Tea Tonic and Toxin: Mystery and Thriller Podcast and Book Club

Dashiell Hammett’s Continental Op

Hey, Continental Op, what’s your deal? Are you a hero? Anti-hero? Something else altogether? Hear our thoughts about the Op, Dinah Brand, Whisper, and all the gang – and let us know your tally of how many people wind up dead in the book. It’s hard to keep track.

Red Harvest by Dashiell Hammett

What a bloody, crime-filled, mindbender of a novel. There’s no delightful married couple with a fox terrier in this one, and Poisonville lacks the seedy charm of 1920s San Francisco. Red Harvest is a crime thriller masterpiece, and the Continental Op is an anti-hero for the ages.

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd

As Sir Walter Scott once wrote, “what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive.” In The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, most everyone’s lying about something – and one of those liars is both a blackmailer and a killer. Eli Milliman joins Sarah and Carolyn to hash it out!

Is it the Best Mystery Novel?

The super smart, highly creative, and always entertaining Eli Milliman joins Sarah and Carolyn in a lively, introspective discussion of Agatha Christie’s rightfully famous The Murder of Roger Ackroyd. The ending is a shocker. Christie was a genius, no two ways about it.

The First Lord Peter Wimsey Book

Carolyn did not expect Lord Peter Wimsey to be so complex. He suffers from PTSD, and Dorothy Sayers does a bang-up job of conveying the otherworldly disconnect some experience during panic attacks. He won Carolyn over. The always insightful Sarah liked him all along.

The Mysterious Affair at Styles

Sarah, Carolyn, and special guest Jill Carstens would like to spend some time at Styles Court. Strolls around the grounds, hours spent reading each day, afternoon tea, evening libations … An outlier among a cast of selfish characters, Hercule Poirot is sympathetic, smart, and, of course, THE foremost master of detection.

Introducing Poirot and Hastings!

Special guest Jill Carstens returns to talk more about The Mysterious Affair at Styles, where we meet Hercule Poirot. He’s a methodical marvel who’s nonplussed by the affairs, awkward proposals, loveless marriages, and privileged egotism of the various suspects. Poirot is delightful. Much like Sarah, Carolyn, and Jill.

The Thirty-Nine Steps (39 Steps Part II)

Sarah and Carolyn and special guest Wendi Anderson discuss approximately 492 topics related to but not directly about John Buchan’s short, fast-paced espionage thriller The Thirty-Nine Steps. We learn that both Sarah and Wendi will open the door when a stranger knocks. Sarah will even let that someone use her phone.

The Thirty-Nine Steps

Sarah and Carolyn and special guest Wendi Anderson love The Thirty-Nine Steps, a fast-paced man on the run thriller published in 1915. Warning: Listening to this episode will make you want to become a freelance spy and move to Scotland. If you’re already a freelance spy and live in Scotland, we’re jealous.

The First Golden Age Detective Story

Carolyn dislikes Trent, and she would not invite him to her dinner party. Sarah, on the other hand, would probably bring Trent as her guest to Carolyn’s dinner party, putting Carolyn in an awkward hostess-ly position. The Golden Age begins here, folks, and we are too excited to type more words.