Tag Archives: The Thirteen Problems

Miss Marple, Spinster Sleuth

A feminist take on the gossiping busybody of St Mary Mead.

Thanks to my guest, Leandra Griffith. As well as being Shedunnit’s production assistant, she posts about mysteries on her Instagram @leandra_thetbrzero and her YouTube channel.

Become a member of the Shedunnit book club and get bonus audio, listen to ad free episodes and join a book-loving community at shedunnitshow.com/membership.

Mentioned in the episode:
Nemesis by Agatha Christie
“The Tuesday Night Club” by Agatha Christie, featured in The Thirteen Problems
The Murder at the Vicarage by Agatha Christie
The Body in the Library by Agatha Christie
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie
The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie
Agatha Christie’s The Complete Secret Notebooks by John Curran

Related Shedunnit episodes:
Surplus Women
The Christie Completists
Queering The Golden Age

NB: Links to Blackwell’s are affiliate links, meaning that the podcast receives a small commission when you purchase a book there (the price remains the same for you). Blackwell’s is a UK bookselling chain that ships internationally at no extra charge.

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Find a full transcript of this episode at shedunnitshow.com/missmarplespinstersleuthtranscript.

Music by Audioblocks and Blue Dot Sessions. See shedunnitshow.com/musiccredits for more details.

A Mysterious Glossary

Do you know your ack emma from your pip emma? Would you wear the cat’s pyjamas? Are you, in fact, a goop? Helen Zaltzman joins me to delve into some baffling language from golden age detective fiction. Thanks to my guest for this episode, Helen Zaltzman. She is the host of The Allusionist, a marvellous… Continue Reading

Murder Isn’t Easy

How much did Agatha Christie really know about dead bodies? Thanks to my guest for this episode, Carla Valentine. She is a trained mortuary technician and the technical curator at Barts Pathology Museum in London. She’s also the author of Murder Isn’t Easy: The Forensics of Agatha Christie. There are no major plot spoilers in… Continue Reading

At Home With Shedunnit

Who would be the Hastings to your Poirot? What kind of mystery would you like to write? What would you do if you came across a corpse? In this special episode to celebrate Shedunnit’s third anniversary, Caroline’s husband Guy takes the mic and asks her all these questions and more. Guy is on Twitter as… Continue Reading

Young Sleuths Transcript

Caroline: I can’t remember how old I was when I read my first detective novel, but I definitely wasn’t a teenager yet. I devoured my first Agatha Christie — the Miss Marple short story collection The Thirteen Problems — under the covers on a family holiday when I was 11 after finding it on the shelf at… Continue Reading

Young Sleuths

Young detectives, and young readers, play an important part in the history of detective fiction. Many thanks to my guest, Maureen Johnson. Her newest YA mystery, The Box in the Woods, is out now. Find out more at her website www.maureenjohnsonbooks.com and follow her on Twitter @maureenjohnson. There are no major plot spoilers in this… Continue Reading

Swan Song

How do you say goodbye to a beloved detective? Agatha Christie, of course, made a mystery out of it. Thanks to my guest, Mark Aldridge. You can find out more about his work at markaldridge.info and order a copy of his new book, Agatha Christie’s Poirot: The Greatest Detective in the World, from all good… Continue Reading

Swan Song Transcript

Caroline: Detectives have to be fundamentally infallible. On their journey to a mystery’s solution they can be fragile, or flawed, or unreliable, or uncertain, but the reader has to be able to rely on the sleuth to find a satisfactory answer in the end. It’s a fundamental part of what makes a whodunnit work. After… Continue Reading