Howdunnit

Shedunnit

Caroline Crampton

Arts, Books

4.9 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 30 November 2022

⏱️ 24 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Invert everything you know about murder mysteries. Mentioned in this episode: — "The Case of Oscar Brodski” by R. Austin Freeman — The Mystery of 31, New Inn by R. Austin Freeman — The Red Thumb Mark by R. Austin Freeman — John Thorndyke's Cases by R. Austin Freeman — "A Wastrel's Romance” by R. Austin Freeman — “The Art of the Detective Story” by R. Austin Freeman — The Adventures of Romney Pringle by Clifford Ashdown (aka R. Austin Freeman and John Pitcairn) — Inspecting Psychology by David Cohen — History of the Psychoanalytic Movement by Sigmund Freud — The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club by Dorothy L. Sayers — Speedy Death by Gladys Mitchell — The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie — The “Florence Maybrick I” and “Florence Maybrick II” episodes of Shedunnit — The Wychford Poisoning Case by Anthony Berkeley — The Psychology of Anthony Berkeley episode of Shedunnit — Malice Aforethought by Francis Iles — The Case of the April Fools by Christopher Bush — The 12.30 from Croydon by Freeman Wills Crofts — Enter a Murderer by Ngaio Marsh 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. 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/howdunnittranscript 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

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0:00.0	When we want to describe a work of detective fiction, there are a few different terms that
0:09.0	get thrown around. We might say murder mystery, or crime fiction, or detective story, or thriller,
0:17.2	or perhaps who done it. These aren't all the same thing of course, but they are expressions
0:23.2	that get used fairly interchangeably. A mystery doesn't have to contain a murder, for instance,
0:29.4	and detective stories are crime fiction, although not all crime fiction is detective stories,
0:35.3	and so on. And if we're talking about classic or golden age crime fiction, as I frequently do
0:41.7	on this podcast, there is a certain tendency to equate murder mystery and who done it.
0:49.4	That's what a mystery is surely, a story that documents the unfolding of a crime,
0:54.5	its investigation, and the eventual revelation of who was responsible. Or is it?
1:02.0	The majority of early 20th century and golden age detective fiction does adhere to this
1:06.8	who done it format, it's true. But even as this structure was becoming synonymous with the genre,
1:13.4	there were writers experimenting with different ways of telling mystery stories.
1:18.4	What if we knew who did it from the beginning? Would you keep reading?
1:24.1	Today we're falling headfirst into the how done it.
1:34.4	Welcome to She Done It. I'm Caroline Crampton.
1:37.8	You're probably fairly used to me saying the word who done it on this podcast,
1:50.6	and pretty comfortable with what that means. A mystery story in which the structure is built
1:55.9	around discovering the identity of the person who has committed the plot's principal crime.
2:01.5	But what is a how done it? Well, as the name might suggest, a how done it is a mystery story
2:07.9	that is focused on how the crime is committed rather than who has done it.
2:13.6	This requires a few adjustments to the way that the story is told. To start with,
2:18.8	it's usually necessary in a how done it to identify the criminal, usually a murderer,
	...

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