Lighting the Pipes

As if the clammy heat of New Orleans wasn't enough for a nun in full habit, an arson spree is threatening the community of St Sebastian's School in Margot Douaihy's "Scorched Grace". This is the first of the author's Sister Holiday mysteries and introduces readers to the Order of the Sublime Blood and a crime spree that dredges up old trauma with impressive force. Steered by her uniquely queer, conflicted, punk-rock moral compass, Sister Holiday soon adds another vow to her list of holy solemnities - solving this mystery before more lives are taken!FastFacts@6:00; Summary@40:15; PIPES@57:50

The year is 1878. Detectives in fiction had cut shapes before (Poe, Collins and Gaboriau had all experimented) but few woman, if any, had ever been credited for work in the genre, let alone acclaimed. Along comes Anna Katherine Green, metaphorically brandishing "fingers up" to the establishment and bestowing upon the literary world this classic narrative. "The Leavenworth Case" is a story of two secretive cousins, a complex murder investigation and the lovestruck young lawyer driven to prove their innocence. It was a landmark publication when it appeared, impressively advancing the chains of the genre and introducing the world to Detective Ebeneezer Gryce in his first of 13 appearances. Thanks to Green, the modern mystery was about to get a transformative kick in the posterior!FastFacts@15:00; Summary@38:30; PIPES@1:20:00

In this episode, we head back to the world of graphic novels and explore the suburban mystery of "Where the Body Was" by celebrated comics duo, Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips. What starts innocently enough, with some feral Gen-X childhood crime-fighting, soon curdles into something darker: hidden affairs, small-time crooks, unrequited love and a dead body that nobody can quite explain. The mythology of the safe and honest American neighbourhood is left in tatters here by Brubaker and LTP has all the angles covered from its treehouse vantage on the cul-de-sac of Pelican lane! FastFacts@05:00; Summary@31:30; PIPES@46:30

The iron curtain has fallen. Intelligence is dispersing in its heavy draught. Europe is transitioning towards a single market. Conditions are ripe for a new world order... and for the twelfth continuation novel by John Gardner."Death is Forever" situates Bond upon the shifting sands of this new environment, investigating the disintegration of "Cabal" - an allied intelligence network that once ran the gauntlet of late Cold War conflicts.From spider-egg sarnies to poisoned dwarves, light-grenade gimmicks to railcar assassinations, Gardner polishes up an old-styled Bond here for a new-era narrative.Summary@06:30; PIPES@43:30

When Dr Huxtable (no, not that one) makes a desperate appeal to Sherlock for help in locating a missing pupil of his stuffy boarding school, Holmes politely declines. When he learns of the £6000 reward, however, and of the blue bloods behind the intrigue, the great detective does an about turn and catches the next train north! A case of murderous intrigue, ransom and bike-tire forensics quickly thickens around our hero. Scott's choice for "Sherlock Selects" comes from a December 2017 chat and closes out the retrospective Summer series for another year.