where morality isn’t always clear?

Graham Greene Sets The Ministry of Fear During Wartime England

“A bomb early in the blitz had fallen in the middle of the street and blasted both sides, but Rowe stayed on. Houses went overnight, but [Arthur Rowe] stayed.”

“Far away on the outskirts of London the sirens began their nightly wail … Somewhere two miles above their heads an enemy bomber came up from the estuary.”

The sirens sounded the All Clear. “Nobody moved to go home: this was their home now. They were quite accustomed to sleeping underground …. This was the world they knew.”

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2025 was an amazing and tumultous year for Carolyn and Sarah, both of us making moves out of Denver. But we kept on reading (albiet at a slower pace!) and loved having conversations about it all. Join us for our take on 2025, and let us know yours!

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Tea, Tonic & Toxin is a history of mystery book club and podcast. We’re discussing the best mysteries ever written and interviewing some of the world’s best contemporary mystery and thriller writers.

THE BIG SLEEP (1939) is a seminal work in the hardboiled detective genre, and it’s among the best of the Raymond Chandler books. It showcases Chandler’s masterful use of sharp dialogue, complex characters and his gritty depiction of 1930s Los Angeles.

Farewell, My Lovely (1940) by Raymond Chandler is a cornerstone of the noir genre and the Philip Marlowe books, showcasing Marlowe in one of his most memorable cases. The novel’s richly atmospheric prose vividly captures the seedy underbelly of Los Angeles, immersing readers in its gritty, dangerous world. Chandler’s exploration of moral ambiguity and flawed characters adds depth to the mystery, elevating it beyond a simple whodunit.

TRAITOR’S PURSE (1940) by Margery Allingham is a mystery thriller classic that masterfully combines psychological tension with a high-stakes plot. Suffering from amnesia, amateur sleuth Albert Campion races to stop a wartime national security threat.

The novel’s unique premise and tightly woven narrative create a sense of urgency and intrigue. Known for its psychological depth, it showcases Allingham’s skill at blending espionage with a classic whodunit. Allingham’s exploration of identity, loyalty, and duty cements the book’s status as a timeless classic in the genre.

Published in 1942, LAURA by Vera Caspary is a sophisticated mystery novel blending romance and psychological intrigue. Told through shifting perspectives, it follows a detective investigating the apparent murder of a glamorous ad exec. It remains a cornerstone of noir fiction.

Rear Window (1942) by Cornell Woolrich is a classic in the suspense genre for its masterful use of tension and claustrophobia. The story’s premise—a man confined to his apartment who becomes an unwitting witness to sinister events—brilliantly explores themes of isolation, voyeurism, and moral responsibility.

The Rat Began to Gnaw the Rope (1943) by C. W. Grafton (the father of Sue Grafton) is a classic in the mystery genre for its clever fusion of humor, small-town charm, and hardboiled crime elements. Featuring Gil Henry, an unassuming and resourceful lawyer, the novel showcases an unconventional hero who unravels a web of corruption and intrigue with sharp wit and determination. Grafton’s skillful storytelling and engaging prose set a high standard for blending humor with suspense.

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