Hello, I'm Rihanna Dillon. Welcome to the Penguin podcast and another episode of Ask Penguin.

We're the podcast for conversations about all things books and book related. And if you'd like to get involved, it's really easy to get in touch with your questions.

You can email us at penguin podcast at penguin randomhouse.com.uk or click the link in the show notes and we'll be

answering some of your questions a little later in this episode. Today, I've got my magnifying

glass. I am twiddling my moustache. I've got my dear stalker on. We're going to jump into

one of my favourite genres, crime and mystery.

From locked room murders to private detectives with questionable coping methods, I love the good mystery.

But I've always wondered, how do they get written?

Does an author know who the murderer is from the beginning?

How many viable suspects should there be? How do you even

begin to plot something so intricate? Well, my guest today is an author who'll hopefully be able to

give us a clue or two. I'm so thrilled to be joined by one of the most well-known and best-loved

novelists working today. Her work spans time periods and genres from the best-selling

shrines of gaiety set in the aftermath of the First World War to her Whitbread Book of the

Year winning debut behind the scenes at the museum, to one of my all-time favourite books,

Life After Life. Her best-selling literary crime novels feature former detective turned PI,

Jackson Brody. So he first appeared in Case Histories, which became a BBC TV series starring

Jason Isaacs. Now six books in, the PI returns in her new novel, Death at the Sign of the Rook.

My guest is, of course, Kate, thank you so much for

joining us on the Penguin podcast. It's a pleasure. So as my very potted introduction suggests,

your writing covers all sorts of genres. Death at the Sign of the Rook is the sixth Jackson Brody

novel. By now, do you consider yourself a crime writer? I don't think I've

...