Show Notes
Author of the Murder Most Unladylike and Ministry of Unladylike Activity series, Robin Stevens knows a thing or two about writing murder mysteries. Her focus is on Young Adult (YA) fiction. Robin and host Rebecca Thandi Norman discuss the Poirot mystery Hallowe'en Party, why they keep coming back to it although they agree that it's not Christie's best work, and what makes a murder mystery appropriate for young adult literature. Robin also talks about how Christie inspires her own work, including Poirot as the inspiration for one of her detectives, Hazel Wong. She goes into the connection she feels with her young readers, how her series came about, and what she'll never do in her plots.
See Robin's website here: https://robin-stevens.co.uk/
See Robin's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/redbreastedbird/
Next episode we're reading The Moving Finger https://bookshop.org/a/87919/9780063214033
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More from Tea & Murder: An Agatha Christie Podcast
Steven Garner, a legal translator also known for his Instagram account, @christie_in_translation, joins host Rebecca Thandi Norman to discuss the beloved Marple mystery 4:50 from Paddington. The two talk about why this is a great example of Jane Marple's personality, the character of Lucy Eyelesbarrow, and whether this would be an easy book to translate.
It's our third play on the podcast, and you know what? We should really do this more often. Host Rebecca Thandi Norman speaks with mystery writer Jamie West about Spider's Web, which is Christie's second-longest running play of all time. It quickly becomes clear why: it's funny, engaging, and exactly what you'd expect from a Christie: a twisty murder in the manor house on the English countryside. Jamie discusses how his work in the theatre led him to write his own mystery series, why Christie plays endure today, and what it is about this one that has always stuck out in his mind.
Writer, historian, and curator Subhadra Das has been exploring the connection between Golden Age detective fiction and eugenics. In this interview, she discusses the late Christie work, Elephants Can Remember. She and host Rebecca Thandi Norman address eugenics concepts across Christie's career, why Poirot would take this case, if "twin plots" ever really work, and which book Rebecca thought she was agreeing to before getting started (spoilers: it wasn't the right one!).
Ram Murali's debut novel, Death in the Air, is not only a fun and glamorous mystery set in an Indian hotel, it's also a love letter to Agatha Christie. Host Rebecca and Ram discuss homages to Christie's work, how characters are created, and the messy-but-sometimes-fun Death in the Clouds.
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