Tea, Tonic & Toxin

Send us Fan Mail“The Monsters We Make is narrated so sagely and coolly, I almost didn’t realize how much it had to teach. It is a provoking, moving, and original book that has stuck with me long since I turned its last page.”— Maggie Nelson, New York Times best-selling author of The Argonauts“Serial killers have spawned hundreds of books, but none like this. With a daughter’s heart and a reporter’s keen gaze, Rachel Corbett turns the stories inside out. She profiles the profilers―their methods, their hubris, and the evils they unwittingly commit. An expertly titrated mix of history, true crime, and memoir, The Monsters We Make is the most intriguing crime book I’ve read in quite some time.”― Mary Roach, New York Times best-selling author of Fuzz, Gulp, and StiffHistory of Mystery book selections available in our Amazon Storefront or support your favorite local bookstore in our Bookshop Storefront as well! Guests have their own list here!Or if you happen to be in lovely Roanoke, Virginia, stop in person at the BiblioPub to get your copy.For bonus episodes and to get all episodes first, join our Patreon community.Watch clips from our conversations with guests!Rachel Corbett is a features writer at New York magazine and the author of You Must Change Your Life (Norton, 2016), which won the Marfield Prize, the National Award for Arts Writing, and The Monsters We Make (Norton, 2025). She has written for the New Yorker, the New York Times Magazine, The Atlantic, and other publications. She grew up in Iowa and lives in New York City.Special guest Rachel Corbett joins Tea, Tonic & Toxin to discuss her book The Monsters We Make: Murder, Obsession, and the Rise of Criminal Profiling.Criminal profiling―the delicate art of collecting and deciphering the psychological “fingerprints” of the monsters among us―holds an almost mythological status in pop culture. But what exactly is it, does it work, and why is the American public so entranced by it? What do we gain, and endanger, from studying why people commit murder? In The Monsters We Make, author Rachel Corbett explores how criminal profiling became one of society’s most seductive and quixotic undertakings through five significant moments in its history.Rachel Corbett follows Arthur Conan Doyle through the London alleyways where Jack the Ripper butchered his victims, depicts the tailgate outside of Ted Bundy’s execution, and visits the remote Montana cabin where Ted Kaczynski assembled his antiestablishment bombs.Along the way emerge the people who studied and unraveled these cases. We meet self-taught psychologist Henry Murray, who profiled Adolf Hitler at the request of the U.S. government and later profiled his own students―including the future Unabomber―by subjecting them to cruel humiliation experiments. We also meet the prominent Yale psychiatrist Dorothy Lewis, who ended up testifying that Bundy was too sick to stand trial.Finally, Corbett takes the story into our own time, explaining the rise of modern “predictive policing” policies through a study of one Florida family that the analytics targeted―to devastating effects.With narrative intrigue and deft research, Corbett delves deep into the mythology and reality of criminal profilers, revealing how thin the line can be separating those who do harm and those who claim to stop it.Buy The Monsters We MakeRachel Corbett – Where the Story BeginsYour book begins on May 13, 1993, when you were six years old. Can you take us back to that day and tell us what happened?You knew Scott as a kind and protective person who seemed very different from your father. Years later, you learned that before taking his own life, he had killed his girlfriend and his dog. What was it like to discover that the story you’d grown up with wasn’t the whole story?You spent two years going through police records, interviewing witnesses, and trying to understand Scott. At one point you describe studying his photo for some visible trace of monstrosity. Did you feel that if you looked closely enough, there had to be an explanation?Edgar Allan Poe, Arthur Conan Doyle, and the Mystery TraditionThe Tea, Tonic & Toxin podcast and book club has discussed The Murders in the Rue Morgue and The Purloined Letter, along with A Study in Scarlet and The Hound of the Baskervilles. The first criminal profilers were fictional. Rachel Corbett, how did Edgar Allan Poe and Arthur Conan Doyle help create the idea of the criminal profiler?You write that profiling is often a “quixotic, haphazard blend of science and fiction.” Arthur Conan Doyle didn’t simply write Sherlock Holmes; he tried to apply Holmes’s methods to real crimes, including Jack the Ripper. What happens when a method that works great within the controlled universe of fiction gets applied to messy human reality?Sherlock Holmes begins with a clue and reasons backward toward a person. That’s immensely satisfying to readers. Has detective fiction taught us to expect real crime to be similarly solvable—that every behavior must ultimately point toward an answer?Crippen and LandruThe very best in short mystery fictionDisclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.Support the showhttps://www.instagram.com/teatonicandtoxin/https://www.facebook.com/teatonicandtoxinhttps://www.teatonicandtoxin.comStay mysterious...

Send us Fan MailZ.J. Czupor has joined us TWICE to discuss Gaudy Night by Dorothy L. Sayers and Died in the Wool by Ngaio Marsh.His new murder mystery, Dead Men Don’t Drink, is published at zoltanjames.substack.com. He’s also the author of THE BIG WEIRD: Haikus in Times of Pandemic and Chaos. He is immediate past president of Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers and an active member of Mystery Writers of America and International Thriller Writers.History of Mystery book selections available in our Amazon Storefront or support your favorite local bookstore in our Bookshop Storefront as well! Guests have their own list here!Or if you happen to be in lovely Roanoke, Virginia, stop in person at the BiblioPub to get your copy.Watch clips from our conversations with guests!For bonus episodes and to get all episodes first, join our Patreon community.He is also the author of THE BIG WEIRD: Haikus in Times of Pandemic and Chaos, a collection of sublime poetry about his observations of the pandemic. More of his haiku poems are featured in Stop the World: Snapshots from a Pandemic, (Thalia Press), which includes authors, poets and essayists from around the world.His noir short story, The Man in the Corner, is featured in Crossing Colfax, by Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers.4. The Victim: Flossie as Power, Personality, and ProvocationFlossie is no shrinking-violet. How does Ngaio Marsh make her presence linger after she’s gone—through portraiture, reputation, household dynamics, and the aftershocks of her control?Flossie: Heroic public servant or unbearable authoritarian benefactor? What does the book seem to want us to feel about women who take up space publicly?Why would someone want Flossie dead? Rank the motive categories: personal resentment, romantic rivalry, political threat, ideological conflict, or something colder.5. Class, Gratitude, and the “Patron” ProblemThere’s a recurring tension around patronage—who is “helping” whom, and what that help costs. What does the book say about gratitude as a weapon?When a benefactor decides they’re entitled to your future, is that kindness or coercion? Where do you see the book landing?Several characters in Died in the Wool by Ngaio Marsh feel trapped by the role they’re assigned in the household hierarchy. Who seems most conscious of class—and who uses it as a shield?6. Character Web: Relationships, Pressure, and Emotional TruthLet’s talk characters. Who in this book is most capable of self-deception? Who is most brutally honest? Which characters behaved like adults under wartime pressure, and which behaved like sulky adolescents?Which relationships felt most combustible—and which felt most quietly sad?The idiom suggests fixedness—being set in your nature.Who is most “dyed in the wool” here: the victim, the killer, the ideologue, the loyalist, the snob, the romantic?7. Clues & Craft: Fair Play, Objects, and Alibis in Died in the Wool by Ngaio MarshThe musical alibi: fair, clever, or too cute? Did you enjoy the technicality of it—or did it feel like a trick you’re meant to swallow?What is Ngaio Marsh’s misdirection style here? Is it “hide the clue,” “hide the significance,” or “let you see everything but look the other way”? Which clues felt most “classic puzzle,” and which felt most psychologically revealing?Beyond shock value, what does the wool-bale concealment accomplish? Is it about industry, identity, compression of truth, the station’s economy, the idea of being packaged and exported? Does the method feel symbolically New Zealand or gimmicky?)The final trap: thrilling theatre or ethically dicey? Where do you land on detectives who lure the killer into action to prove a case?Fair play court: Did the solution feel genuinely inevitable in hindsight or mostly “authorial magician’s flourish”?Crippen and LandruThe very best in short mystery fictionDisclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.Support the showhttps://www.instagram.com/teatonicandtoxin/https://www.facebook.com/teatonicandtoxinhttps://www.teatonicandtoxin.comStay mysterious...

Send us Fan MailDIED IN THE WOOL (1945) by Ngaio Marsh is a set in the remote New Zealand countryside on a sheep farm during World War II. The story follows Inspector Roderick Alleyn as he investigates the suspicious death of a politician while conducting counter-espionage work.The book is known for its blend of murder mystery and wartime espionage. Marsh’s vivid characterization and clever narrative structure make it a compelling and timeless entry in the genre. She was one of the Queens of Crime, and this novel is among her best.History of Mystery book selections available in our Amazon Storefront or support your favorite local bookstore in our Bookshop Storefront as well! Guests have their own list here!Or if you happen to be in lovely Roanoke, Virginia, stop in person at the BiblioPub to get your copy.Watch clips from our conversations with guests!For bonus episodes and to get all episodes first, join our Patreon community.Z.J. Czupor has joined us TWICE to discuss Gaudy Night by Dorothy L. Sayers and Died in the Wool by Ngaio Marsh.His new murder mystery, Dead Men Don’t Drink, is published at zoltanjames.substack.com. He’s also the author of THE BIG WEIRD: Haikus in Times of Pandemic and Chaos. He is immediate past president of Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers and an active member of Mystery Writers of America and International Thriller Writers. He’s represented by Terrie Wolf (AKA Literary Management).Died in the Wool by Ngaio Marsh1. The Hook & the Vibe in Died in the Wool by Ngaio MarshOpening image: a missing public figure turns up inside a wool bale. Did that seem instantly macabre, instantly weird, instantly kind of funny? What was your initial response?Ngaio Marsh is doing “Golden Age puzzle” in a distinctly New Zealand landscape during wartime. Did that feel like a refreshing shift from the usual manor-house geometry, or did it still read as country-house logic in different clothes and during bleak times?BiblioPubThe cozy reader’s refuge that Roanoke has always needed.Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.Support the showhttps://www.instagram.com/teatonicandtoxin/https://www.facebook.com/teatonicandtoxinhttps://www.teatonicandtoxin.comStay mysterious...

Send us Fan MailOn Fire and Under Water is a new crime fiction anthology from Rock and a Hard Place Press. The anthology explores the intersection of climate change and crime through the lens of 15 short stories from some of today’s best crime fiction writers.Edited by Anthony Award-winning author Curtis Ippolito and the editorial team at RHP Press, the stories peel back the curtain on the ways in which climate change impacts real people in their most desperate hour.Get your copy of our guest's books here! History of Mystery book slections available in our Amazon Storefront or support your favorite local bookstore in our Bookshop Storefront as well! Guests have their own list here!Or if you happen to be in lovely Roanoke, Virginia, stop in person at the BiblioPub to get your copy.Watch clips from our conversations with guests!For bonus episodes and to get all episodes first, join our Patreon community.“The Devil Doesn’t Live Hand to Mouth” is a short story in the anthology by Puja Guha. Mozambique has been hit hard by Cyclone Jasper. Antonio’s Bahia Mar Sanctuary, a boutique resort/coastal B&B, has been destroyed. But he has another option. A Chinese spy, Ernest Mao, has asked Antonio to place a few bugs in the home of the uber-wealthy Fred and Gina.His dream is dead. His resort is gone. He drives a 10-year-old Toyota Corolla. Everything about Fred and Gina is a reminder of what he will never have. Antonio grapples with his decision – what should he do?“Long Night of the Polar Bear” by C.E. McKenna takes place in Longyearbyen, a small coal-mining town on Spitsbergen Island, in Norway’s Svalbard archipelago. Svalbard is between Norway and the North Pole. Atle Solas has been banished by his boss, Vlad, to Svalbard for accidentally killing an old woman during a job. He has a plan for escape: before heading to Svalbard, he had copied the contents of his boss’ daughter’s laptop onto a thumb drive. He has stored the thumb drive in a small cavern carved into the back of the leg of a dancing polar bear in the bar. His plan is to collect €2 million for the contents and retire in Thailand.“No one is allowed to be born on Svalbard and the dead are shipped immediately to be buried off-island. This place is a land of living, but not life, of dying, but not death.”C.E. McKenna is a writer and historian from Colorado. She has history theses in the libraries of Reed College and Oklahoma State, and her short stories have found awards and publication with Writing by Writers, Desperate Literature, Cagibi, Lumina, Quarterly West, Northwest Review, and Shift. In 2022, she completed AWP’s 17th Writer to Writer Mentorship Program, and in 2024 was invited to the Chateau d’Orquevaux for a 4-week writing residency. She is currently an MFA student at Emerson College with an expected graduation of 2026.Most of C.E. McKenna’s work focuses on the untold stories of the American West. Her short fiction and research often deals with the dangers of western environments—particularly wildland fire. Her long-form work combines deft historical research with speculative fiction, resulting in vivid, thrilling pageturners. Her debut novel, The Primary Source, is about the murderous origins of Stanford University.C.E. McKenna lives in Boulder, Colorado, where she works as a software developer and spends her free time traipsing local hiking trails, attempting to avoid moose.Tea, Tonic & Toxin interviews Raymond J. Brash, who discusses his short story “Ban Yuh Belly,” published in On Fire and Under Water: A Climate Change Crime Fiction Anthology. He’s joined by authors Curtis Ipppolito, Puja Guha, and C.E. McKenna.He’s is a Trinidadian-American writer residing in Colorado with his wife and rescue pittie, Bessie.He enjoys reading and writing speculative fiction, noir, and anything that crushes multiple genres into a pulpy, edible mash.Raymond has stories published or forthcoming in The Lines We Cross: Bouchercon 2026 Anthology, On Fire and Under Water: A Climate Change Crime Fiction Anthology, Shotgun Honey, Rock and a Hard Place Press, and others, and has been nominated for a Best of the Net Award. Follow him on Instagram @raymond.j.brash, Bluesky @rjbrash.bsky.social, or visit his website raymondjbrash.work“Ban Yuh Belly” is a short story by Raymond J. Brash published in the anthology. “Ban yuh belly” is Caribbean patios meaning “brace yourself and prepare for hard times. The story is set in Trinidad and Tobago. “Rainy season getting worse and worse by the year,” Jeffrey Perrera says. “And they say God is a Trini.”Jeffrey finds bodies washed up on the shore and takes their money. When we first meet him, he has also taken a watch. Jeffrey tells us, “I don’t read names on cards or stare at pictures too much. It’s easier that way.” Jeffrey is trying to do right by his sister, Denise, and her daughter, Hazel. Denise’s sound and look remind him of Mumzie, their mother.Curtis Ippolito is an Anthony Award-and Derringer Award-winning writer. He is the author of Burying the Newspaper Man and the newly published Waves of Burden.His short stories have appeared in many prominent publications and have been featured in several anthologies. He lives in San Diego and is a member of Mystery Writers of America and serves as vice-president of the San Diego chapter of Sisters in Crime.Support the showhttps://www.instagram.com/teatonicandtoxin/https://www.facebook.com/teatonicandtoxinhttps://www.teatonicandtoxin.comStay mysterious...

Send us Fan MailDEATH COMES AS THE END by Agatha Christie is a groundbreaking historical mystery set in ancient Egypt. When a wealthy patriarch’s death sparks a series of murders within his family, suspicion and secrets abound. It’s the first full-length historical whodunit.History of Mystery book selections available in our Amazon Storefront or support your favorite local bookstore in our Bookshop Storefront as well! Guests have their own list here!Or if you happen to be in lovely Roanoke, Virginia, stop in person at the BiblioPub to get your copy.Watch clips from our conversations with guests!For bonus episodes and to get all episodes first, join our Patreon community.Dr. Nicky Nielsen is a Senior Lecturer in Egyptology at the University of Manchester. Originally from Denmark, he was awarded an AHRC Block Grant to undertake PhD research at the University of Liverpool, investigating subsistence strategies and craft production at the Ramesside fortress site of Zawiyet Umm el-Rakham. He obtained his PhD in 2016.Get your copy of our guest's books here!Read his article Agatha Christie: World’s First Historical Whodunnit Was Inspired by 4,000 Year‑Old LettersAuthor’s Note on Death Comes as the End“The action of this book takes place on the west bank of the Nile at Thebes in Egypt about 2000 B.C. Both places and time are incidental to the story. Any other place at any other time would have served as well, but it so happened that the inspiration of both characters and plot was derived from two or three Egyptian letters of the XIth Dynasty, found during the 1920-1921 season by the Egyptian Expedition of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, in a rock tomb opposite Luxor, and translated by Professor Battiscombe Gunn in the Museum’s Bulletin.“It may be of interest to the reader to note that an endowment for ka-service–an everyday feature of ancient Egyptian civilization–was very similar in principle to a medieval chantry bequest. Property was bequeathed to the ka-priest, in return for which he was expected to maintain the tomb of the testator, and to provide offerings at the tomb on certain feast days throughout the year for the repose of the deceased’s soul.“The terms ‘Brother,’ ‘Sister,’ in Egyptian text regularly meaning ‘Lover,’ are frequently interchangeable with ‘Husband,’ ‘Wife.’ They are so used on occasion in this book.“The agricultural calendar of Ancient Egypt, consisting of three seasons of four months of thirty days, formed the background of peasant life, and with the addition of five intercalary days at the end of the year, was used as the official calendar of 365 days to the year. This ‘year’ originally began with the arrival in Egypt of the flood-water of the Nile in the third week of July by our reckoning. The absence of a leap year caused this to lag through the centuries, so that at the opening of the agricultural year, i.e. in January instead of July. To save the reader from continually having to make allowance for this six months, however, the dates here used as chapter headings are calculated by the agricultural year of the time, i.e., Inundation–late July to late November; Winter–late November to late March; and Summer–late March to late July.”Characters in Death Comes as the EndImhotep, a mortuary priest (ka-priest); fussily pompous; provider for his large householdNofret, Imhotep’s beautiful young concubine, newly arrived from the northEsa, Imhotep’s mother; blunt-spoken, disdainful of much of her family; she calls her son a foolRenisenb (ren-eh-seb), Imhotep’s recently widowed daughter (husband Khay); mother of TetiYahmose, Imhotep’s eldest son; he’s kind and hesitant, rarely asserting his rights as eldest sonSatipy (sah-tee-pee), Yahmose’s wife; tall, energetic, loud woman who bullied her husbandSobek, Imhotep’s second son; handsome braggart who resents his dependent statusKait, Sobek’s wife; her love for her children dominated her every word and actIpy (ee-pee), Imhotep’s youngest son; only his father could tolerate his adolescent arroganceHenet, obsequious, malicious family retainer, poor relation of Ashayet, Imhotep’s dead wifeHori, Imhotep’s family’s scribe and man of business; he is in love with RenisenbKameni, a handsome scribe and kinsman from the North; he sings songs of love for RenisenbCrippen and LandruThe very best in short mystery fictionDisclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.Support the showhttps://www.instagram.com/teatonicandtoxin/https://www.facebook.com/teatonicandtoxinhttps://www.teatonicandtoxin.comStay mysterious...

Send us Fan MailDEATH COMES AS THE END by Agatha Christie is a groundbreaking historical mystery set in ancient Egypt. When a wealthy patriarch’s death sparks a series of murders within his family, suspicion and secrets abound. It’s the first full-length historical whodunit.Get your copy of our guest's books here! History of Mystery book slections available in our Amazon Storefront or support your favorite local bookstore in our Bookshop Storefront as well! Guests have their own list here!Or if you happen to be in lovely Roanoke, Virginia, stop in person at the BiblioPub to get your copy.Watch clips from our conversations with guests!For bonus episodes, video conversations, and to get all episodes first, join our Patreon community.Dr. Nicky Nielsen is a Senior Lecturer in Egyptology at the University of Manchester. Originally from Denmark, he was awarded an AHRC Block Grant to undertake PhD research at the University of Liverpool, investigating subsistence strategies and craft production at the Ramesside fortress site of Zawiyet Umm el-Rakham. He obtained his PhD in 2016.Nicky Nielsen has excavated in Europe, Turkey and Egypt, and he is currently the field director of the University of Liverpool Tell Nabasha Survey Project, which conducts archaeological investigations of the ancient city of Imet located in the north-eastern Nile Delta.He has published several peer-reviewed papers, as well as more public-oriented articles, and he is the author of ‘Pharaoh Seti I’ (2018), ‘From Mummies to Microchips’ (2020, co-authored with Professor Joyce Tyldesley) and ‘Egyptomaniacs: How We Became Obsessed with Ancient Egypt’ (2020).Read his article Agatha Christie: World’s First Historical Whodunnit Was Inspired by 4,000 Year‑Old LettersIn Death Comes as the End by Agatha Christie (1944), the Queen of Mystery transports us to ancient Egypt. In 2000 BC, death gives meaning to life. At the foot of a cliff lies the body of Nofret, concubine to a ka-priest. Many see it as fate—the beautiful, venomous young woman deserved to die.But the priest’s daughter suspects foul play and believes the evil-doer lurks within their household—and watches helplessly as the family’s passions explode in murder.The novel reflects Christie’s fascination with the ancient world, inspired by her time in the Middle East with her archaeologist husband, Sir Max Mallowan. It’s the first full-length novel to merge historical fiction with the mystery genre, paving the way for the historical whodunit.BiblioPubThe cozy reader’s refuge that Roanoke has always needed.Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.Support the showhttps://www.instagram.com/teatonicandtoxin/https://www.facebook.com/teatonicandtoxinhttps://www.teatonicandtoxin.comStay mysterious...

Send us Fan MailHOME SWEET HOMICIDE (1944) by Craig Rice is a classic in the mystery genre that features three resourceful siblings determined to solve a neighborhood murder. Rice’s sharp wit and unique approach to the detective genre earned her widespread acclaim, including a rare Time Magazine cover, solidifying her legacy as one of the most distinctive voices in mystery fiction.Jeff Marks, publisher at Crippen and Landru, joins us to discuss Home Sweet Homicide by Craig Rice. He wrote Craig Rice’s bio (Who Was That Lady?) and has been nominated for an Edgar, three Agathas, and many other awards.Get your copy of our guest's books here! History of Mystery book slections available in our Amazon Storefront or support your favorite local bookstore in our Bookshop Storefront as well! Guests have their own list here!Or if you happen to be in lovely Roanoke, Virginia, stop in person at the BiblioPub to get your copy.Watch clips from our conversations with guests!For bonus episodes and to get all episodes first, join our Patreon community.Real Violence vs. Comic Framing in Home Sweet Homicide by Craig RiceDoes the novel successfully balance murder with comedy? Did the comedy ever undermine the stakes for you, or did it actually make the danger feel stranger and sharper? How does the novel handle blackmail, kidnapping, murder, and corruption? How does this novel make murder funny without making it weightless?What moments in the book reminded you that murder is serious business and is not, in fact, just a game for the children?Craig Rice is often praised for blending mystery with screwball comedy. (Carolyn even noted some similarities to The Brady Bunch.) She has been called the Dorothy Parker of detective fiction—do you agree with this assessment?Are there moments where the book feels almost like a film comedy rather than a traditional novel?Crime Fiction About Crime FictionThis is a mystery about children who have absorbed detective conventions from their mother’s books. How self-aware is the novel about mystery tropes?Is the book an affectionate satire of detective fiction? Or a love letter to the genre’s imaginative power?How effective is the actual puzzle once you set aside the comedy? Is it a strong mystery in its own right? Is the mystery itself strong enough to survive if you stripped away the charm?The book keeps introducing suspects, hidden histories, false identities, and side scandals. Did that feel delightfully layered or did you have trouble keeping track of all the details?The Social World / Historical Context of Home Sweet Homicide by Craig RicePublished in 1944, the novel sits in a wartime America full of newspapers, movie culture, celebrity, crime magazines, and public scandal. In what ways does that broader world shape the book’s energy?How important is class in this book? Is it less rigid than in British mysteries, or simply rearranged into American forms of status and aspiration?For all the jokes and plotting, this is also a very affectionate portrait of a family. What makes Marian and the children believable as a family unit? What about this family gives the book its emotional warmth? Why do the kids want their mom to marry Bill Smith? Are they looking for a father? Are they trying to reduce their mother’s workload?What do you make of the book’s title?Jeffrey Marks received a grant while working on that book. It was nominated for an Agatha and, fittingly, won an Anthony Award. Marks is currently working on a biography of Erle Stanley Gardner, a book on Gardner’s work with his Pre-Innocence Project, Court of Last Resort, and a dual biography of the two men who wrote as Ellery Queen.In 2014, Jeffrey Marks offered to help Doug Greene fix issues with the Crippen & Landru Publishers website. After fixing those issues, he proceeded to upgrade the website to a new shopping cart software package. That led to creating a more robust eBook program. In 2018, Doug Greene retired (to become Senior Editor) and Marks took over the company.Jeffrey Marks has been nominated for a Maxwell award (DWAA), an Edgar (MWA), three Agathas (Malice Domestic), two Macavity awards, and three Anthony awards (Bouchercon). Marks retired from teaching in 2020, today, he writes from his home in Cincinnati, which he shares with his spouse and two dogs.Crippen and LandruThe very best in short mystery fictionDisclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.Support the showhttps://www.instagram.com/teatonicandtoxin/https://www.facebook.com/teatonicandtoxinhttps://www.teatonicandtoxin.comStay mysterious...

Send us Fan MailJeffrey Marks (publisher, Crippen and Landru) joins us to discuss Home Sweet Homicide (1944), written by Craig Rice.After numerous mystery author profiles for The Armchair Detective, Mystery Scene, and other genre publications, Jeffrey Marks chose to chronicle the short but full life of mystery writer Craig Rice. That biography (Who Was That Lady?) encouraged him to write mystery fiction.He has been nominated for a Maxwell Award (DWAA), an Edgar (MWA), three Agathas (Malice Domestic), two Macavity Awards, and three Anthony Awards (Bouchercon).Get your copy of our guest's books here! History of Mystery book slections now in our Bookshop Storefront as well! Guests have their own list here!Or if you happen to be in lovely Roanoke, Virginia, stop in person at the BiblioPub to get your copy.Watch clips from our conversations with guests!HOME SWEET HOMICIDE (1944) by Craig Rice is a classic in the mystery genre for its clever combination of humor and an engaging plot. Featuring three resourceful siblings determined to solve a neighborhood murder, the novel highlights Rice’s knack for lighthearted storytelling and crafting intricate puzzles. The children’s enthusiasm for amateur sleuthing adds a whimsical (and relatable) touch.Rice’s sharp wit and unique approach to the detective genre earned her widespread acclaim, including a rare Time Magazine cover, solidifying her legacy as one of the most distinctive voices in mystery fiction.First Impressions About Home Sweet Homicide by Craig Rice: The Carstairs Children as DetectivesWhat was your first reaction to the Carstairs children? Endearing, exhausting, too clever by half, or instantly relatable and irresistible? (Carolyn particularly loved how they tracked expenditures and measured and divided amounts and quantities of food and drink—she and her siblings did the same.)The children think that reading mystery fiction has trained them for real detection. Is the novel making fun of that idea, celebrating it, or both?How does the sibling dynamic shape the story? Would the mystery work as well without the constant bargaining, bickering, loyalty, King Tut dialogue, and shared invention? Who’s the brains, who’s the strategist, who’s the pragmatist, and who’s the chaos engine?Craig Rice and Marian Carstairs: Mothers, Writers, WorkersMarian is a working widow supporting her family by producing popular crime novels at warp speed. What does the book suggest about women’s work—especially Marian’s endless labor as mother and writer? How unusual or modern did she feel as a protagonist, even when she’s not technically the central sleuth?What does the book suggest about the life of a woman writer—especially one writing under multiple (male) names and trying to turn imagination into income?The children are deeply invested in getting Marian both publicity and romance. In what ways do the children act like parents? In what ways does Marian act childlike?Gender, Performance, and IdentityWhat does the novel do with feminine performance—movie glamour, flirtation, false helplessness, beauty, tears, “slick chicks,” and social manipulation? Do you think the book is poking fun at gender roles—or quietly depending on them to make the machinery work?Like Craig Rice herself, Marian writes under male names. The book keeps circling questions of presentation, alias, performance, and reinvention. How important is that to the novel’s worldview?How does Marian compare with other women in Golden Age crime fiction?Crippen and LandruThe very best in short mystery fictionDisclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.Support the showhttps://www.instagram.com/teatonicandtoxin/https://www.facebook.com/teatonicandtoxinhttps://www.teatonicandtoxin.comStay mysterious...

Send us Fan MailMaureen 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?Get your copy of our guest's books here! History of Mystery book slections now in our Bookshop Storefront as well! Guests have their own list here!Or if you happen to be in lovely Roanoke, Virginia, stop in person at the BiblioPub to get your copy.Watch clips from our conversations with guests!For bonus episodes and to get all episodes first, join our Patreon community.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 VillageDear 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 PoliceLinden BotanicalsWe sell the world’s healthiest herbal teas and extracts.Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.Support the showhttps://www.instagram.com/teatonicandtoxin/https://www.facebook.com/teatonicandtoxinhttps://www.teatonicandtoxin.comStay mysterious...

Send us Fan MailSpecial 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?Get your copy of all of our History of Mystery book selections here! (including even some 2027 selections)History of Mystery book slections now in our Bookshop Storefront as well! Support your local bookseller.Or if you happen to be in lovely Roanoke, Virginia, stop in person at the BiblioPub to get your copy.Watch clips from our conversations with guests!For bonus episodes and to get all episodes first, join our Patreon community.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.BiblioPubThe cozy reader’s refuge that Roanoke has always needed.Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.Support the showhttps://www.instagram.com/teatonicandtoxin/https://www.facebook.com/teatonicandtoxinhttps://www.teatonicandtoxin.comStay mysterious...

Send us Fan MailWe 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.Get your copy of all of our History of Mystery book selections here! (including even some 2027 selections)History of Mystery book slections now in our Bookshop Storefront as well! Support your local bookseller.Or if you happen to be in lovely Roanoke, Virginia, stop in person at the BiblioPub to get your copy.Watch clips from our conversations with guests!For bonus episodes and to get all episodes first, join our Patreon community.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.Crippen and LandruThe very best in short mystery fictionDisclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.Support the showhttps://www.instagram.com/teatonicandtoxin/https://www.facebook.com/teatonicandtoxinhttps://www.teatonicandtoxin.comStay mysterious...

Send us Fan MailSergio 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.Get your copy of all of our History of Mystery book selections here! (including even some 2027 selections)History of Mystery book slections now in our Bookshop Storefront as well! Support your local bookseller.Or if you happen to be in lovely Roanoke, Virginia, stop in person at the BiblioPub to get your copy.Watch clips from our conversations with guests!For bonus episodes and to get all episodes first, join our Patreon community.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?Crippen and LandruThe very best in short mystery fictionDisclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.Support the showhttps://www.instagram.com/teatonicandtoxin/https://www.facebook.com/teatonicandtoxinhttps://www.teatonicandtoxin.comStay mysterious...

Send us Fan MailGREEN 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)History of Mystery book slections now in our Bookshop Storefront as well! Support your local bookseller.Or if you happen to be in lovely Roanoke, Virginia, stop in person at the BiblioPub to get your copy.Watch clips from our conversations with guests!For bonus episodes and to get all episodes first, join our Patreon community.Characters & Relationships in Green for Danger by Christianna BrandThe characters are intensely intertwined—romantically, professionally, emotionally. Did that closeness heighten the tension for you, or did the story veer into melodrama?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?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?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?  BiblioPubThe cozy reader’s refuge that Roanoke has always needed.Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.Support the showhttps://www.instagram.com/teatonicandtoxin/https://www.facebook.com/teatonicandtoxinhttps://www.teatonicandtoxin.comStay mysterious...

Send us Fan MailWe 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.Get your copy of all of our History of Mystery book selections here! (including even some 2027 selections)History of Mystery book slections now in our Bookshop Storefront as well! Support your local bookseller.Watch clips from our conversations with guests!For bonus episodes and to get all episodes first, join our Patreon community.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.Support the showhttps://www.instagram.com/teatonicandtoxin/https://www.facebook.com/teatonicandtoxinhttps://www.teatonicandtoxin.comStay mysterious...

Send us Fan MailTHE 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.Get your copy of all of our History of Mystery book selections here! (including even some 2027 selections)History of Mystery book slections now in our Bookshop Storefront as well! Support your local bookseller.Watch clips from our conversations with guests!For bonus episodes and to get all episodes first, join our Patreon community.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 FearSet 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.”Support the showhttps://www.instagram.com/teatonicandtoxin/https://www.facebook.com/teatonicandtoxinhttps://www.teatonicandtoxin.comStay mysterious...

Send us Fan Mail2025 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!Get your copy of all of our History of Mystery book selections here! (including even some 2027 selections)History of Mystery book slections now in our Bookshop Storefront as well!Watch clips from our conversations with guests!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.Support the showhttps://www.instagram.com/teatonicandtoxin/https://www.facebook.com/teatonicandtoxinhttps://www.teatonicandtoxin.comStay mysterious...

Send us Fan MailRear 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 book was inspired by “Through a Window” by H. G. Wells. The tight pacing and psychological depth create a gripping sense of unease. As the basis for Alfred Hitchcock’s iconic film, the story’s enduring legacy lies in its ability to turn an ordinary setting into a stage for extraordinary suspense, influencing many works in the thriller genre.Get your copy of all of our History of Mystery book selections here! (including even some 2027 selections)History of Mystery book slections now in our Bookshop Storefront as well!Watch clips from our conversations with guests!Voyeurism and the Confined ObserverDue to his injury, Jeff spends most of his time looking out the window, scrutinizing the lives of his neighbors. He has the “fevered concentration of a Peeping Tom. That wasn’t my fault. … what should I do, sit there with my eyes tightly shuttered?”The story by Cornell Woolrich explores the idea of observing others’ lives from a distance and the potential for misinterpretation and obsession that can arise from such behavior. The Daily Habits of the Rear Window Dwellers“I didn’t know their names. I’d never heard their voices. I didn’t even know them by sight, strictly speaking, for their faces were too small to fill in with identifiable features at that distance. Yet I could have constructed a timetable of their comings and goings, their daily habits and activities.”“The lights started to come on around the quadrangle. … The chain of little habits that were their lives unreeled themselves. They were all bound in them tighter than the tightest straitjacket any jailer ever devised, though they all thought themselves free. The jitterbugs made their nightly dash for the great open spaces, forgot their lights, he came careening back, thumbed them out, and their place was dark until the early morning hours. The woman put her child to bed, leaned mournfully over its cot, then sat down with heavy despair to redden her mouth.”When Mrs. Thorvald doesn’t come out to greet her husband, the “first link, of the so-strong chain of habits, of custom, that binds us all, had snapped wide open.”Cornell Woolrich Builds Empathy … and Breaks It“I felt sorry for the couple in the flat below. I used to wonder how they stood it with that bedlam going on above their heads. To make it worse the wife was in chronic poor health, too; I could tell that even at a distance by the listless way she moved about over there, and remained in her bathrobe without dressing. Sometimes I’d see her sitting by the window, holding her head. I used to wonder why he didn’t have a doctor in to look her over, but maybe they couldn’t afford it. He seemed to be out of work.”Linden BotanicalsWe sell the world’s healthiest herbal teas and extracts.Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.Support the showhttps://www.instagram.com/teatonicandtoxin/https://www.facebook.com/teatonicandtoxinhttps://www.teatonicandtoxin.comStay mysterious...

Send us Fan MailL. Wayne Hicks joins Tea, Tonic & Toxin to discuss The Rat Began to Gnaw the Rope,  published in 1943 by C. W. Grafton (father of Sue Grafton).L. Wayne Hicks is a freelance writer who covered real-life crimes for newspapers in Florida and Colorado. He has written profiles of many mystery writers including Sara Paretsky, Michael Connelly, John Dunning, Robert B. Parker, Donald J. Sobol, Stephen White, and C. W. Grafton.Get your copy of all of our History of Mystery book selections here! (including even some 2027 selections)History of Mystery book slections now in our Bookshop Storefront as well!Watch clips from our conversations with guests!L. Wayne Hicks has been a lifelong fan of mysteries, beginning with The Hardy Boys and The Three Investigators books. As a newspaper reporter in Florida, he covered criminal trials and was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize for an investigative project that wound up helping to free a man wrongly convicted of murder after more than 20 years in prison.He has interviewed and profiled such acclaimed mystery novelists as Jeffery Deaver, Michael Connelly, Ridley Pearson, John Dunning, Sara Paretsky, Stephen White, and Donald J. Sobol.Hicks writes for various magazines and websites, including CrimeReads.com, where he profiled C.W. Grafton and explored the continuation of Robert B. Parker’s Spenser series.Hicks’ first book, a nonfiction tale about the children’s television series Romper Room, will be published in 2026.About The Rat Began to Gnaw the RopeThe 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.Sue Grafton wrote the famous “alphabet series.” C.W. Grafton’s work also holds historical significance, reflecting a legacy of inventive storytelling in mystery fiction.Discussion Questions for L. Wayne HicksYou’ve profiled many mystery writers—from Sara Paretsky and Michael Connelly to John Dunning and now C. W. Grafton. What do you look for when deciding which authors to explore in depth?You’ve covered both true crime and fictional crime throughout your career. How has reporting on real-life cases shaped the way you understand or interpret mystery fiction?As a longtime journalist and storyteller, what draws you personally to the mystery genre—and what lessons from your reporting life do you bring to your literary profiles?Linden BotanicalsWe sell the world’s healthiest herbal teas and extracts.Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.Support the showhttps://www.instagram.com/teatonicandtoxin/https://www.facebook.com/teatonicandtoxinhttps://www.teatonicandtoxin.comStay mysterious...

Send us Fan MailL. Wayne Hicks joins Tea, Tonic & Toxin to discuss The Rat Began to Gnaw the Rope,  published in 1943 by C. W. Grafton (father of Sue Grafton).L. Wayne Hicks is a freelance writer who covered real-life crimes for newspapers in Florida and Colorado. He has written profiles of many mystery writers including Sara Paretsky, Michael Connelly, John Dunning, Robert B. Parker, Donald J. Sobol, Stephen White, and C. W. Grafton.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.Sue Grafton wrote the famous “alphabet series.” C.W. Grafton’s work also holds historical significance, reflecting a legacy of inventive storytelling in mystery fiction.Get your copy of all of our History of Mystery book selections here! (including even some 2027 selections)Watch clips from our conversations with guests!Access bonus content as a Patreon subscriber as well.The Life and Career of C. W. Grafton, Father of Sue GraftonGrafton led a fascinating double life as a practicing lawyer and novelist. How might his legal training have shaped the voice, pacing, or logic of his fiction—and might writing fiction have helped him think differently about the law?Grafton spent his early years as the child of missionaries in China. Based on what you’ve learned, what elements of that unusual upbringing—cultural displacement, observation, alienation—do you see reflected in his worldview or narrative style?C. W. Grafton seemed torn between creative ambition and professional responsibility. How does that tension surface in his work or in his private correspondence? Did he ever try to reconcile the “lawyer” and the “storyteller” within himself?How would you characterize Grafton’s personality—especially his humor, his self-awareness (or self-deprecation), and his feelings about success and failure?The Writing and ThemesThe Rat Began to Gnaw the Rope won the Mary Roberts Rinehart Prize in 1943. What set this debut apart from its contemporaries? Was it the humor, the voice, the unusual protagonist, the legal realism, or something else entirely?For modern readers encountering the novel for the first time, what should they expect stylistically? How well does the book’s blend of hard-boiled grit, small-town politics, and sharp wit hold up today?Grafton mixes genuine violence with laugh-out-loud humor—Gil getting “anatomical difficulties” in a new suit, deadpan one-liners, and witty observational asides. How successful was at balancing this humor with the darker elements of the plot?Gil Henry is such an unusual protagonist: pudgy, mild-mannered, YMCA resident, overly thoughtful at all the wrong times, yet also dogged and surprisingly gutsy. What does Gil’s characterization reveal about Grafton’s idea of heroism—or of justice?The nursery-rhyme title signals a larger conceptual game, possibly a series. What evidence do we have about whether Grafton intended additional Gil Henry books—and why did he pivot away?Support the showhttps://www.instagram.com/teatonicandtoxin/https://www.facebook.com/teatonicandtoxinhttps://www.teatonicandtoxin.comStay mysterious...

Send us Fan MailThe 2026 book list revealed and discussed. What was selected and why? Do you agree? Disagree? Have authors to add?Get your copy of all of our History of Mystery book selections here! (including even some 2027 selections)Watch clips from our conversations with guests!January 2026Publication: 1943THE MINISTRY OF FEAR by Graham Greene is a thrilling blend of espionage and psychological mystery set in wartime London. Publication: 1944GREEN FOR DANGER by Christianna Brand is a masterful wartime mystery set in a British hospital during the Blitz.  It’s a standout in Golden Age detective fiction.March 2026Publication: 1944DEATH COMES AS THE END by Agatha Christie is a groundbreaking historical mystery set in ancient Egypt.  It’s the first full-length historical whodunit.April 2026Publication: 1944HOME SWEET HOMICIDE by Craig Rice features a trio of resourceful siblings who set out to solve a murder in their neighborhood. The novel exemplifies Rice’s talent for blending lighthearted storytelling with intricate puzzles, earning her acclaim in the genre — and a Time Magazine cover.May 2025Publication: 1945DIED IN THE WOOL by Ngaio Marsh is a compelling mystery set on a remote New Zealand sheep farm. Marsh was one of the Queens of Crime, and this novel is among her best.June 2025Publication: 1946THE MOVING TOYSHOP by Edmund Crispin is an ingenious mystery featuring eccentric Oxford professor Gervase Fen.  Celebrated for its wit and inventive plot, it’s a crime fiction classic.July 2026Publication: 1946THE HORIZONTAL MAN by Helen Eustis is a psychological mystery set in an Ivy League women’s college.  But as the investigation unfolds, the line between sanity and madness begins to blur.August 2026Publication: 1946THE BIG CLOCK by Kenneth Fearing is a thriller-noir about a man trapped inside the machinery of a powerful publishing empire. This classic inspired the film No Way Out.September 2026Publication: 1947THE FABULOUS CLIPJOINT by Fredric Brown is a gritty mystery about the search for truth. Their investigation takes them through the burlesque houses, bars, and back alleys of Chicago.October 2026Publication: 1947IN A LONELY PLACE by Dorothy B. Hughes is a haunting psychological noir told from the perspective of a charming but deeply disturbed war veteran. As a series of L.A. stranglings terrifies the city, the truth about the protagonist’s volatile desires and violent impulses slowly unravel.November 2026Publication: 1947THE BLANK WALL by Elisabeth Sanxay Holding a suspenseful psychological thriller about an ordinary woman who becomes entangled in a man’s suspicious death while protecting her daughter from inside her seemingly quiet home. December 2026Publication: 1948THE FRANCHISE AFFAIR by Josephine Tey is a mystery centered on a disturbing accusation. The novel is celebrated for its nuanced psychology and dismantling of falseLinden BotanicalsWe sell the world’s healthiest herbal teas and extracts.Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.Support the showhttps://www.instagram.com/teatonicandtoxin/https://www.facebook.com/teatonicandtoxinhttps://www.teatonicandtoxin.comStay mysterious...

Send us Fan MailTea, Tonic & Toxin is a history of mystery book club and podcast. We’re reading the best mysteries ever written and interviewing some of the world’s best contemporary mystery and thriller writers.LAURA by Vera Caspary (1943) is a sophisticated mystery that blends romance and psychological intrigue. Told through shifting perspectives, it follows a detective investigating the murder of a glamorous ad exec. It remains a cornerstone of noir fiction.Otto Preminger’s 1944 film version is also a stunner. The American Film Institute named it one of the 10 best mystery films of all time.Get your copy of Laura and all of our History of Mystery book selections here!Watch clips from our conversations with guests!Waldo Lydecker in Laura by Vera CasparyHe met the “lovely child” eight years earlier when she tried to get him to endorse a Byron fountain pen. He describes her as a “fawn and fawn-like,” a “Bambi.”He’s an omniscient narrator and interpreter. He describes scenes he never saw and dialogues he never heard. “My written dialogue will have more clarity, compatness, and essence of character than their spoken lines, for I am able to edit while I write, whereas they carried on their conversations in a loose and pointless fashion with no sense of form or crisis in the building of their scenes” (19).Waldo saw everything through the lens of his own emotions. He thought of Laura as a perfect innocent protégée, Shelby as the false hero, and Mark as a little boy he could toy with. McPherson about Waldo: “You’re smooth all right, but you’ve got nothing to say” (9).The restaurant he and Laura dined at is Montagnino’s. Slum smells mix with the smells of luscious Italian food and a rising storm. Waldo and Mark eat mussels cooked with mustard greens in a chianti, along with a chicken fried in olive oil, laid on a bed of yellow taglierini, garlanded with mushrooms and red peppers. They drink wine Lacrymae Christi (“Christ’s tear”) (produced on the slopes of Mt. Vesuvius, it’s the nearest equivalent of the wine drunk by ancient Romans).Waldo sees in Claudius’s window a duplicate of the vase made of mercury glass that he had given Laura. Learning the piece has been sold, he breaks it. “He stood in the rain, looking back at Claudius’s shop and smiling. Almost as if he’d got the vase anyway” (105).At the end of Laura by Vera Caspary, in the ambulance and at the hospital, Waldo keeps talking about himself in the third person. “He was like a hero a boy had always worshipped” (171).Detective Mark McPherson“A two-timing dame gets murdered in her flat. So what? … I’m a workingman, I’ve got hours like everyone else. And if you expect me to work overtime on this third-class mystery, you’re thinking of a couple other fellows” (8). Soon thereafter, Waldo sees the light on in Laura’s apartment. “I knew that a young man who had once scorned overtime had given his heart to a job” (39).He walks with a limp from a shootout (The Siege of Babylon, Long Island). How he lives: “The steel furniture in my bedroom reminded me of a dentist’s office. There wasn’t a comfortable chair in the room” (65). Waldo thinks he’s a misogynist and thinks “his heart was guarded” (35).A female reporter uses female tricks, saying, “I shouldn’t mind being murdered half so much … if you were the detective seeking clues to my private life” (35).Linden BotanicalsWe sell the world’s healthiest herbal teas and extracts.Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.Support the showhttps://www.instagram.com/teatonicandtoxin/https://www.facebook.com/teatonicandtoxinhttps://www.teatonicandtoxin.comStay mysterious...

Send us Fan MailMike Ripley joins Tea, Tonic & Toxin to discuss Margery Allingham’s Albert Campion novels, along with his latest novel in the series, Mr Campion’s Christmas.Mike Ripley completed the third Albert Campion novel left unfinished on the death of Pip Youngman Carter (Margery Allingham’s husband) in 1969. Mr Campion’s Farewell was published in 2014, and Mike has continued the Campion series annually with the twelfth and final book in the series, Mr Campion’s Christmas, appearing in 2024.Check out Mike Ripley's work here.Watch clips from our conversations with guests!Join our  Patreon community here! It's free to join, with extra perks for members at every level.Mike Ripley joined Carolyn Daughters and Sarah Harrison to discuss the Margery Allingham Campion novels and his latest book in the series, Mr Campion’s Christmas.Mike is the author of 28 novels, including the award-winning ‘Angel’ series of comedy thrillers and one of the few authors to win the Crime Writers’ Last Laugh Award twice. From 1989 to 2008, he was a crime fiction critic for The Daily Telegraph and then The Birmingham Post, reviewing more than 950 crime novels. He co-edited three volumes of Fresh Blood stories by new British writers, including Ian Rankin, Lee Child, Ken Bruen, Charlie Higson, and Christopher Brookmyre. He was also a scriptwriter on the BBC’s series Lovejoy.Mike Ripley completed the third Albert Campion novel left unfinished on the death of Pip Youngman Carter (husband of Margery Allingham) in 1969. Mr Campion’s Farewell was published in the UK and the US in 2014, and Mike has continued the Campion series annually with the twelfth and final book in the series, Mr Campion’s Christmas, appearing in 2024. Described by The Times as “England’s funniest crime writer,” Mike is a respected critic of crime fiction, writing for the Guardian, Daily Telegraph, and The Times. He writes the monthly “Getting Away With Murder” column on Shots Magazine. He was the series editor of the Ostara Crime and Top Notch Thrillers imprints, rescuing and reviving more than a hundred crime novels and thrillers that did not deserve to be forgotten. He also became known as the unofficial historian of the British thriller after the publication of “Kiss Kiss Bang Bang,” which won the 2018 H.R.F. Keating Award for non-fiction.Mike Ripley first learned of the final unfinished Albert Campion novel when he was a guest speaker at the Margery Allingham Society’s annual convention. He offered – and received the Margery Allingham Society’s blessing – to complete the manuscript on the adventures of Albert Campion, who Ripley describes as “one of the brightest stars in the rich firmament of British crime writing.”Support the showhttps://www.instagram.com/teatonicandtoxin/https://www.facebook.com/teatonicandtoxinhttps://www.teatonicandtoxin.comStay mysterious...

Send us Fan MailTea, Tonic & Toxin is a history of mystery book club and podcast. We’re reading the best mysteries ever written and interviewing some of the world’s best contemporary mystery and thriller writers.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.Known for its psychological depth, the book blends 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.Get your book here!Or check out Mike Ripley's work here.Watch clips from our conversations with guests!Join our  Patreon community here! It's free to join, with extra perks for members at every level.Mike Ripley joins Tea, Tonic & Toxin to discuss Margery Allingham’s Albert Campion novels, along with his latest novel in the series, Mr Campion’s Christmas.Mike Ripley completed the third Albert Campion novel left unfinished on the death of Pip Youngman Carter (Margery Allingham’s husband) in 1969. Mr Campion’s Farewell was published in 2014, and Mike has continued the Campion series annually with the twelfth and final book in the series, Mr Campion’s Christmas, appearing in 2024.Mike Ripley joined Carolyn Daughters and Sarah Harrison to discuss the Margery Allingham Campion novels and his latest book in the series, Mr Campion’s Christmas.Mike is the author of 28 novels, including the award-winning ‘Angel’ series of comedy thrillers and one of the few authors to win the Crime Writers’ Last Laugh Award twice. From 1989 to 2008, he was a crime fiction critic for The Daily Telegraph and then The Birmingham Post, reviewing more than 950 crime novels. He co-edited three volumes of Fresh Blood stories by new British writers, including Ian Rankin, Lee Child, Ken Bruen, Charlie Higson, and Christopher Brookmyre. He was also a scriptwriter on the BBC’s series Lovejoy.Mike Ripley completed the third Albert Campion novel left unfinished on the death of Pip Youngman Carter (husband of Margery Allingham) in 1969. Mr Campion’s Farewell was published in the UK and the US in 2014, and Mike has continued the Campion series annually with the twelfth and final book in the series, Mr Campion’s Christmas, appearing in 2024. Support the showhttps://www.instagram.com/teatonicandtoxin/https://www.facebook.com/teatonicandtoxinhttps://www.teatonicandtoxin.comStay mysterious...

Send us Fan MailTRAITOR’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. Get your book here!Watch clips from our conversations with guests!Join our  Patreon community here! It's free to join, with extra perks for members at every level.Amnesia as a Literary Trope in Traitor’s Purse by Margery AllinghamWhat has happened to the amnesiac? Why is he in a county hospital? Has he killed a police officer? Will he be hanged? Why did he have a lot of money on him when he was found? “There was danger behind him and something tremendously important ahead” (1).“Everyone was turning to himself for assurance. He dared not reveal the dreadful emptiness of his mind. Somehow he must struggle on, blind and halfwitted though he was. There was to be no outside help. He was quite alone” (17).Amnesia is a commonly used storytelling plot device in thrillers and romances. Amnesia offers a fresh perspective: characters can re-evaluate their actions and motivations. Amnesia creates conflict, forcing characters to re-evaluate their lives and relationships. Amnesia creates suspense and mystery as the character tries to piece together their past. The amnesiac often regains memories after being hit on the head.In Traitor’s Purse by Margery Allingham, Campion is knocked unconscious at the police station. When he wakes, he recalls the events before his arrival at the hospital. Other Examples: The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins: Rachel suffers from amnesia related to alcohol consumption and wakes up with no memory of what happened the night before. In the Woods by Tana French, Robert Ludlum’s Bourne Identity, The English Patient, The Time Traveler’s Wife, Memento (Christopher Nolan), Wolverine (Marvel), Ursula Le Guin’s City of Illusions, SeverancePeter Wimsey (Dorothy Sayers) vs. Albert Campion (Margery Allingham)Lord Peter WimseyAlbert CampionWoos mystery novelist Harriet Vane.Meets aircraft engineer Amanda Fitton.Spent time overseas on secret government missions.Spent the war years overseas on a mission so secret that he never discovered what it was.Loyal butler (and occasional Watson) Bunter, a stickler for traditional, propriety, and detail.Friend of reformed burglar Lugg, who “in spite of magnificent qualities, has elements of the Oaf about him.”Second son of the Duke of Denver. Inherited wealth (as the second son) has made him independent and free. Collector of literature, music, wine, and men’s fashion.“Educated at Rugby and St. Ignatius College, Cambridge. Embarked on adventurous career 1924. Name known to be a pseudonym. Clubs: Puffin’s, The Junior Greys. Hobbies: odd.”Support the showhttps://www.instagram.com/teatonicandtoxin/https://www.facebook.com/teatonicandtoxinhttps://www.teatonicandtoxin.comStay mysterious...

Send us Fan MailTom Epperson, a native of Arkansas, headed west to Los Angeles with his boyhood friend Billy Bob Thornton to pursue a career in show business.  Epperson’s co-written the scripts for One False Move, A Family Thing, The Gift, A Gun, a Car, a Blonde, and Jayne Mansfield’s Car.  His L.A. noir The Kind One was nominated for both the Edgar Award and the Barry Award for Best First Novel.  Three more books followed, Sailor, Roberto to the Dark Tower Came, and Make Believe.  His most recent book is Baby Hawk, a novel in verse.  He lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico, with his wife, Stefani, two pampered cats, and two frisky dogs.Get your book here!Watch clips from our conversations with guests!Join our  Patreon community here! It's free to join, with extra perks for members at every level.Called simply “the female,” she is seventeen, one of the few survivors of a worldwide plague known simply as the Sickness—and quite possibly the last woman on Earth.She lives in the mountains and forests of northern California, protected by her father.  Life is hard, but they’re happy.Until one chilly autumn morning when a violent, racist band of males, led by an elite ex-soldier called Braydon, finds them.  Overjoyed at discovering a female they can “enjoy,” the men kill the female’s father and take her prisoner.  Life becomes intolerable for the female.  Delighted to be in possession of the last woman on Earth—or so they believe— they keep her isolated in a cabin of her own, for them to take turns with.  Braydon sets up a strict rotation to avoid any unrest within the camp—but his own intention is to make her the new Eve, to breed with her and repopulate the Earth.Throughout the winter, the female trains—making herself as strong and fit as she can for the spring.  She is determined to escape, or die trying.Support the showhttps://www.instagram.com/teatonicandtoxin/https://www.facebook.com/teatonicandtoxinhttps://www.teatonicandtoxin.comStay mysterious...

Send us Fan MailFarewell, 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.With its sharp dialogue, intricate plotting, and evocative style, the book solidified Chandler’s reputation as a master of noir and influenced generations of crime writers.Get your book here!Watch clips from our conversations with guests!Join our  Patreon community here! It's free to join, with extra perks for members at every level.Owen Hill joins Tea, Tonic & Toxin to discuss Farewell, My Lovely by Raymond Chandler.Owen is a novelist and a poet, and The Giveaway: The Clay Blackburn Story, an omnibus of his crime fiction, was recently published by PM Press. It includes three novels and a short story. Owen coedited The Annotated Big Sleep (Vintage, 2018) with Pamela Jackson and Anthony Dean Rizzuto.Owen Hill joined us as our guest to discuss Farewell, My Lovely by Raymond Chandler. Owen is the author of three crime novels, two books of short fiction, and many collections of poetry. He has reviewed crime novels for the Los Angeles Times and the East Bay Express.In 2005, Owen Hill was awarded the Howard Moss residency at Yaddo. He is co-editor (with Jerry Thompson) of Berkeley Noir for Akashic Press. A memoir, Hands on a Mirror, is also available from Bootstrap Press.Owen was a buyer at a second-hand bookstore for many years in Berkeley. He is currently an organizer for the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). He lives in Oakland.Owen Hill is also the author of The Giveaway: The Clay Blackburn Story (PM Press), an omnibus of his crime fiction. It includes three novels and a short story.Clay Blackburn—poet, book scout, and sometimes detective—cruises the mean, and sometimes not so mean, streets of Berkeley. With his accomplices, a soldier of fortune, a “defrocked” FBI agent, and a smooth and sexy con man, he lives a life of bisexual sensation with a little crime solving on the side. As such, Blackburn is a sly, witty, and more or less reliable raconteur of the last thirty something years of the Bay Area’s radical bohemia and bookselling.And in the tradition of Ian Rankin’s Edinburgh, and Jean-Claude Izzo’s Marseilles, bears uncomfortable witness to Berkeley’s descent from countercultural paradise to neoliberal inferno.This omnibus collection collects the novels The Chandler Apartments (2002), The Incredible Double (2010), and the previously unpublished Mayakovsky’s Bugatti (2025), and includes the Blackburn short story “Righteous Kill” (2021).Support the showhttps://www.instagram.com/teatonicandtoxin/https://www.facebook.com/teatonicandtoxinhttps://www.teatonicandtoxin.comStay mysterious...

Send us Fan MailFarewell, 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.With its sharp dialogue, intricate plotting, and evocative style, the book solidified Chandler’s reputation as a master of noir and influenced generations of crime writers.Get your book here! Watch clips from our conversations with guests!Join our  Patreon community here! It's free to join, with extra perks for members at every level.Owen Hill joins Tea, Tonic & Toxin to discuss Farewell, My Lovely by Raymond Chandler.Owen is a novelist and a poet, and The Giveaway: The Clay Blackburn Story, an omnibus of his crime fiction, was recently published by PM Press. It includes three novels and a short story. Owen coedited The Annotated Big Sleep (Vintage, 2018) with Pamela Jackson and Anthony Dean Rizzuto.Let’s Talk About the Philip Marlowe BooksInsubordination: Marlowe is 33 and went to college once. He’s a bit of a cynic, and his manners are bad. He was fired for insubordination. “I test very high on insubordination.” (The Big Sleep)American hero: “Chandler seems to have created the culminating American hero: wised up, hopeful, thoughtful, adventurous, sentimental, cynical and rebellious” (NYT Book Review).A detective always has a code: “Marlowe is Prometheus [of American myth]: the noble outsider, sacrificing and enduring for a code he alone upholds.” [The Annotated Big Sleep, Raymond Chandler (eds. Owen Hill, Pamela Jackson, and Anthony Rizzuto)]Tough guy: He’s tough, clever, and a good judge of character. He’s brash and witty.At his tiny apartment, he goes to a chessboard on a card table. “There was a problem laid out on the board, a six-mover. I couldn’t solve it, like a lot of my problems” (The Big Sleep ch. 24). In the Philip Marlowe books, Marlowe doesn’t have a backstory, a love interest, or family drama.“Look,” I said. “This room is eighteen floors above ground. And this little bug climbs all the way up here just to make a friend. Me. My luck piece.” I folded the bug carefully into the soft part of the handkerchief and tucked the handkerchief into my pocket. Randall was pie-eyed. His mouth moved, but nothing came out of it.“I wonder whose lucky piece Marriott was,” I said.“Not yours, pal.” [Randall’s] voice was acid—cold acid.“Perhaps not yours either.” My voice was just a voice. I went out of the room and shut the door.I rode the express elevator down to the Spring Street entrance and walked out on the front porch of City Hall and down some steps and over to the flower beds. I put the pink bug down carefully behind a bush.I wondered, in the taxi going home, how long it would take him to make the Homicide Bureau again” (31).Support the showhttps://www.instagram.com/teatonicandtoxin/https://www.facebook.com/teatonicandtoxinhttps://www.teatonicandtoxin.comStay mysterious...

Send us Fan MailArvind Ethan David joins Tea, Tonic & Toxin to discuss Trouble Is My Business by Raymond Chandler.Arvind is a writer and and producer who tells stories and builds accidental businesses around them.Most recently, he released Douglas Adams: The Ends of the Earth (Pushkin). The Boy with Wings (based on Sir Lenny Henry’s book) premiered in summer 2025 at The Polka Theatre London.Get your gorgeous illustrated book here! And check out the rest of our storefront for more by Arvind and our other guests.Watch clips from our conversations with guests!What an interview! Arvind Ethan David joined Carolyn Daughters and Sarah Harrison to discuss Trouble Is My Business, a new graphic novel version of Raymond Chandler’s classic tale. We could have talked to him for hours!Arvind Ethan David is a Stoker Award nominated graphic novelist who has also written chart-topping audiodramas (The Crimes of Dorian Gray, Earworms), television (Anansi Boys), and plays (The Boy with Wings). Arvind is also a producer of film and theater, including the Emmy & Grammy award winning musical Jagged Little Pill.Arvind’s career as a writer and producer started when he adapted the Douglas Adams novel Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency as a college play. The great science fiction author came to see it and took the young writer under his wing. (Years later, Arvind brought Dirk Gently to a global audience as a Netflix/AMC TV series.)Since then, Arvind has written for page, stage, screen, audio and everywhere else one can tell a story. In addition to Trouble is my Business, his graphic novels include the Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency series (also with art by Ilias Kyriazis), Darkness Visible (Stoker nominated, written with Mike Carey) and Gray, his reimagining of Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray.Arvind’s audio work includes the chart-topping Audible Originals: The Neil Gaiman at the End of the Universe, the science fiction Anthology series Earworms and The Crimes of Dorian Gray.Arvind Ethan David also works in television, including serving as an Executive Producer on Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency for Netflix and BBC America and writing on Neil Gaiman’s Anansi Boys for Amazon Studios.His theater experience includes writing the stage adaptations of the Douglas Adams novels Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency (with James Goss) and Lenny Henry’s The Boy with Wings. He is also a lead producer of the Tony & Grammy winning musical Jagged Little Pill.Arvind Ethan David runs Prodigal, an entertainment business, with producer Tarquin Pack (KICKASS, X-MEN: FIRST CLASS, STARDUST) and entrepreneur Scott Kay. Together, they work across TV, film, theater, publishing, gaming, and escape rooms — anywhere there is a good story to be told.Trouble Is My Business is a new graphic novel by Raymond Chandler and Arvind Ethan David. The book is illustrated by Ilias Kyriazis. The forward was written by Ben H. Winters. The colorist is Cris Peter.Support the showhttps://www.instagram.com/teatonicandtoxin/https://www.facebook.com/teatonicandtoxinhttps://www.teatonicandtoxin.comStay mysterious...

Send us Fan MailTHE 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.This classic hardboiled detective novel introduces private eye Philip Marlowe. Hired to resolve a blackmail scheme, Marlowe uncovers a web of corruption and murder. It revolutionized crime fiction, establishing a template for noir storytelling that continues to influence literature and film.Get your book here! Or Anthony's  annotated version here!Watch clips from our conversations with guests!Join our  Patreon community here! It's free to join, with extra perks for members at every level.Pulp Magazines and Black MaskEnglish detective stories “are too contrived, and too little aware of what goes on in the world. … The boys with their feet on the desks know that the easiest murder case in the world to break is the one somebody tried to get very cute with; the one that really bothers them is the murder somebody thought of only two minutes before he pulled it off. But if the writers of this fiction wrote about the kind of murders that happen, they would also have to write about the authentic flavor of life as it is lived.” (The Simple Art of Murder, Raymond Chandler)Pulp magazines (printed on wood-pulp paper) were a cheap source of popular entertainment that sometimes mixed in subversive social commentary. The format was invented in 1882 as a vehicle for children’s adventure stories. By the 1920s, pulps specialized in detective stories, love stories, westerns, …. During the Depression, they provided a sense of escape. [The Annotated Big Sleep, Raymond Chandler (eds. Owen Hill, Pamela Jackson, and Anthony Rizzuto)]“In 1931 my wife and I used to cruise up and down the Pacific Coast in a very leisurely way, and at night, just to have something to read, I would pick a pulp magazine off the rack. It suddenly struck me that I might be able to write this stuff and get paid while I was learning.” [The Annotated Big Sleep, Raymond Chandler (eds. Owen Hill, Pamela Jackson, and Anthony Rizzuto)]“It took me a year to write my first story. I had to … learn to write all over again.” [The Annotated Big Sleep, Raymond Chandler (eds. Owen Hill, Pamela Jackson, and Anthony Rizzuto)]The emotional basis of the standard detective story had always been that justice will be done. Its technical basis was the relative insignificance of everything except the final denouement. What led up to that was more or less passagework. The denouement justified everything. (Trouble Is My Business, Raymond Chandler)The technical basis of the Black Mask type of story, however, was that the scene outranked the plot. The ideal mystery was one you would read if the end was missing. (Trouble Is My Business, Raymond Chandler)Support the showhttps://www.instagram.com/teatonicandtoxin/https://www.facebook.com/teatonicandtoxinhttps://www.teatonicandtoxin.comStay mysterious...

Send us Fan MailTHE 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.This classic hardboiled detective novel introduces private eye Philip Marlowe. Hired to resolve a blackmail scheme, Marlowe uncovers a web of corruption and murder. It revolutionized crime fiction, establishing a template for noir storytelling that continues to influence literature and film.Get your book here! Or Anthony's  annotated version here!Watch clips from our conversations with guests!Join our  Patreon community here! It's free to join, with extra perks for members at every level.Here are some questions and discussion starters here. Also – we want to hear from YOU! Share your thoughts, and we may just include them in our upcoming episodes!Philip Marlowe (Raymond Chandler Books)Marlowe is 33 and went to college once. He’s a bit of a cynic, and his manners are bad. He was fired for insubordination. “I test very high on insubordination.”American hero: “Chandler seems to have created the culminating American hero: wised up, hopeful, thoughtful, adventurous, sentimental, cynical and rebellious” (NYT Book Review).Prometheus: “Marlowe is Prometheus [of American myth]: the noble outsider, sacrificing and enduring for a code he alone upholds.” [The Annotated Big Sleep, Raymond Chandler (eds. Owen Hill, Pamela Jackson, and Anthony Rizzuto)]Honest: Vivian asks if Marlowe is honest. “Painfully,” he says. He tells Carmen he has “professional pride.” Her father trusts him not to “pull any stunts.”Tough Guy: He’s tough, clever, and a good judge of character. His speech is brash and witty.Self-Destructive streak? “I had concealed a murder and suppressed evidence for twenty-four hours, but I was still at large and had a five-hundred-dollar check coming. The smart thing for me to do was to take another drink and forget the whole mess. That being the obviously smart thing to do, I called Eddie Mars and told him I was coming … That was how smart I was” (ch. 21).Catalyst: There are the aficionados of deduction and the aficionados of sex who can’t get it into their hot little heads that the fictional detective is a catalyst, not a Casanova. (Trouble Is My Business, Raymond Chandler)Dashiell Hammett’s Influence on the Raymond Chandler BooksThe famous Detection Club: “Its roster includes practically every important writer of detective fiction since Conan Doyle. But Graves and Hodge decided that only one first-class writer had written detective stories at all. An American, Dashiell Hammett. … Graves and Hodge were not fuddy-duddy connoisseurs of the second-rate; they … were aware that writers who have the vision and the ability to produce real fiction do not produce unreal fiction.” (The Simple Art of Murder, Raymond Chandler)Support the showhttps://www.instagram.com/teatonicandtoxin/https://www.facebook.com/teatonicandtoxinhttps://www.teatonicandtoxin.comStay mysterious...

Send us Fan MailPuja Guha grew up and has worked all over the world. Her spy thriller series THE AHRIMAN LEGACY is an Amazon bestseller, and she has been featured on TV and media, including Fox5, Reader’s Digest, and The London Post.Get your book here!Watch clips from our conversations with guests!Join our  Patreon community here! It's free to join, with extra perks for members at every level.Espionage. Assassins. Middle East. 2021.Three years ago, a traumatic op forced her into a quiet life as an analyst. But after new intel surfaces on a terrorist plot Kuwait, intelligence agent Petra Shirazi has no choice but to return to the field. Thrust back into a violent world she vowed to leave behind, Petra must face her personal demons and her guilt over the death of one of her sources.A money trail exposes a massive wave of terrorist attacks, implicating the highest levels of the Kuwaiti and Iranian governments. All signs point to the Ahriman, the Iranian mastermind behind the cruelest and deadliest attacks in history. Petra must confront her past if she is to stop the world from tilting into an abyss from which there is no return. The race to stop the Ahriman begins.Fans of global espionage thrillers like Patriot Games and The Day of the Jackal will love this fast-paced spy novel from master storyteller Puja Guha. Find out why The US Review of Books says: “Like Grisham and Clancy … this title shines among the genre simply through superb storytelling.”Let’s talk about Kuwait. You were inspired to write Ahriman: The Spirit of Destruction while visiting family in Kuwait. You thought about the nuances of the Kuwaiti political system.Kuwait is a major oil exporter and historically one of the richest countries in the Middle East.Of the 4.8M people living in Kuwait, 1.5M are Kuwaiti citizens; the rest are foreign nationals.Kuwait is a constitutional monarchy. The Emir (king) doesn’t have legislative powers while the National Assembly (Parliament) is in session. The Emir can disband the Assembly.The monarchy is more moderate than the democratically elected Assembly. The monarchy has enabled progress for women (not requiring burkas; women can drive, vote, and run for office). Women gained the right to vote in 2005. Accused of being puppets of the west.Political instability and chronic political deadlock have hampered Kuwait’s economic development and infrastructure. Islamist and liberal factions can’t agree on anything, including how many traffic lights to install on one of the main roads.In the prologue, we meet Kasem Ismaili and “Lila’s” friend Nurah Bahar. Jamal is sleeping on Kasem’s sofa. Kasem is kidnapped. Puja Guha, how did you decide to the start the novel here?Petra attends a meeting. “The eight individuals in the room covered as many countries, each with their own unique ethnic and racial backgrounds” (7-8). A secret organization was created to cater to global intelligence needs without being bogged down in political bureaucracy (121). The Agency tackles global threats other intelligence organizations can’t handle. Let’s talk about the Agency.Support the showhttps://www.instagram.com/teatonicandtoxin/https://www.facebook.com/teatonicandtoxinhttps://www.teatonicandtoxin.comStay mysterious...

Send us Fan MailYes, you read that right! 2024! Due to Carolyn & Sarah's lives exploding they've been getting  the episodes out a bit slower than  they would prefer. Not to worry, they are actively working on solutions to be able to make more time to catch up on getting book discussions  out to you!Get your books here!Watch clips from our conversations with guests!Join our  Patreon community here! It's free to join, with extra perks for members at every level.Listen to Sarah &  Carolyn discuss the entire 2024 book club selection as a group, talk  through favorites, stand outs, and the progression of the club in its third  year. Tea, Tonic, and Toxin is a book club and podcast for people who love mysteries, thrillers, introspection, and good conversation. Your hosts, Carolyn Daughters and Sarah Harrison, are discussing game-changing mysteries, starting with Edgar Allan Poe onward. Together, we’ll watch the genre evolved.Along the way, we’ll entertain ideas, prospects, theories, doubts, grudges, fabulous guests, and interviews with talented, contemporary mystery authors. Together, we’ll experience the joys of reading the best mysteries and thrillers ever written.Carolyn has loved mysteries ever since she and her sister Michele started the CarMich Detective Agency when they were kids. Though she has never solved a crime, she is an excellent detective. When she isn't trying to convince people she's an excellent detective, she's busy running her company, CarolynDaughters.com, serving as a fractional chief marketing officer for small businesses, teaching persuasive writing courses, exploring new neighborhoods on foot, photographing street art, and boarding planes early and often (47 states, 42 countries, and counting). She's coming for you, North Dakota and Bhutan.Want to discuss our book selections? Hoping to be a guest on our show? Ready to become a sponsor?Reach out, and you might just get an on-air shout out and an awesome sticker!Support the showhttps://www.instagram.com/teatonicandtoxin/https://www.facebook.com/teatonicandtoxinhttps://www.teatonicandtoxin.comStay mysterious...

Send us Fan MailAnn Claire joins us in studio to discuss Dead and Gondola, the first book in her Christie Bookshop Mystery series. The second book in the series, Last Word to the Wise, was released in 2023.Her Bookmobile Mysteries, Santa Fe Cafe Mysteries, and Cyclist’s Guide Mysteries are available in print, ebook, and audiobook formats on Amazon and from other booksellers.Get your book here!Watch clips from our conversation with Ann!Join our  Patreon community here! It's free to join, with extra perks for members at every level.Ann earned degrees in geography, which took her all across the world. Now she lives with her geographer husband in Colorado, where the mountains beckon from their kitchen windows.When she’s not writing, you can find her hiking, gardening, herding housecats, and enjoying a good mystery, especially one by Agatha Christie.Dead and Gondola is the series debut of the Christie Bookshop Mystery series by author Ann Claire. A mysterious bookshop visitor dies under murderous circumstances, compelling the Christie sisters and their cat, Agatha, to call on all they’ve learned about solving mysteries from their favorite novelist.Ellie Christie is thrilled to begin a new chapter. She’s recently returned to her tiny Colorado hometown to run her family’s historic bookshop with her elder sister, Meg, and their beloved cat, Agatha. Perched in a Swiss-style hamlet accessible by ski gondola and a twisty mountain road, the Book Chalet is a famed bibliophile destination known for its maze of shelves and relaxing reading lounge. At least, until trouble blows in with a wintry whiteout. A man is found dead on the gondola, and a rockslide throws the town into lockdown—no one in, no one out.The victim was a mysterious stranger who’d visited the bookshop. At the time, his only blunders had been disrupting a book club and leaving behind a first-edition Agatha Christie novel, written under a pseudonym. However, once revealed, the man’s identity shocks the town. Motives and secrets swirl like the snow, but when the police narrow in on the sisters’ close friends, the Christies have to act.Although the only Agatha in their family tree is their cat, Ellie and Meg know a lot about mysteries and realize they must summon their inner Miss Marple to trek through a blizzard of clues before the killer turns the page to their final chapter.BookPage says, “Dead and Gondola is a lighthearted, fast-paced cozy mystery with a cast of likeable characters. … Who wouldn’t want to ride a glass-domed gondola to a historic bookshop and cozy up by the fire with a good read?” Publishers Weekly wrote, “A fair-play plot, vivid characters, fascinating facts about Dame Agatha, and an intelligent and appealing protagonist make this a winner. Cozy fans will chomp at the bit for more.”Support the showhttps://www.instagram.com/teatonicandtoxin/https://www.facebook.com/teatonicandtoxinhttps://www.teatonicandtoxin.comStay mysterious...

Send us Fan MailThe intricate plot, morally complex characters, and exploration of the human psyche in A COFFIN FOR DIMITRIOS (THE MASK OF DIMITRIOS) (1939) make it one of the first modern suspense thrillers. Eric Ambler paved the way for such writers as John Le Carré, Len Deighton, and Robert Ludlum. It’s one of TIME Magazine’s 100 best mystery and thriller books of all time.Special guest Neil Nyren joins us to discuss the book. Check out the conversation starters below. Weigh in, and you might just get an on-air shoutout and a fab sticker!Get your book here!Watch clips from our conversation with Neil!Join our  Patreon community here! It's free to join, with extra perks for members at every level.Neil Nyren is the former executive vice president (EVP), associate publisher, and editor in chief of G.P. Putnam’s Sons.Neil is the winner of the 2017 Ellery Queen Award from the Mystery Writers of America and the 2025 Thriller Legend award from the International Thriller Writers.Neil joins Tea, Tonic & Toxin to discuss A Coffin for Dimitrios (also published as The Mask of Dimitrios), a 1939 thriller by Eric Ambler.You can read Neil’s many articles on Crime Reads here.The 100 Best Mystery and Thriller Books of All Time (TIME Magazine)“In an Eric Ambler spy novel, the hero is usually an ordinary fellow who lands in an unfamiliar foreign city and soon finds himself in rising water. In A Coffin For Dimitrios, published in 1939, the city is Istanbul between the world wars, and the hero is a writer intrigued by a newly dead Greek criminal whose life story leads him deep into the Balkans, and worse. Everything unfolds with the brisk tension and debonair assurance that made Ambler fans of everyone from Alfred Hitchcock to John le Carré to Alan Furst, and anchored the nascent genre in a kind of dashing realism.” —Karl Vick (TIME Magazine editor)“I set out to improve a shoddy article,” Eric Ambler once explained. “Dorothy Sayers had taken the detective story and made it literate. Why shouldn’t I do the same for spies?”Neil, you wrote, “Eric Ambler was the father of the modern thriller. John Le Carré called him ‘the source on which we all draw,’ and Len Deighton, ‘the man who lit the way for us all.’ Frederick Forsyth said he was the man ‘who took the spy thriller out of the gentility of the drawing room and into the back streets where it all really happened.’ Graham Greene called him ‘unquestionably our best thriller writer.’”Neil, you wrote, “I’ve worked with many writers of international suspense, and whenever I’ve wanted to recommend a book to any of them that captures the genre as well as any book possibly can—this is the one I send them to.”Neil, you wrote, “Before Eric Ambler, international thrillers were dominated by such writers as John Buchan (The Thirty-Nine Steps) and their many imitators.” Talk a bit about the difference between these earlier books and books like Rogue Male by Geoffrey Household and A Coffin for Dimitrios by Eric Ambler.Support the showhttps://www.instagram.com/teatonicandtoxin/https://www.facebook.com/teatonicandtoxinhttps://www.teatonicandtoxin.comStay mysterious...

Send us Fan MailThe intricate plot, morally complex characters, and exploration of the human psyche in A COFFIN FOR DIMITRIOS (THE MASK OF DIMITRIOS) (1939) make it one of the first modern suspense thrillers. Eric Ambler paved the way for such writers as John Le Carré, Len Deighton, and Robert Ludlum. It’s one of TIME Magazine’s 100 best mystery and thriller books of all time.Special guest Neil Nyren joins us to discuss the book. Check out the conversation starters below. Weigh in, and you might just get an on-air shoutout and a fab sticker!Get your book here!Watch clips from our conversation with Neil!Join our  Patreon community here! It's free to join, with extra perks for members at every level.Neil Nyren is the former executive vice president (EVP), associate publisher, and editor in chief of G.P. Putnam’s Sons.Neil is the winner of the 2017 Ellery Queen Award from the Mystery Writers of America and the 2025 Thriller Legend award from the International Thriller Writers.Neil joins Tea, Tonic & Toxin to discuss A Coffin for Dimitrios (also published as The Mask of Dimitrios), a 1939 thriller by Eric Ambler.You can read Neil’s many articles on Crime Reads here.Among the writers of crime and suspense he has edited are Tom Clancy, Clive Cussler, John Sandford, C. J. Box, Robert Crais, Carl Hiaasen, Daniel Silva, Jack Higgins, Frederick Forsyth, Ken Follett, Jonathan Kellerman, Martha Grimes, Alex Berenson, Thomas Perry, Gerald Seymour, Ed McBain, and Ace Atkins. In all, he has edited more than 300 New York Times bestsellers.Neil Nyren was awarded the 2017 Ellery Queen Award for “outstanding people in the mystery publishing industry” from the Mystery Writers of America. He also received the 2025 Thriller Legend award from the International Thriller Writers.Besides still editing two of his longtime authors, he now writes about crime fiction and publishing for CrimeReads, BookTrib, The Big Thrill, and The Third Degree, among others. He is also a contributing writer to the Mystery Writers of America’s Anthony/Agatha/Macavity-winning How to Write a Mystery. He has spoken at conferences from Maine to Florida and from South Carolina to Hawaii.The OpeningNeil, you wrote, “Eric Ambler’s heroes, especially in his between-wars novels (1936-1940), are ordinary people caught up in extraordinary circumstances. They’re often engineers, journalists, or writers who stumble into danger through a combination of bad judgment and bad luck and then have no choice but to try to dig themselves out of it … They are solidly middle class, raised in a world of black-and-white certainties that they discover has been completely obliterated by gray.”Neil, you wrote, “Eric Ambler’s villains live in that gray. They’re criminals, conmen, governments, corporations, revolutionaries, spies, and corrupt officials. … They’re realists. They’ve calculated what it takes to succeed and are willing to do whatever is necessary to achieve that goal. If those acts are considered reprehensible by others, that’s not their problem.”Support the showhttps://www.instagram.com/teatonicandtoxin/https://www.facebook.com/teatonicandtoxinhttps://www.teatonicandtoxin.comStay mysterious...

Send us Fan MailTen strangers, each with a dark secret, are lured to a remote island and drawn into a deadly game. As the body count rises, paranoia intensifies in this classic whodunit. Agatha Christie’s AND THEN THERE WERE NONE (1939) will keep you guessing until the very end. Check out the And Then There Were None notes below!Special guest Ann Perramond joins us to discuss the best-selling crime novel of all time. Weigh in, and you might just get an on-air shoutout and a fab sticker!Get your book here!Watch clips from our conversation with Ann!Join our new  Patreon community here! It's free to join, with extra perks for members at every level.Justice Wargrave (good name) is described as looking cruel, predatory, and inhuman. He’s the logical choice for U.N. Owen, the man playing judge, jury, and executioner. How is the opening (and the narrator’s ability to dip in and out of all characters’ heads) a red herring? Were you misled?Did you know anything about And Then There Were None before reading it? If so, did this impact your experience of the novel? (It reminded us of Knives Out. And the movie Clue!)Who did you think the killer was before the identity is revealed? Was there anyone you suspected? Did you think someone was hiding on the island? (Sarah thought someone had to be hiking on the island.)Suspense thriller author Dean Koontz says people are always living in a “constant state of suspense.” Do you feel that suspense is a fundamental part of human existence? Are people constantly wondering about the future, facing unknown situations, and dealing with uncertainty? PARANOIADid knowing the characters’ responsibility for the deaths of innocents impact how you felt when the characters themselves were murdered?And Then There Were None notes about death order: Justice Wargrave arranges the deaths of the various characters in order of ascending culpability. “Anthony Marston and Mrs. Rogers died first, the one instantaneously, the other in a peaceful sleep.” Marston, I recognized, was a type born without that feeling of moral responsibility which most have. He was amoral–pagan. Mrs. Rogers, I had no doubt, had acted very largely under the influence of her husband.” Do you agree with his assessment of the characters’ relative guilt?Incorporated into this is the level of guilt they felt about their crime. Wargrave gives Marston one of the easiest deaths. He killed two children he could barely remember and felt no remorse. Claythorne, who killed a child for love and felt remorse, has the worst death. This makes no sense. A lack of remorse feels more monstrous. Also, the general killed for revenge against the man sleeping with his wife behind his back. This feels again more understandable than Marston. Is Emily Brent really worse than Rogers, who committed actual murder? Both are witholders in some way. One withheld medicine. One withheld pity.Linden BotanicalsWe sell the world’s healthiest herbal teas and extracts.Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.Support the showhttps://www.instagram.com/teatonicandtoxin/https://www.facebook.com/teatonicandtoxinhttps://www.teatonicandtoxin.comStay mysterious...

Send us Fan MailDavid Morrell is the award-winning author of First Blood, the novel in which Rambo was created. He joins us to discuss Rogue Male (by Geoffrey Household) and First Blood.He holds a Ph. D. in American literature from Penn State and was a professor in the English department at the University of Iowa. His many New York Times bestsellers include the classic spy trilogy that begins with THE BROTHERHOOD OF THE ROSE, the basis for the only television mini-series to premier after a Super Bowl. An Edgar, Anthony, and Macavity nominee, he’s the recipient of three Bram Stoker awards and the prestigious Thriller Master award from the International Thriller Writers organization.Learn more about David Morrell below!Get your book here!Watch clips from our conversation with David!Join our new  Patreon community here! It's free to join, with extra perks for members at every level.David Morrell was born in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada. In 1960, at the age of seventeen, he became a fan of the classic television series, route 66, about two young men in a Corvette convertible traveling the US in search of America and themselves. The scripts by Stirling Silliphant combined action with ideas and so impressed Morrell that he decided to become a writer.In 1966, the work of Hemingway scholar Philip Young prompted David Morrell to move to the United States, where he studied with Young at Penn State and received his M.A. and Ph. D. in American literature. There, he also met the esteemed science-fiction author William Tenn (real name Philip Klass), who taught Morrell the basics of fiction writing. The result was First Blood, a ground-breaking novel about a returned Vietnam veteran suffering from post-trauma stress disorder who comes into conflict with a small-town police chief and fights his own version of the Vietnam War.That “father” of modern action novels was published in 1972 while Morrell was a professor in the English department at the University of Iowa. He taught American literature there from 1970 to 1986, simultaneously writing other novels, many of them international bestsellers, including the classic spy trilogy, The Brotherhood of the Rose (the basis for the only television mini-series to premier after a Super Bowl), The Fraternity of the Stone, and The League of Night and Fog.Eventually wearying of two professions, Morrell gave up his academic tenure in order to write full time. Shortly afterward, his fifteen-year-old son Matthew was diagnosed with a rare form of bone cancer and died in 1987, a loss that haunts not only Morrell’s life but his work, as in his memoir about Matthew, Fireflies, and his novel Desperate Measures, whose main character lost a son.David Morrell is a co-founder of the International Thriller Writers organization. Noted for his research, he is a graduate of the National Outdoor Leadership School for wilderness survival as well as the G. Gordon Liddy Academy of Corporate Security. He is also an honorary lifetime member of the Special Operations Association and the Association of Intelligence Officers.Support the showhttps://www.instagram.com/teatonicandtoxin/https://www.facebook.com/teatonicandtoxinhttps://www.teatonicandtoxin.comStay mysterious...

Send us Fan MailROGUE MALE (1939) is an enduring masterpiece of mystery, adventure, suspense, and the sheer thrill of the chase. Described by author Geoffrey Household as a “bastard offspring of Stevenson and Conrad,” it’s “the best escape and pursuit story yet written, with lip-chewing tension right to the end.” –The Times (UK)Special guest David Morrell, New York Times bestselling author of First Blood (the classic thriller that inspired the RAMBO movies) joins us. Check out the conversation starters below. Weigh in, and you might just get an on-air shoutout and a fab sticker!Get your book here!Watch clips from our conversation with David!Join our new  Patreon community here! It's free to join, with extra perks for members at every level.The NYT praised Geoffrey Household for developing suspense into an art form. The Times (UK) called it, “Simply the best escape and pursuit story yet written.”What We Know About Geoffrey Household + the NarratorA wealthy, well-known, unnamed Englishman, not yet 40, is a sportsman “who couldn’t resist the temptation to stalk the impossible.” He has no grievances and has a “sense of adventure.” He’s not an anarchist or fanatic. He becomes obsessed with stalking the biggest game of all, a European “great man” in a country near Poland. The country resembles Germany; the dictator, Hitler. He’s caught before the kill and pursued across Europe by Nazi assassins.Geoffrey Household had a sales job for an ink manufacturer and loved his adventurous life (Europe, South America). Britain entered the war on 9/03/39. He served in British intelligence. He said his feeling toward Nazi Germany “had the savagery of a personal vendetta” (Against the Wind).“The Almighty looks after the rogue male”Geoffrey Household writes: “The behavior of a rogue may be described as individual, separation from its fellows appearing to increase both cunning and ferocity. These solitary beasts [are] found among all the larger carnivores and graminivores, and are generally male.”PART I – ESCAPE / SURFACE – The Hunter Becomes the Hunted (AUGUST)The narrator is tortured and thrown off a cliff. He walks, crawls, curses, and cries, slipping in and out of consciousness, doing rather than thinking, using the “reasoning of a hunted beast.”“In these days of visas and identification cards it is impossible to travel without leaving a trail that can, with patience, bribery, and access to public records, be picked up.”“It was a convenience to have no existence. Had I stolen a watch instead of stalking the head of a nation, my photograph would have been in all the police stations.”He has a passport, maps, and money. He speaks the language well.Support the showhttps://www.instagram.com/teatonicandtoxin/https://www.facebook.com/teatonicandtoxinhttps://www.teatonicandtoxin.comStay mysterious...

Send us Fan MailPart memoir and part literary true crime, Tell Me Everything: The Story of a Private Investigation by Erika Krouse is the mesmerizing story of a landmark sexual assault investigation and the female private investigator who helped crack it open.The book won the 2023 Edgar Award for Best Fact Crime, and it was a New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice.Erika Krouse is a writer of fiction and nonfiction. Her upcoming collection of stories, Save Me, Stranger, will be released in January 2025. Learn more about Erika below!Get your book here!Watch clips from our conversation with Erika!Join our  brand new  Patreon community here! It's free to join, with extra perks for members at every level.Erika Krouse is a writer of fiction and nonfiction. Her recent memoir, Tell Me Everything: The Story of a Private Investigation (2022, Flatiron Books/Macmillan) is a Book of the Month pick, has been optioned by Playground Entertainment for TV adaptation, and received starred advance reviews from Publishers Weekly, Kirkus, Library Journal, and Bookpage.Erika Krouse is also the author of Contenders (novel, Rare Bird, 2015), and Come Up and See Me Sometime (short stories, Scribner, 2001). Erika’s short fiction has been published in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Ploughshares, and One Story, and has been shortlisted for Best American Short Stories, Best American Nonrequired Reading, and the Pushcart Prize.Erika teaches at the Lighthouse Book Project at the Lighthouse Writers Workshop in Denver, and is a winner of the Lighthouse Beacon Award for Teaching Excellence. Her next book, Save Me: Stories (Flatiron Books/Macmillan) will be published in 2023 or 2024. www.erikakrouse.com. Erika Krouse has one of those faces. “I don’t know why I’m telling you this,” people say, spilling confessions. In fall 2002, Erika accepts a new contract job investigating lawsuits as a private investigator. The role seems perfect for her, but she quickly realizes she has no idea what she’s doing.Then a lawyer named Grayson assigns her to investigate a sexual assault, a college student who was attacked by football players and recruits at a party a year earlier. Erika knows she should turn the assignment down. Her own history with sexual violence makes it all too personal. But she takes the job anyway, inspired by Grayson’s conviction that he could help change things forever. And maybe she could, too.Support the showhttps://www.instagram.com/teatonicandtoxin/https://www.facebook.com/teatonicandtoxinhttps://www.teatonicandtoxin.comStay mysterious...

Send us Fan MailGeorgia Jeffries joins Sarah and Carolyn to discuss The Younger Girl, a supernatural thriller based on a true crime.Georgia is a writer of Emmy Award-winning drama and acclaimed noir fiction. Honored with multiple Writers Guild Awards, Golden Globes, and the Humanitas Prize, her work in film has been praised by the Los Angeles Times as “standing ovation television.” Get your book here!Watch clips from our conversation with Georgia!Join our  brand new  Patreon community here! It's free to join, with extra perks for members at every level.A DARK LABYRINTH OF FAMILY BETRAYALBased on a true crime, The Younger Girl, by trailblazing, award-winning writer Georgia Jeffries combines historical fiction and supernatural suspense to unravel a thrilling tale of family deception and long-denied redemption.In 1933, Chicago tabloids trumpeted the death of twenty-year-old town belle Aldine Younger.“HEIRESS SLAIN, MARRIED MAN HELD.”In the aftermath of Aldine Younger’s tragic death, her grieving brother Owen suspects that their wealthy uncle orchestrated a sinister murder plot to cover up the theft of Aldine’s inheritance. Fast forward to 1996, when an aging Owen, burdened by the weight of the past, is compelled to discover the truth before he dies. His daughter, Joanna, becomes the key to unraveling the family’s twisted history.Father and daughter journey back to Pontiac, Illinois, to claim Owen’s rightful bequest. They find themselves caught in a labyrinth of lies born of family greed and treachery crossing three generations. Amidst violent storms and dramatic revelations, Owen’s sanity teeters on the edge as he confuses Joanna with the sister he lost. Joanna, racing against time, unearths secrets that could shatter her world and discovers a psychic bridge linking past, present, and future. But at what cost? And who will survive the revelations?Georgia Jeffries is a writer of Emmy Award-winning drama and acclaimed noir fiction. Honored with multiple Writers Guild Awards, Golden Globes, and the Humanitas Prize, her work in film has been praised by the Los Angeles Times as “standing ovation television.”Born in the Illinois heartland, Georgia worked as a journalist for American Film before writing and producing the groundbreaking female-driven dramas Cagney & Lacey, China Beach, and Sisters. Her screenwriting career has been distinguished by extensive field research, from patrolling the mean streets of Rampart with the LAPD to crashing a Vegas bounty hunters’ convention to reporting from a Walter Reed Army Hospital surgical bay. Each investigation was the basis for one of her many docudramas and series pilots for CBS, ABC, NBC, HBO, and Showtime.Her short stories have appeared in national suspense anthologies, including Mystery Writers of America’s Odd Partners and Sisters in Crime’s The Last Resort. She has also written biography and historical profiles for HuffPost, Los Angeles Review of Books, and University of California Press. A cum laude UCLA graduate, Georgia Jeffries is a professor at the USC School of Cinematic Arts, where she created the first BFA Television Thesis program at an American university.Support the showhttps://www.instagram.com/teatonicandtoxin/https://www.facebook.com/teatonicandtoxinhttps://www.teatonicandtoxin.comStay mysterious...

Send us Fan MailShana Kelly began her career as a literary agent at the William Morris Agency in New York and London for 10 years. She currently works as a documentary screenwriter, book editor, writer, and publishing consultant. She also teaches at Denver-based Lighthouse Writers Workshop.In 2024, Shana won an Emmy for writing A Towering Task: The Story of the Peace Corps, a historical documentary that aired on PBS in 2023. She is currently writing a historical documentary about the League of Women Voters.Shana Kelly joins Tea, Tonic & Toxin to discuss Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca. Learn more below!Get your book here!Watch clips from our conversation with Shana!Join our  brand new  Patreon community here! It's free to join, with extra perks for members at every level.Reader Response: Did you enjoy Rebecca? Had you read it before, or was this your first time?Gothic SettingGothic fiction is characterized by an environment of fear, the threat of supernatural events, and the intrusion of the past upon the present (Je Reviens). Reminders of the past, like ruined buildings, signify a previously thriving world that’s decaying.In the narrator’s dream, Manderley is overtaken by unnatural growth: “Nature had come into her own again and … in her stealthy, insidious way had encroached upon the drive with long, tenacious fingers. The woods, always a menace even in the past, had triumphed in the end. They crowded, dark and uncontrolled, to the borders of the drive.”In the dream, she sees plants, once cultured. “No hand had checked their progress, and they had gone native now, rearing to monster height without a bloom.”Daphne du Maurier uses the weather to signal and even drive the events in the novel. The wind is often a friendly presence, and stillness brings with it a sense of doom. The fog plays a role in the shipwreck that exposes Rebecca’s boat and corpse. Many characters hope for rain throughout the book. There are repeated references to fire as well, which seems connected to Rebecca (as well at the color red, see below).They enter Manderley up a serpent drive (it reminds her of the forest path in a Grimm’s fairy tale, surrounded by bloodred rhododendrons (powerful monsters). There is no sense of beauty in this jungle growth. “That tangle of shrubs there should be cut down to bring light to the path. It was dark, much too dark. … The birds did not sing here.”How is Daphne du Maurier using Gothic tropes in the book? What are your thoughts about the sense of loss and physical/spiritual exile in the opening pages?Support the showhttps://www.instagram.com/teatonicandtoxin/https://www.facebook.com/teatonicandtoxinhttps://www.teatonicandtoxin.comStay mysterious...

Send us Fan MailWe are beyond excited to be starting our fourth year, and to share with you the books we have on tap!Give a listen and let us know what you think, or if we're leaving out pivotal content to the genre.See the  full book club list here!Watch clips from our conversations with guests (and  ourselves)!Join our  brand new  Patreon community here! It's free to join, with extra perks for members at every level.Tea, Tonic, and Toxin is a mystery and thriller podcast and book club for people obsessed with mysteries and thrillers. Each month, your hosts, Sarah Harrison and Carolyn Daughters, will discuss a game-changing mystery or thriller, starting in the mid-19th century onward. Together, we’ll see firsthand how the genre evolved.Along the way, we’ll entertain ideas, prospects, theories, and doubts, along with the occasional guest. And we hope to entertain you, dear friend. We want you to experience the joys of reading the best mysteries and thrillers ever written.We’ll read and explore ideas about the book and about ourselves. And we’ll start at the very beginning with “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” by Edgar Allan Poe.We’re excited to read these books. And we’re excited that you’ll be reading these books. Please share your ideas early and often. We want to hear from YOU.Follow us month to month or jump in anywhere you like. You’re our people, and we’re glad we found you (and vice versa). We’re thrilled to have you join us anywhere on this marvelous journey through the best mysteries, thrillers, and detective stories ever written.On a final note, with your encouragement and support, we’re getting better at this podcasting adventure each and every day. Our goal: Make Tea, Tonic & Toxin a mystery and thriller podcast and book club that provides a forum for introspection, good conversation, and inspiration.Support the showhttps://www.instagram.com/teatonicandtoxin/https://www.facebook.com/teatonicandtoxinhttps://www.teatonicandtoxin.comStay mysterious...

Send us Fan Mail“Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again …”A young bride is haunted by the lingering shadow of her husband’s first wife at the eerie Manderley estate. Secrets, jealousy, and suspense converge in a chilling tale of love and deception.The classic Gothic suspense novel REBECCA (1938) by Daphne du Maurier won the Anthony Award for Best Novel of the Century.Shana Kelly was the signing agent for many successful authors, including New York Times bestseller Curtis Sittenfeld, author of PREP and ELIGIBLE.In 2024, Shana Kelly won an Emmy for writing A Towering Task: The Story of the Peace Corps, a historical documentary which aired on PBS in September 2023.Founded during the Cold War, the Peace Corps stands as an icon of American idealism. From the beginning its mission of world peace and friendship proved to be a towering task. Imbued with the unbounded energy and vision of its charismatic leader, Sargent Shriver, and thousands of vigorous volunteers, the story of the Peace Corps is a uniquely American tale.From the political machinations to establish not just a brand new government agency, but a new concept in international relations, to the growing pains of an agency striving to define its mission, A Towering Task takes viewers on a journey of what it means to be a global citizen.Shana Kelly is also currently writing a a feature-length historical documentary exploring the past, present, and future of women’s political power through the lens of the 100-year history of the League of Women Voters and allied groups.This new documentary will inspire audiences to use their power, vote, get involved and make a difference on issues they care about. As a work that connects history to the present day with an accessible and entertaining approach, the film will be both a catalyst during the 2024 election year and an enduring work to spark voter turnout, civic engagement, and women’s leadership for years to come.Get your book here!Watch clips from our conversation with Shana!Join our  brand new  Patreon community here! It's free to join, with extra perks for members at every level.Tea, Tonic, and Toxin is a book club and podcast for people who love mysteries, thrillers, introspection, and good conversation. Each month, your hosts, Sarah Harrison and Carolyn Daughters, will discuss a game-changing mystery or thriller from the 19th and 20th centuries. Together, we’ll see firsthand how the genre evolved.Along the way, we’ll entertain ideas, prospects, theories, doubts, and grudges, along with the occasional guest. And we hope to entertain you, dear friend. We want you to experience the joys of reading some of the best mysteries and thrillers ever written.Linden BotanicalsWe sell the world’s healthiest herbal teas and extracts.Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.Support the showhttps://www.instagram.com/teatonicandtoxin/https://www.facebook.com/teatonicandtoxinhttps://www.teatonicandtoxin.comStay mysterious...

Send us Fan MailMystery writer Kathy Reichs joins Sarah and Carolyn to discuss her latest book, Fire and Bones.#1 New York Times bestselling author Kathy Reichs returns with a twisty, unputdownable thriller featuring forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan, who finds herself at the center of a DC arson investigation that spawns deepening levels of mystery and, ultimately, violence.Mystery writer Kathy Reichs joins Sarah and Carolyn to discuss her latest book, Fire and Bones.#1 New York Times bestselling author Kathy Reichs returns with a twisty, unputdownable thriller featuring forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan, who finds herself at the center of a DC arson investigation that spawns deepening levels of mystery and, ultimately, violence.Tea, Tonic & Toxin is a history of mystery book club and podcast. We’re reading the best mysteries ever written, as well as interviewing some of the world’s best contemporary mystery and thriller writers.Get your book here!Watch clips from our conversation with Kathy!Join our  brand new  Patreon community here! It's free to join, with extra perks for members at every level.Always apprehensive about working fire scenes, Tempe is called to Washington, DC, to analyze the victims of a deadly blaze and sees her misgivings justified. The devastated building is in Foggy Bottom, a neighborhood with a colorful past and present, and Tempe becomes suspicious about the property’s ownership when she delves into its history.The pieces start falling into place strangely and quickly, and, sensing a good story, Tempe teams with a new ally, telejournalist Ivy Doyle. Soon the duo learns that back in the thirties and forties the home was the hangout of a group of bootleggers and racketeers known as the Foggy Bottom Gang. Though interesting, this fact seems irrelevant—until the son of a Foggy Bottom gang member is shot dead at his home in an affluent part of the district. Coincidence? Targeted attacks? So many questions.As Tempe and Ivy dig deeper, an arrest is finally made. Then another Foggy Bottom Gang-linked property burns to the ground, claiming one more victim. Slowly, Tempe’s instincts begin pointing to the obvious: somehow, her moves since coming to Washington have been anticipated, and every path forward seems to bring with it a lethal threat.Kathy Reichs’s first novel Déjà Dead, published in 1997, won the Ellis Award for Best First Novel and was an international bestseller. Fire and Bones is Reichs’s twenty-third novel featuring forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan.Reichs was a producer of Fox Television’s longest running scripted drama, Bones, which was based on her work and her novels. One of few forensic anthropologists certified by the American Board of Forensic Anthropology, she divides her time between Charlotte, NC, and Charleston, SC.Visit her at KathyReichs.com or follow her on X and Instagram @KathyReichs or Facebook @KathyReichsBooks.Support the showhttps://www.instagram.com/teatonicandtoxin/https://www.facebook.com/teatonicandtoxinhttps://www.teatonicandtoxin.comStay mysterious...

Send us Fan MailTea, Tonic & Toxin is a history of mystery book club and podcast. We’re reading the best mysteries ever written, as well as interviewing some of the world’s best contemporary mystery and thriller writers.In The Wheel Spins (1938), a young woman’s train journey takes a sinister turn when a fellow passenger mysteriously disappears. Ethel Lina White’s suspenseful, edge-of-your-seat read served as the basis for Alfred Hitchcock’s iconic film The Lady Vanishes. It’s a classic of the genre.Alex Csurko joins us to discuss The Wheel Spins (The Lady Vanishes) by Welsh-born interwar writer Ethel Lina White.He is writing his PhD thesis on White, whom he first discovered during his undergraduate studies on Alfred Hitchcock. Hitchcock made the film The Lady Vanishes based on The Wheel Spins.Alex is recognized as an up-and-coming authority on White after his interview with BBC Wales Online, published in December 2021, discussing the author’s life and work.Get your book here!Watch clips from our conversation with Alex!Join our  brand new  Patreon community here! It's free to join, with extra perks for members at every level.Alex Csurko is one of the world’s foremost experts on the works of Ethel Lina White, including The Wheel Spins (The Lady Vanishes). In 2023, he contributed an extensive biography on Ethel Lina White for the Gwent Local History Journal.Most recently, he collaborated with Tony Medawar on the short-story collection Blackout and Other Stories, to be published by Crippen and Landru in 2025.As a Member of the Magic Circle, Alex also regularly contributes theoretical essays on the craft of Magic for the Society’s prestigious international magazine.Which Brings Up the Topic of Insanity/Hysteria/Delirium/NeurosisIn The Wheel Turns by Ethel Lina White, there is much talk of Iris’ supposed hysteria and weakened mental state.Baroness: “There has been no English lady, here, in this carriage, never, at any time, except you. You are the only English lady here” (92). Iris questions her own sanity and reliability. Hare tells her a story of getting kicked in the head whilst playing football. His captain visited him in hospital, but he thought it was the Prince of Wales (Edward VIII).Iris resolves to talk to the English visitors who saw her with Miss Froy. No one except Miss Barnes admits to seeing her. Then a stranger, Frau Kummer, appears, pretending to be Miss Froy.The doctor offers to “take care” of Iris by placing her in a nursing home for the night. Yikes!Carolyn DaughtersBrand therapy. Persuasive writing courses. Tell the best story possible.Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.Support the showhttps://www.instagram.com/teatonicandtoxin/https://www.facebook.com/teatonicandtoxinhttps://www.teatonicandtoxin.comStay mysterious...

Send us Fan MailIn THE WHEEL SPINS (1936), a young woman’s train journey takes a sinister turn when a fellow passenger mysteriously disappears. This suspenseful, edge-of-your-seat novel by Ethel Lina White served as the basis for Alfred Hitchcock’s iconic film The Lady Vanishes. The book is a stunner.Special guest Alex Csurko joins us to discuss this classic novel. Check out the conversation starters below. Weigh in, and you might just get an on-air shoutout and a fab sticker!Get your book here!Watch clips from our conversation with Alex!Join our  brand new  Patreon community here! It's free to join, with extra perks for members at every level.HitchcockEven reading the book by Ethel Lina White, it felt like it could be a Hitchcock film with the psychological tension and the way the scenes are painted. The New York Times ranked it the best picture of the year (1938).Premonition/Foreboding (Sign, Sign, Everywhere a Sign)The first paragraph introduces us to Iris. Every chapter, starting with chapter one, ends with a sense of foreboding.Safety vs. danger – Iris’ square on her palmMiss Froy is homesick, which she sees as a warning.The dangerous hike (being lost) was a warning.Rose’s dream of a railway smash.Iris passes out from sunstroke and barely makes the train.Miss Froy’s story about an Englishwoman locked in an asylum (friendless foreigner who didn’t speak the language) Mr. and Mrs. Froy feel apprehensive about their daughter’s safety.Premonition plays a role throughout the book by Ethel Lina White. Is it just a psychological variable here? Is premonition real? Is it inescapable?Stranger in a Strange LandIn The Wheel Turns by Ethel Lina White, Iris and her friends are staying in a village of “picturesque squalor in a remote corner of Europe,” filled with barbarous scenery, magnificent ruggedness, and desolate hollows. She doesn’t speak the language or understand the culture. She’s also an outsider amongst the British “decent, well-bred” guests. And when she passes out at the station from sunstroke, she awakes to foreign people and foreign voices. Keep  your eye on Crippen & Landru  to see  when  the new Ethel Lina White collection drops!A Legal CriticismAs Iris waits at the train station, she overhears a disagreement between Hare and the professor. Hare says trial by jury is poor justice, people have inherent biases, people can’t control themselves from erroneous snap judgements, and even evidence isn’t reliable. He says everyone’s a “bag of his special prejudices” (50) and an unreliable witness.Iris rather takes Hare’s side, but then agrees with the professor’s side when she thinks about trusting the solid, dependable British woman over a foreign seductress type.Then Iris finds herself in this exact situation. She’s the beautiful, hysterical, rude attention seeker. She’s the least reliable person on the train — and the only one who’s right.Not even Hare believes her at all, though she directly calls into reality his own arguments.Linden BotanicalsWe sell the world’s healthiest herbal teas and extracts.Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.Support the showhttps://www.instagram.com/teatonicandtoxin/https://www.facebook.com/teatonicandtoxinhttps://www.teatonicandtoxin.comStay mysterious...

Send us Fan MailFleur Bradley is the author of many mysteries for kids, including Midnight at the Barclay Hotel and Daybreak on Raven Island.Originally from the Netherlands, she now lives in Colorado with her family.Get your book here!Watch clips from our conversation with Fleur!Join our  brand new  Patreon community here! It's free to join, with extra perks for members at every level.grace sigmaConsultancy specializing in lean process, systems design, data storytelling, and data visualization.Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.Support the showhttps://www.instagram.com/teatonicandtoxin/https://www.facebook.com/teatonicandtoxinhttps://www.teatonicandtoxin.comStay mysterious...

Send us Fan MailFull-time writer KEMPER DONOVAN is currently publishing an ongoing mystery series via Kensington Books. He joins us to discuss The Busy Body, the first in the Ghostwriter series, and The A.B.C. Murders by Agatha Christie.Previously, he published the standalone novel The Decent Proposal (HarperCollins). He is also the host of the podcast All About Agatha, dedicated to all things Agatha Christie, in which guise he has appeared on BBC TV and Radio New Zealand and written for the official Agatha Christie website, agathachristie.com.Get your book here!Watch clips from our conversation with Kemper!Join our  brand new  Patreon community here! It's free to join, with extra perks for members at every level.Learn more about our hosts The Ucross Foundation.Former Senator Dorothy Gibson, aka “that woman,” is the most talked-about person in the country. Dorothy had been the independent candidate for President, and after her very public defeat she has retreated to her home in rural Maine. She invites a ghostwriter to join her so they can work on her memoir.A ghostwriter tells other people’s stories for a living, and this is a dream assignment. The ghostwriter is impressed by Dorothy’s work ethic and steel-trap mind, not to mention the lovely surroundings (and one particularly gorgeous bodyguard). But when a neighbor dies under suspicious circumstances, Dorothy is determined to find the killer, and she and the ghostwriter team up to launch their own murder investigation.The best ghostwriters are adept at asking questions and spinning stories … two talents, it turns out, that also come in handy for sleuths. Dorothy’s political career, meanwhile, has made her an expert at recognizing lies and double-dealing. Working together, the two women are soon untangling motives and whittling down suspects, to the exasperation of local police. But this investigation—much like the election—may not unfold the way anyone expects …InfluenceThe Busy Body by Kemper Donovan has been described as a mystery in the “timeless tradition of Agatha Christie.” In what ways has Christie’s writing influenced you?Do you agree that the novel is Agatha Christie-esque? In what ways? Was that by intention?Carolyn DaughtersBrand therapy. Persuasive writing courses. Tell the best story possible.Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.Support the showhttps://www.instagram.com/teatonicandtoxin/https://www.facebook.com/teatonicandtoxinhttps://www.teatonicandtoxin.comStay mysterious...

Send us Fan MailTHE ABC MURDERS (1936) is one of the earliest examples of the “serial killer” novel. Striking in alphabetical order, a killer challenges renowned detective Hercule Poirot to a battle of wits. With ingenious twists and red herrings, the book will keep you guessing until the end.Special guest Kemper Donovan joins us to discuss Agatha Christie’s classic murder mystery. Check out the conversation starters below. Weigh in, and you might just get an on-air shoutout and a fab sticker!Full-time writer KEMPER DONOVAN is currently publishing an ongoing mystery series via Kensington Books. In the next episode he joins us to discuss The Busy Body, the first in the Ghostwriter series, and The A.B.C. Murders by Agatha Christie.Previously, he published the standalone novel The Decent Proposal (HarperCollins). He is also the host of the podcast All About Agatha, dedicated to all things Agatha Christie, in which guise he has appeared on BBC TV and Radio New Zealand and written for the official Agatha Christie website, agathachristie.com.Get your book here!Watch clips from our conversation with Kemper!Join our  brand new  Patreon community here! It's free to join, with extra perks for members at every level.Serial KillerThe ABC Murdes is commonly considered the first serial killer book. In a sense, it wasn’t because the serial killing was a screen.In another sense, were serial killers becoming more common? Jack the Ripper was referenced. several times. HP & the police seem to be drawing on a body of knowledge.The Psychological AspectSimilar to Gaudy Night, Agatha Christie in The ABC Murders spends time trying to analyze the psychological makeup of the killer as a key to solving the crimes. Freud and Jung started to become more well known starting in 1910. Is this related? The rise in psychoanalytic thinking? This does turn out to be the key to solving the mystery. Poirot guesses the dual aspect presented of the killer. Hercule Poirot even dabbles in dream interpretation.In contrast to Sayers, Christie books have less psychological elements to discuss. They are terrific and satisfying stories though.The Vanishing and the Problem of MemoryIn The ABC Murders, Cust is an epileptic World War I veteran who suffers from bouts of short-term blackouts due to a wartime head injury. He has been hired as a traveling stocking salesman and happens to be in the towns where the murders occur. Cust can’t recall his whereabouts during the last murder, and he was found with blood on his sleeve and a knife. He has no memory of writing letters to Poirot or of committing any of the murders, but he thinks he might have committed them because of his blackouts.Linden BotanicalsWe sell the world’s healthiest herbal teas and extracts.Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.Support the showhttps://www.instagram.com/teatonicandtoxin/https://www.facebook.com/teatonicandtoxinhttps://www.teatonicandtoxin.comStay mysterious...

Send us Fan MailWe were thrilled to chat with Craig Johnson during the 2024 Longmire Days this year about his 20th book, First Frost!Tea, Tonic & Toxin is a history of mystery book club and podcast. We’re reading the best mysteries ever written, as well as interviewing some of the world’s best contemporary mystery and thriller writers.Get the  book here!Watch parts of  the conversation  here!Join our  brand new  Patreon community here!Johnson is the New York Times bestselling author of the Longmire novels, which are the basis for Longmire, the hit Netflix drama. He lives in Ucross, Wyoming (pop. 26).The books have won multiple awards: Le Prix du Polar Nouvel Observateur / Bibliobs, the Wyoming Historical Association’s Book of the Year, Le Prix 813, Western Writers of America Spur Award, the Mountains & Plains Book of the Year, SNCF Prix de Polar, Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year, The Watson Award, Library Journal’s Best Mystery of the Year, the Rocky, and the Will Rogers Award for Fiction.Find Craig's website, follow  him on Facebook,  Instagram,  and X.It’s the summer of 1964, and recent college graduates Walt Longmire and Henry Standing Bear read the writing on the wall and enlist to serve in the Vietnam War. As they catch a few final waves in California before reporting for duty, a sudden storm assaults the shores and capsizes a nearby cargo boat. Walt and Henry jump to action, but it’s soon revealed by the police who greet them ashore that the sunken boat carried valuable contraband from underground sources.The boys, in their early 20s and at the peak of their physical prowess from playing college football for the last 4 years, head out on Route 66. The question, of course, is how far they’ll get before the consequences of their actions catch up to them — the answer being, not very.Back in the present day, Walt is forced to speak before a Judge following the fatal events of The Longmire Defense. With powerful enemies lurking behind the scenes, the sheriff of Absaroka County must consider his options if he wishes to finish the fight he started.Going back and forth between 1964 and the present day, Craig Johnson brings us a propulsive dual timeline as Walt Longmire stands between the crossfire of good and evil, law and anarchy, and compassion and cruelty at two pivotal stages in his life.New York Times bestseller First Frost is the 20th novel in the Walt Longmire mystery series. It was released on May 28, 2024. Sarah Harrison and Carolyn Daughters are thrilled to be in Buffalo, Wyoming, to meet with Craig Johnson during the annual Longmire Days festival.grace sigmaConsultancy specializing in lean process, systems design, data storytelling, and data visualization.Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.Support the showhttps://www.instagram.com/teatonicandtoxin/https://www.facebook.com/teatonicandtoxinhttps://www.teatonicandtoxin.comStay mysterious...