Special guest Jill Carstens joins Tea, Tonic & Toxin to discuss Agatha Christie’s The Mysterious Affair at Styles!
Jill is a journalist and an author of narrative nonfiction, and she was also a teacher for 30 years. These days, Jill is concentrating on memoir writing and painting.
Learn more about Jill Carstens below!
Since Jill Carstens received her pink Five-Year Diary at age 10, her life has been navigated through the written word. Coming of age during a time of radical economic downturn in Denver, she began her post-college years waiting tables at the now-historic Wynkoop Brewing Company and wandering the then-vacant streets of lower downtown Denver, discovering wonderfully gritty joints along the way.
A teacher for many years, Jill enjoyed nurturing the creative and healing aspects of writing with students of all ages and backgrounds. Since retiring from that vocation, Jill began her career in journalism, writing for several Colorado publications. She reflects on her parenting and teaching experiences in a regular column in the Denver North Star newspaper, Letters from Miss Jill.
When Jill Carstens is not writing, she immerses herself in meditative art-making or hops on her mountain bike to climb the rocky trails of the surrounding foothills. As she likes to say, “art and words can make a difference.”
She currently splits her time between Denver and Salida, Colorado, with her husband Jeff, son Gray, and dog, Lexi. Her memoir is a reflection of all those journal entries compiled during her early life. Getting Over Vivian is her love-letter to a Denver that is long gone.
You can find Jill on Instagram @lettersfrommissjill and @graphittirainbow.
The Mysterious Affair at Styles (1920) is Agatha Christie’s first Hercule Poirot mystery! Can Belgian detective Hercule Poirot solve an unsolvable crime?
From the Times Literary Supplement (1921): “[The story] is said to be the result of a bet about the possibility of writing a detective story in which the reader would not be able to spot the criminal. Every reader must admit that the bet was won.”
Tell us what you think, and we may share your thoughts in our next episode and send you a fabulous sticker! (It really is a pretty awesome sticker.)
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.
Teasers & Tidbits
Dashiell Hammett’s crime novel Red Harvest is more than just a gripping detective story. It’s also a political statement, inspired
When Dorothy L. Sayers wrote Whose Body? (her debut novel, published in 1923), she introduced a detective who would go
If you’re a fan of Agatha Christie’s murder mysteries, I’m sure you’re already familiar with Hercule Poirot, the eccentric Belgian
This detective novel introduces readers to a British mining engineer – Richard Hannay – who has just returned to London
Even though the name of this book is Trent’s Last Case, the novel is actually about the FIRST detective case
Long before he started writing his own detective stories, Gilbert Keith (G.K.) Chesterton was already a fan of the genre.
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