Double Trouble

Shedunnit

Caroline Crampton

Arts, Books

4.9 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 22 September 2021

⏱️ 22 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

What happens when two people write a whodunnit together? Thanks to my guests, Cordelia Biddle and Steve Zettler. They write separately under their own names and together under the pseudonym Nero Blanc. The whole Crossword Mysteries series can be found at crosswordmysteries.com, where there are links to buy each title. There are no spoilers in this episode. Find links to all the books mentioned in this episode at shedunnitshow.com/doubletrouble. Books mentioned: — Tidy Death by Nap Lombard — The Life of G.D.H. Cole by Margaret Cole — The Floating Admiral by the Detection Club — Murder's a Swine by Nap Lombard — Enter Sir John by Clemence Dane and Helen de Guerry Simpson — Regiment of Women by Clemence Dane — The Documents in the Case by Dorothy L. Sayers — Strong Poison by Dorothy L. Sayers — Busman's Honeymoon by Dorothy L. Sayers — The Nursing Home Murder by Ngaio Marsh and Henry Jellett — The Crossword Murder by Nero Blanc — Death on the Diagonal by Nero Blanc Further listening: — The "Round Robin" episode about multi-author whodunnits — The "Detection Club" episode about the group of golden age authors who participated in these projects — The "Mutual Admiration Society" episode about the collaboration between Dorothy L. Sayers and Muriel St Clare Byrne 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 bookselling chain that ships internationally at no extra charge. Buying from them is a great way to support both the podcast and the book trade! To be the first to know about future developments with the podcast, sign up for the newsletter at shedunnitshow.com/newsletter. The podcast is on Twitter, Facebook, 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. Find a full transcript of this episode at shedunnitshow.com/doubletroubletranscript Music by Audioblocks and Blue Dot Sessions. See shedunnitshow.com/musiccredits for more details. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	The new way to win thousands of free tickets to electrifying live events.
0:16.0	Sign up at ladbrookslive.co.uk
0:22.0	18 plus UK max 1 account per individual
0:25.0	Enter free draws to win event tickets from designated list
0:28.0	to win per week restrictions and TNC's apply.
0:33.0	A good mystery is a contest between writer and reader.
0:38.0	If observing the conventions of fair play that were popular in the 1920s and 30s,
0:44.0	the writer must be transparent with the reader about clues and suspects,
0:48.0	no springing and unlikely murderer on the reader at the 11th hour is allowed.
0:53.0	But at the same time as laying all of that information out there,
0:57.0	the writer is also trying to misdirect and confuse so that the solution still makes for a good twist at the end.
1:04.0	The game is to conceal what is hidden in plain sight,
1:08.0	while the reader is trying their hardest to discover it.
1:12.0	Sometimes reading a who done it is a bit like experiencing a literary duel right there on the page.
1:19.0	Usually this is a fair fight, one writer versus one reader.
1:24.0	But in some cases, the reader is outnumbered.
1:29.0	There's a long tradition in detective fiction of co-writing,
1:33.0	of a pair of writers coming together to pull their talents and pit their collective wits against their readers.
1:39.0	Sometimes this duet is openly advertised by two names on the book cover,
1:44.0	and at others it's concealed behind a singular pseudonym, two people masquerading as one.
1:51.0	Either way, it's a fascinating way to write a book,
1:54.0	and I've long wondered how and why it was done.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Caroline Crampton, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Caroline Crampton and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.