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Death of the Reader

by 2SER 107.3FM

Join Flex and Herds as they take you on a Murder Mystery World Tour in Death of the Reader. From classic British puzzles in the Golden Age of Detective Fiction to the weirdest of foreign detective fiction, explore everything in the grizzly world of the 'locked room'. Each week we'll feature academics, authors and more as we trace the influences of the genre around the world.

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Episodes

  1. Lorelei and the Laser Eyes by Simogo - Part Three

    We discuss the second part of Simogo's 2024 mystery-puzzle-box video game 'Lorelei and the Laser Eyes'. The jig is up, and Lorelei Weiss finally has to be honest with herself about what happened in 1963. Our final puzzles see us answering the Quiz Club on all of the knowledge we've acquired so…

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  2. Lorelei and the Laser Eyes by Simogo - Part Two

    We discuss the second part of Simogo's 2024 mystery-puzzle-box video game 'Lorelei and the Laser Eyes'. As we delve deeper into the realm of Lorelei Weiss, we're challenged by anachronisms, a cast of characters that could be one person or many, and so, so many padlocks. What further mysteries…

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  3. Lorelei and the Laser Eyes by Simogo - Part One

    We discuss the first part of Simogo's 2024 mystery-puzzle-box video game 'Lorelei and the Laser Eyes'. The hotel Letztes Jahr, or 'last year' is a monochrome mansion with a splash of red. A body has been found in the courtyard, after our character, whoever she might be, was summomned, whyever she...

  4. EXTRA: Aoife Clifford on 'It Takes a Town'

    A dive back into the recent past as we talk with Melbourne-based author Aoife Clifford about her latest novel, 'It Takes a Town'. Policewoman Carole, distressed mother Frankie, town drunk Mer(maid) and a gaggle of schoolchildren reminiscent of the Scooby Gang all team up to corner the killer of...

  5. EXTRA: Gabriel Bergmoser on 'The Hitchhiker'

    We're joined by author and playwright Gabriel Bergmoser to talk about the print edition of his story 'The Hitchhiker', originally published as an audiobook. With the latest iteration in his 'Maggieverse', 'The Lodger' out on Audible, and a great interview from our friend Crag Sisterson up…

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  6. EXTRA: Benjamin Stevenson on 'Everyone this Christmas has a Secret'

    We're joined by author Benjamin Stevenson to talk about his Christmas Special for Ernest Cunningham, 'Everyone this Christmas has a Secret'. Ernest receives a call from his ex-wife Erin - she's been arrested in the Blue Mountains, accused of her husband's murder. Lyle was days away from a big...

  7. EXTRA: BAD: Sydney Crime Writers Festival - Community

    We take another visit to the floor of BAD: Sydney Crime Writers Festival 2024, to talk all about the mysteries we love so much, and the network of authors that bring it together. It takes all sorts to write mystery of all sorts, and we look at where some of Australia's best authors have been…

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  8. EXTRA: BAD: Sydney Crime Writers Festival - Justice

    We take a visit to the floor of BAD: Sydney Crime Writers Festival 2024, to talk all about the big themes, and the way that crime fiction is tied up with the world of Justice. The Crime Fiction community has amazing festivals all over the world, and here at Death of the Reader we're lucky enough…

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  9. EXTRA: Chris Hammer on 'The Valley'

    Flex talks with Australian Crime Fiction great Chris Hammer about his newest novel, 'The Valley'. Ivan and Nell are summoned, suspiciously early, to a homicide just outside the town of Saltwood, in a community called The Valley. Struggling after decades of failed schemes to restore wealth to the...

  10. Memories of Murder by Bong Joon-Ho - Movie Special

    We discuss Memories of Murder, the 2003 Crime-Drama film by Bong Joon-Ho. In rural South Korea, a series of horrifying murders has paralysed and overwhelmed the local police, who are under-resourced and inexperienced in crimes of this scale. Fortunately, a cop from the big city is here to fix...

  11. Overture to Death by Ngaio Marsh - Part Three

    We discuss chapters 19-27 of Ngaio Marsh's Eighth Roderick Alleyn novel, 'Overture to Death'. The stage is set to catch a killer, and the domino that tipped all this monstrosity into place. So the ordeal began in the theatre, it will return. Roderick Alleyn and his squad of investigators must…

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  12. Overture to Death by Ngaio Marsh - Part Two

    We discuss chapters 10-18 of Ngaio Marsh's Eighth Roderick Alleyn novel, 'Overture to Death'. Alleyn is now on the case, and unpicking the local drama of Pen Cuckoo. The murder weapon is determined to be a rigged-up pistol linked to the soft-pedal of the piano. More the domain of childish pranks...

  13. Overture to Death by Ngaio Marsh - Part One

    We discuss chapters 1-9 of Ngaio Marsh's Eighth Roderick Alleyn novel, 'Overture to Death'. In Pen Cuckoo, the village's top families get together to discuss their latest community effort - a fundraising play to buy a new piano. All of the village drama comes to the fore as the inheritor of the...

  14. Return to Blood by Michael Te Arawa Bennett - Part Three

    We discuss chapters 24-33 of Michael Te Arawa Bennett's 'Return to Blood', the second novel in the Hana Westerman series. As the pieces of the puzzle begin to slot into place, Hana once again is forced to wrangle with the personal cost of justice. Addison is deep in Kiri's social circle, coming…

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  15. Return to Blood by Michael Te Arawa Bennett - Part Two

    We discuss chapters 12-23 of Michael Te Arawa Bennett's 'Return to Blood', the second novel in the Hana Westerman series. It would seem the killer has been revealed, but could it be so easy? Hana's investigation digs up clues as to the disappearance of Paige, 20 years ago, but can she link him to...

  16. Return to Blood by Michael Te Arawa Bennett - Part One

    We discuss chapters 1-11 of Michael Te Arawa Bennett's 'Return to Blood', the second novel in the Hana Westerman series. Hana has retired from the Auckland police, but her place as a crime fiction protagonist means trouble is never far away. Her daughter stumbles upon a skeleton in the sand in…

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  17. A Caribbean Mystery by Agatha Christie - Screen Special

    We discuss various screen adaptations of Agatha Christie's Miss Marple story, 'A Caribbean Mystery'. As is often the case with Christie's less renowned stories, the writers of adaptations take creative license that either makes things better, or makes things "better". This time around, Flex…

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  18. A Caribbean Mystery by Agatha Christie - Part Three

    We discuss chapters 18-25 of Agatha Christie's 10th Miss Marple Novel, A Caribbean Mystery. The resort is plunged into open chaos as a third murder takes place and it's up to the unlikely duo of Miss Marple and the deposed Mr Rafiel to solve everything at the last minute and set the record...

  19. A Caribbean Mystery by Agatha Christie - Part Two

    We discuss chapters 10-17 of Agatha Christie's 10th Miss Marple Novel, A Caribbean Mystery. A second murder has shaken up the holidaygoers in St Honoré. One of the hotel staff, Victoria, found dead by a bloodied Molly Kendal. Molly was seen roaming with the knife that did her in, but no alibi…

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  20. A Caribbean Mystery by Agatha Christie - Part One

    We discuss chapters 1-9 of Agatha Christie's 10th Miss Marple Novel, A Caribbean Mystery. Sent on her lonesome for a holiday she'd perhaps rather not have taken, Jane Marple is in St Honoré. After an abrupt conclusion to conversation with the usually verbose Major Palgrave, Miss Marple's…

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  21. Death in Hilo by Eric Redman - Part Three

    We discuss Part One, Chapters 12-27 of Eric Redman's new Hawaiian Noir novel, Death in Hilo. Kawika's wife, Elle, has gone missing, and the only person with information as to where she's gone is Jarvis. As the lines of Hawaii's biggest cases begin to cross, how can Kawika survive not just the...

  22. Death in Hilo by Eric Redman - Part Two

    We discuss Part One, Chapters 12-27 of Eric Redman's new Hawaiian Noir novel, Death in Hilo. At last, our outlier victim of the park slasher is identified - Keoni Parkes, a spokesperson for the controversial Thirty Metre Telescope on the big island. Unfortunately for Kawika, the skeletons in his...

  23. Death in Hilo by Eric Redman - Part One

    We discuss Part One, Chapters 1-11 of Eric Redman's new Hawaiian Noir novel, Death in Hilo. Kawika Wong is in the prime of his career, leading the homicide squad at the Honolulu Police Department, but it all could come crumbling down when a criminal he put away a decade ago begins hinting towards...

  24. Too Much of Water by Bruce Hamilton - Part Three

    We discuss Bruce Hamilton's 'Too Much of Water', chapters 9-12. Just when you thought the murderer was done, one more body finds itself committed to what we presume are watery depths. As the Goyaz ventures towards its last port of call, Edgar's list of suspects grows implausibly small, but will…

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  25. Too Much of Water by Bruce Hamilton - Part Two

    We discuss Bruce Hamilton's 'Too Much of Water', chapters 5-8. The deaths keep adding up - a child drowned by the pool, and a man found drowned in a bath. Only two suspects have alibis that make them possible suspects, but neither seems a likely culprit, so which way does the finger of blame…

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  26. Too Much of Water by Bruce Hamilton - Part One

    We discuss Bruce Hamilton's 'Too Much of Water', chapters 1-4. Flex is back, and it's time to dive into a water-based mystery aboard the Goyaz. Edgar Cantrell is bound for Barbados, and all manner of high society find themselves aboard the boat together. Singers, cricketers, barristers, and of...

  27. Who Shot JR? from Dallas - Part Three

    The finale of Who Shot JR at last. One of the most viewed episodes of American tv in history and the series that inspired Who Shot Mr Burns, Dallas spends most of their reveal episode recapping the last four epiusodes for those of us that weren't paying attention! Sue Ellen finally takes centre...

  28. Who Shot JR? from Dallas - Part Two

    Herds and Cam are back at it again, by popular demand, with the middle section of Dallas' 'Who Shot JR?' in which honestly, not much very important happens. The elusive 3rd Ewing brother Greg visits from his own spinoff show, JR struggles to run the Ewing oil company from his hospital bed, and...

  29. Who Shot JR? from Dallas - Part One

    Herds and Cam discuss the season finale of Dallas' third season, 'A House Divided', and take a crack at solving the America-wide sensation 'Who Shot JR'? After JR, eldest son of the wealthy Ewing estate executes one too many backdoor oil schemes he is shot twice in the abdomen and left for dead....

  30. It Takes A Town by Aoife Clifford - Part Three

    We discuss chapters 25-36 of Aoife Clifford's brand new collective-detective murder mystery, 'It Takes A Town'. Herds and Cam come to the end of all things, 'Jaz 'the visual' Langridge is kidnapped (for real) this time, incompetent cop Billy and town drunk Mer work together to navigate a sudden…

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  31. It Takes A Town by Aoife Clifford - Part Two

    We discuss chapters 12-24 of Aoife Clifford's brand new collective-detective murder mystery, 'It Takes A Town'. Frankie and Mer move closer to center stage as their lives are compltely turned upside down. Frankie is asked to leave her teaching job as she is under suspicion of her once friend...

  32. It Takes A Town by Aoife Clifford - Part One

    We discuss chapters 1-11 of Aoife Clifford's brand new collective-detective murder mystery, 'It Takes A Town'. Policewoman Carole, distressed mother Frankie, town drunk Mer(maid) and a gaggle of schoolchildren reminiscent of the Scooby Gang all team up to corner the killer of local town star...

  33. The Mystery Writer by Sulari Gentill - Part Three

    We discuss chapters 26-42 of Sulari Gentill's brand new metafiction standalone, 'The Mystery Writer'. We come to the explosive finale as the evil Greek machinist Satan Herself is exposed to the world and characters we've never seen before swoop in on helicopters and take part in duels involving...

  34. The Mystery Writer by Sulari Gentill - Part Two

    We discuss chapters 15-25 of Sulari Gentill's brand new metafiction standalone, 'The Mystery Writer'. Theo Benton is a law-school escapee from Tasmania, fled to her brother Gus' home in Lawrence, Kansas. She finds herself as the prime suspect in the murder of her almost-boyfriend Dan Murdoch, and...

  35. The Mystery Writer by Sulari Gentill - Part One

    We discuss chapters 1-14 of Sulari Gentill's brand new metafiction standalone, 'The Mystery Writer'. Theo Benton is a law-school escapee from Tasmania, fled to her brother Gus' home in Lawrence, Kansas. The world of law might have suited Gus, but Theo wants to be a writer, and her brother is…

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  36. The ABC Murders - Screen Special

    We discuss the ITV (1992), BBC (2018), and Frank Tashlin (1965) screen adaptations of Agatha Christie's 'The ABC Murders'. An unusual plot for the mystery great, how have histories most lauded (and least) tweaked the plot for the moving image? From spellbinding performances by David Suchet…

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  37. The ABC Murders by Agatha Christie - Part Three

    We discuss chapters 28-35 of Agatha Christie's notorious serial murder story, 'The ABC Murders'. Our criminal, Mr. ABC, has turned himself in. As Poirot prepares to interrogate the madman, he comments to Hastings that he expects to be lied to - only to have a twist dropped in his lap. How can the...

  38. The ABC Murders by Agatha Christie - Part Two

    We discuss chapters 15-27 of Agatha Christie's notorious serial murder story, 'The ABC Murders'. A fourth murder has taken place, but breaks the pattern of alliteration. Is the killer getting sloppy? It certainly seems so, as Alexander Bonaparte Cust totters around right under the Legion's nose.…

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  39. The ABC Murders by Agatha Christie - Part One

    We discuss chapters 1-14 of Agatha Christie's notorious serial murder story, 'The ABC Murders'. Captain Hastings has returned to London, and meets his friend Poirot reminiscing of their best days solving murders together. As they long for new thrills, one arrives in the post, as a series of…

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  40. Who Shot Mr. Burns? from The Simpsons - Part Two

    We discuss the season debut of The Simpsons seventh season, and its infamous puzzle. It wasn't 16:9 that foiled Flex at all, it was his sheer lack of humour. Smithers is pinned as the culprit after he confesses to shooting an old man in the streets. Fortunately, there is more than one old man in...

  41. Death of the Reader UNDEAD - 15 February 2024

    Welcome to your Murder Mystery Detour! Once a whenever-we-can, Flex and Herds go live (or undead, as the case may be), to talk about their latest fixations in the crime fiction world, and we hear from you about yours! We're also joined by our editor, Cameron Furlong, producer Max Mahood, and...

  42. EXTRA: Quintin Smith from People Make Games on Jubensha

    We talk with Quinns from People Make Games to about the Mystery Role-Play craze that has taken hold of China; Jubensha. What sets it apart from the Mystery Dinner Parties that accompany every crime fiction festival and book club? We also speak about role-play in the English speaking world, the...

  43. Who Shot Mr. Burns? from The Simpsons - Part One

    We discuss the season finale of The Simpsons sixth season, and its infamous puzzle. Springfield Elementary is almost destroyed in an eruption, but fortunately, it's an eruption of oil, so they're wealthy now. At least, they would be, if Mr. Burns wasn't up to his antics, preparing to destroy all...

  44. Review Season: Everyone by Benjamin Stevenson - 2023 1st Place

    Herds presents the much coveted Golden pants award straight from Sulari Gentill’s wardrobe to… Everyone, and by that we don’t mean the heart-warming everyone, as in everyone’s a winner, but rather the Everyone series by Benjamin Stevenson. That’s right, two books can share a placement, as long as...

  45. Review Season: Moriarty by Anthony Horowitz - 2023 2nd Place

    Review Season is about recommendations. You don’t need someone to recommend you Sherlock Holmes. Whether or not you have read Arthur Conan Doyle’s original stories, watched one of the many renditions, or experienced some form of pastiche, there is no doubt that some comparison to Sherlock Holmes...

  46. Review Season: The Red Death Murders by Jim Noy - 2023 3rd Place

    There are three entries here and only one can take back the coveted Sulari Gentill prize, winning for themselves eternal glory and golden dance pants to take home. In the bronze position, standing tall head and shoulders over a dozen others, the bloody, the historical, The Red Death Murders…

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  47. Review Season: Glass Onion by Rian Johnson - 2023 4th Place

    It’s time for the controversial entry in our list of high class detective fiction, there’s always one. Usually any films that we cover will be contentious in terms of placement, is it really fair to place a work of a visual medium in the same competition as some musty old books? Am I even…

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  48. Review Season: Eight Detectives by Alex Pavesi - 2023 5th Place

    Why read one detective story, when you could have eight? Coming in 5th Place on Review Season for our 2023 Recommendations is Alex Pavesi, with his debut mystery novel ‘Eight Detectives’. Released in 2020, the novel takes Alex’s background in mathematics, and questions the numerical principles…

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  49. Review Season: The Innocence of Father Brown by G.K. Chesterton - 2023 6th Place

    To follow up the historical supernatural mayhem that is the Chinese Gold Murders I couldn’t think of a more opposite yet familiar companion novel than our sixth place winner. I’m proud to grant G.K Chesterton’s The Innocence of Father Brown this position in our rankings. Father Brown is a…

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  50. Review Season: The Chinese Gold Murders by Robert van Gulik - 2023 7th Place

    We’re officially in the upper half of the entries and it is with no small amount of nepotism that I would advocate to you a historical novel for seventh place. The Chinese Gold Murders, by Robert van Gulik occupy a bizarre place in the history of Chinese crime fiction, in that the credited author...

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ABOUT THIS SHOW

Join Flex and Herds as they take you on a Murder Mystery World Tour in Death of the Reader. From classic British puzzles in the Golden Age of Detective Fiction to the weirdest of foreign detective fiction, explore everything in the grizzly world of the 'locked room'. Each week we'll feature academics, authors and more as we trace the influences of the genre around the world.

HOSTED BY

2SER 107.3FM

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How many episodes does Death of the Reader have?

Death of the Reader currently has 363 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.

What is Death of the Reader about?

Join Flex and Herds as they take you on a Murder Mystery World Tour in Death of the Reader. From classic British puzzles in the Golden Age of Detective Fiction to the weirdest of foreign detective fiction, explore everything in the grizzly world of the 'locked room'. Each week we'll feature...

How often does Death of the Reader release new episodes?

Death of the Reader publishes regularly with 363 episodes available. Check the episode list for the typical release schedule.

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You can listen to Death of the Reader on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.

Who hosts Death of the Reader?

Death of the Reader is created and hosted by 2SER 107.3FM.
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