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Jeffrey 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).

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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 Detectives

What 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, Workers

Marian 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 Identity

What 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?

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

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

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

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

Detective Chief Inspector of the Metropolitan Police

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

Remember, you are bound by the Official Secrets Act…

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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