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Dear listener, I trust this letter finds you well.

Perhaps you are curled up somewhere cosy, pressing play as a break from reading your favourite detective novel. Or maybe you're out and about, using the podcast to stay connected to the Golden Age of Detective Fiction even while you're busy living modern life.

Either way, I hope I have your attention for what promises to be a most

absorbing literary investigation. I'm sure you're curious as to why I'm addressing you this way.

I don't usually write letters to my listeners, do I? But it felt fitting for our subject matter today.

I've spent the past couple of months immersed in mystery stories that are

composed of old letters, diary entries, witness statements, court transcripts, newspaper cuttings,

ships, logs, and all manner of such documents. What better way I thought to tell you about my

journey through this world of crime fiction told in fragments, than to follow the example of these authors

and write my own letters to you. So consider this our first shared dispatch, a confidential

note, if you will, setting the scene for what is to come. The realm of epistolary crime novels

turns every reader into an armchair detective, who must sift through the evidence as it unfolds,

...