Special Guests Maureen Johnson
and Jay Cooper

MAUREEN JOHNSON and JAY COOPER are the bestselling duo behind You Are the Detective: The Creeping Hand Murder and Your Guide to Not Getting Murdered in a Quaint English Village.

Scroll down to learn more about Maureen Johnson and Jay Cooper!

Maureen Johnson and Jay Cooper, illus. by Jay Cooper - You Are the Detective - Interview with the Tea, Tonic & Toxin Podcast and Book Club

All About Maureen Johnson and Jay Cooper

Maureen Johnson and Jay Cooper, illus. by Jay Cooper - You Are the Detective - Interview with the Tea, Tonic & Toxin Podcast and Book Club

MAUREEN JOHNSON and JAY COOPER are the bestselling duo behind Your Guide to Not Getting Murdered in a Quaint English Village.

Maureen Johnson is the #1 New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of many young adult novels, including the very murderous Shades of London series and the Stevie Bell mysteries: Truly Devious, The Vanishing Stair, The Hand on the Wall, and The Box in the Woods. She has also done collaborative works, such as Let It Snow with John Green and Lauren Myracle (now a movie on Netflix), and several books in the Shadowhunter universe with Cassandra Clare. Her books have been translated into more than 35 languages.

Jay Cooper’s books don’t normally include grisly murders, nefarious deeds, or corpses of any kind. He has written and/or illustrated more than twenty books for kids, including The Spy Next Door, The Pepper Party, and the Bots series, and has contributed work to the New York Times bestselling series The Last Kids on Earth. Currently he is illustrating a graphic novel entitled Super Atomic Wombat Girl. He’s also a graphic designer of theatrical advertising, and has worked on more than a hundred Broadway musicals and plays (which have heaps of deaths). Visit him at jaycooperbooks.com or follow him on Twitter @jaycooperart.

You Are the Detective: The Creeping Hand Murder by Maureen Johnson and Jay Cooper

Maureen Johnson and Jay Cooper, illus. by Jay Cooper - You Are the Detective - Interview with the Tea, Tonic & Toxin Podcast and Book Club

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

Questions for Maureen Johnson & Jay Cooper

  1. What first sparked the idea for You Are the Detective: The Creeping Hand Murder? (1930s dossier mystery format, the impossible crime setup, or the chance to make readers do the detective work themselves …)

  2. This book asks readers to solve the case rather than simply follow a detective. How did that change the way you thought about plot, pacing, clues, and reveals?

  3. The book is presented as a 1933 London case file. What drew you to that specific time and place, and what made it feel right for a Golden Age-style mystery?

  4. The murder is described as “logistically impossible.” Without giving away the solution, how hard is it to build a mystery where the mechanics have to work visually, spatially, and narratively?

  5. Jay, the illustrations aren’t just decorative—they’re evidence. How did you approach creating images that had to be funny, atmospheric, historically grounded, and clue-bearing all at once?

  6. Maureen, mystery readers are famously detail-oriented. How did you decide how much to reveal and how much to obscure? How did the concept of fair play factor into the narrative and the clues?

  7. What makes a great “fair play” mystery? Do you believe readers should be able to solve everything before the reveal?

  8. You’ve mentioned wanting the book to be completely self-contained—no internet required. Why was that important to the experience?

  9. The book includes maps, witness statements, newspaper clippings, photos, police materials, and a sealed solution envelope. Which element was the most fun to create, and which one was most challenging?

  10. You’ve both described the collaboration as organic—almost like a creative back-and-forth. What was it like working together? How did writing and illustration shape each other as the project developed?

  11. The suspects feel theatrical: a poet, an earl, an actress, a cook, a telephone operator, a lothario. How did you balance Golden Age archetypes with characters who still feel fresh and funny?

  12. The book has dark humor running through it. How do you know when a murder mystery can be funny without undercutting the stakes?

  13. How much were you consciously paying homage to Agatha Christie, Dennis Wheatley, locked-room mysteries, or other classic crime traditions?

  14. The title, The Creeping Hand Murder, feels sensational and almost supernatural. How did you land on that title, and what kind of mood did you want it to create?

  15. What advice would you give readers before they open the book? Should they read straight through first, take notes, study the pictures, build a suspect chart?

  16. This feels like a book for readers, puzzle-solvers, gamers, and mystery fans. Did you have a particular kind of reader in mind as you created it? Is the book for a YA audience or for mystery lovers and puzzle solvers more generally?

  17. You previously collaborated on Your Guide to Not Getting Murdered in a Quaint English Village. How did that project prepare you for this one, and how was this collaboration different?

  18. What surprised you most about each other during the making of this book?

  19. Do you see You Are the Detective as the start of a larger series? Are there other case files, eras, or impossible crimes you’d like to write and illustrate as solve-it-yourself mysteries?

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About Tea, Tonic & Toxin

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.

Tea, Tonic, and Toxin Book Club and Podcast - Mysteries and Thrillers

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