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The Moving Toyshop

Tea, Tonic & Toxin is the only history of mystery book club and podcast. We’re discussing the best mysteries ever written and interviewing the world’s best mystery and thriller writers.

THE MOVING TOYSHOP (1946) by Edmund Crispin is a classic in the mystery genre for its blend of intellectual humor, eccentric characters, ingenious plot twists, and a delightfully surreal premise.

When a poet stumbles upon a murder in a toyshop that vanishes the next day, unconventional Oxford professor Gervase Fen investigates. Edmund Crispin’s inventive approach to the detective story has secured the book’s place as a beloved and enduring work in crime fiction.

LATEST EPISODES

Episode 112: Inspector Alleyn & Ngaio Marsh - Died in the Wool

July 11, 2026

Died in the Wool by Ngaio Marsh (1945) is set in New Zealand, where Inspector Alleyn conducts wartime counterespionage work. It's grand.

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Episode 111: On Fire and Under Water (Curtis Ippolito, Puja Guha, Raymond J. Brash, C.E. McKenna)

July 5, 2026

Curtis Ippolito, Puja Guha, Raymond J. Brash, and C.E. McKenna join us to discuss On Fire and Under Water (2026), a crime fiction anthology.

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Episode 110: Death Comes as the End - Agatha Christie and the Historical Fiction Mystery Novel

June 29, 2026

Agatha Christie helped to launch the historical mystery sub-genre with DEATH COMES AS THE END (1944). The woman was a true innovator.

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SPECIAL GUESTS

ABOUT TEA, TONIC & TOXIN

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.

TEA, TONIC & TOXIN HOSTS

SARAH HARRISON

Sarah loves getting to the bottom of any mystery having to do with life, love, work, play, personality, or process dysfunction. A scientist obsessed with reading fiction, she launched PORN (People Obsessed with Reading Novels -- get your mind out of the gutter!) while in grad school. After nine years, it was time for her book club to transmogrify into the podcast before you, sending its tendrils out to find you, friend. When she isn't hanging with her husband and two kids or running her business, Grace Sigma, she's taking a deep dive into the history, art, and architecture of this dark genre.

CAROLYN DAUGHTERS

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.