Tea, Tonic and Toxin is a book club and podcast for anyone who loves amazing mysteries and detective stories. First up: Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Murders in the Rue Morgue.”
“The Murders in the Rue Morgue” may be the first detective story. Set in Paris, the story features amateur detective Auguste Dupin and his unnamed sidekick, who narrates how Dupin solves a gruesome double murder.
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However, in “The Murders in the Rue Morgue,” Poe breaks new ground here — in mystery narratives, Poe essentially says, the usual rules don’t apply. The rifle doesn’t need to go off in chapter two, chapter three, or ever. Instead, the rifle, like the gold coins in the story, can be a red herring. Therein lies the challenge — for the detective and for the reader.
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.
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.
Sarah loves getting to the bottom of any mystery having to do with life, love, work, play, personality, or process dysfunction.
Carolyn has loved mysteries ever since she and her sister started the highly successful CarMich Detective Agency when they were kids.
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© 2023 by Sarah Harrison and Carolyn Daughters
