Our fabulous guest Deb Donner is back to discuss the stories in The Innocence of Father Brown. (By now, you surely have a copy of the book, right?) Father Brown solves mysteries by looking into men’s and women’s hearts and souls. We’re talking human nature, folks. It’s some heady, thought-provoking stuff.
Sarah and Carolyn discuss this AMAZING collection of Father Brown mysteries with their first Tea, Tonic & Toxin podcast guest, Deb Donner! Deb is wise, insightful, and patient. She didn’t complain once during the ~14 hours it took Sarah and Carolyn to get their act together. Way to go, Deb!
Sarah and Carolyn adore Lady Molly of Scotland Yard and Mary, her devoted friend (servant?). Molly’s like Charlie Cale in Poker Face (if Charlie Cale had more social graces, that is). Molly instinctively knows when people are lying and solves cases that the Scotland Yard guys can’t. Rock on, Molly.
Holmes and Watson are an amazing pair. Sherlock Holmes is a force of nature, and Watson’s a pretty impressive investigator in his own right. Both are terrified of supernatural hounds. To be fair, we’re also terrified of supernatural hounds. We are, however, BIG fans of The Hound of the Baskervilles.
The curse of the Baskervilles is scary stuff, and Dartmoor is terrifying. Until, that is, you realize that Dartmoor is stunning. (Seriously, Arthur Conan Doyle, it’s a lovely area.) Would you move into the Dartmoor family mansion if given the chance? We would. Most definitely, curse or no curse.
Israel Zangwill may not be a household name, but it should be. His 1892 novel, The Big Bow Mystery, is a locked-room mystery set in London’s working-class East End. Two detectives race to solve a murder, an innocent man is condemned, and the solution’s a shocker. (And it’s laugh-out-loud funny.)
We weren’t familiar with locked room mysteries when we started The Big Bow Mystery, but now we’re way into them. Many books have since borrowed the book’s twist ending, but Israel Zangwill did it first. What twist, you ask? Um, you really need to read the book AND listen in!
Carolyn and Sarah are both confused by the narrator’s description of the hellish wasteland known as the Salt Lake Valley. Did you know that much of A Study in Scarlet takes place in Utah of all places? We didn’t. We’re behind on our Sherlock Holmes studies. Anyhow, minds blown.
Carolyn wishes she could invite Sherlock Holmes and Watson to a dinner party. Sarah finds Holmes off-putting. Both Carolyn and Sarah love Holmes’s concept of a “brain attic,” wherein the brain can store only a limited amount of information at any given time. That, dear friend, is a true story.
Sarah and Carolyn think Victorian Melbourne was delightful. So, who committed the hansom cab murder? You’ll have to listen to the Fergus Hume podcast to find out. Or you can find out by reading the book. Here’s an idea: Read the book AND listen to the podcast episode!
Get our most mysterious newsletter once a month. All mysterious goodness (PLUS giveaways). It’s delightful. We promise.
