Dining with Death

Shedunnit

Caroline Crampton

Arts, Books

4.9 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 23 January 2019

⏱️ 23 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Food matters in books. It helps to set the scene, build up characters and evoke a period, and it also symbolises comfort, security and domesticity. Yet in detective fiction, food can also be a method for murder. Everything is lovely at the family dinner, until somebody clutches their throat, turns blue in the face, and falls face forward into the soup. Find more information about this episode and links to the books discussed at shedunnitshow.com/diningwithdeath. The podcast is on Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr and Instagram as @ShedunnitShow, and you can find it in all major podcast apps. Make sure you’re subscribed so you don’t miss the next episode. Click here to do that now in your app of choice. Kate Young is the author of The Little Library Cookbook. Follow her on Instagram @bakingfiction and find out more about her work at thelittlelibrarycafe.com. Books mentioned in order of appearance (please be aware that there are minor spoilers for some stories in this episode): —At Bertram's Hotel by Agatha Christie —A Pocket Full of Rye by Agatha Christie —The Little Library Cookbook by Kate Young —The Murder at the Vicarage by Agatha Christie —Busman's Honeymoon by Dorothy L Sayers —A is for Arsenic by Kathryn Harkup —Police at the Funeral by Margery Allingham —Murder in Mesopotamia by Agatha Christie —They Do It With Mirrors by Agatha Christie —The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie —"The Thumb Mark of St Peter" and "The Tuesday Night Club" in The Thirteen Problems by Agatha Christie —Strong Poison by Dorothy L Sayers —Sad Cypress by Agatha Christie —A Murder is Announced by Agatha Christie —Crèmes & châtiments : Recettes délicieuses et criminelles d'Agatha Christie by Anne Martinetti - French Language Only —The Lord Peter Wimsey Cookbook by Elizabeth Bond Ryan and William J Eakins —Sleeping Murder by Agatha Christie —The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding by Agatha Christie Find a full transcript of this episode at shedunnitshow.com/diningwithdeathtranscript NB: Links to Blackwell’s are affiliate links, meaning that the podcast receives a small commission when you purchase a book there (the price remains the same for you). Blackwell’s is a UK independent bookselling chain that ships internationally at no extra charge. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	This episode is brought to you by Delive a Rule, because anything goes this Christmas.
0:06.0	Yes, even sprouts on a pizza or gravy on sushi.
0:10.0	The rules are, there are no rules. Have a Cantonese on Christmas Eve or a
0:15.2	Balty on Boxing Day and when you're so over the leftovers bring on the ramen
0:20.2	From big brands to local favorites this Christmas. It's all on your doorstep with
0:25.0	deliver room. Geographical restrictions, Ties and C, service and delivery fees apply. It's a perfect image of family harmony and domestic bliss.
0:39.2	Everyone gathered around a table groaning with food brought together for the daily ritual of breaking
0:45.2	bread.
0:48.9	Maybe it's a huge dining room full of damask and silver. Maybe it's a small homely kitchen with everyone crowded in on stools.
0:56.0	The class signifiers matter less than the fact that the whole family is there eating together.
1:10.0	Except too often in a detective novel that is, these jolly family dinners aren't quite what they seem. There's resentment
1:16.0	about inheritance simmering below the surface, and extramarital affairs being
1:21.4	conducted under spouse's noses.
1:24.0	Long held grudges from childhood hover in the background,
1:28.0	all the more dangerous now that everybody is all grown up.
1:32.0	Still, as long as everyone can stay civil and eat together,
1:36.1	they can pretend that everything is just fine. That is, until somebody clutches their throat, turns blue in the face, and falls forward into
1:47.9	their soup.
1:48.9	Because tonight, you see, we're dining with death.
1:55.0	Welcome to She Dunit.
1:59.0	I'm Caroline Crampton.
2:01.0	A brief note before we go any further, in order to be able to discuss this subject properly, I might need occasionally to hint at who-done it. If you're worried about spoilers, please refer now to the list of books in the episode
	...

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