Interview with Maureen Johnson and Jay Cooper, Author and Illustrator of The Creeping Hand Murder

All About Agatha Christie

Catherine Brobeck & Kemper Donovan

Tv & Film, Books, Film Reviews, Arts

4.7 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 3 October 2025

⏱️ 53 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Who doesn't love a puzzle? Maureen and Jay have gone *full bore* on the notion of a solvable Golden Age mystery. Call it a mashup between Agatha Christie and Dennis Wheatley's "crime dossiers" (if you know you know). I have a feeling many of you will enjoy the heck out of it.

You can check out the book, which is now available in the U.S. and UK, on Maureen's website here.

Here are those links I mentioned at the end of the episode to the two previously inaccessible Christie adaptations I'll be discussing in two weeks' time: Estonian Miss Marple from 1990, and Poirot in the U.S. from 1962. Enjoy! I can't wait to discuss.

You can now pre-order Sweet Spot, the third book in my Ghostwriter Mysteries series! (Coming out July 2026.) At the very least, click on this link to check out the pretty yellow cover! Pre-orders help me a ton, so I thank you in advance.

To visit and subscribe to the podcast's Patreon page (Hound of the Baskervilles coming up next!), click here.

Visit the podcast on Instagram, and me personally at my author website.

Loose Lips, the second book in my Ghostwriter Mysteries series, is currently available for purchase.

You can also buy The Busy Body, the first book in my Ghostwriter Mysteries series, in paperback at your bookseller of choice (make it an indie if you possibly can) in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia and New Zealand.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to All About Agatha, the podcast dedicated to reading and drinking every single mystery novel written by the Queen of Crime, Dame Agatha Christie.
0:14.1	I'm Kemper Donovan, and I am back in the United States after my wonderful trip to England.
0:21.1	I hope you all enjoyed my live episode from the Agatha Christie Festival.
0:25.5	You'll be hearing a bit more about all that I discussed on that trip in episodes to come,
0:32.2	both here and on Patreon, but not for a little bit.
0:35.1	On today's episode, I have a new book that is out that I think
0:40.4	is going to speak to many of you out there. A puzzle mystery created very much in the vein
0:47.0	of Agatha Christie, very intentionally in a Christy-like way. Let's just get right to the interview,
0:52.3	where all will be explained.
1:00.4	All About Agatha is a very text-based podcast, which is why I'm so excited to be doing something
1:07.5	a little different today with my two guests, two for the price of one,
1:12.0	because they are an author, illustrator team who recently came out with a book that I think
1:17.1	many of you are going to enjoy. The book is called You Are the Detective, the creeping hand
1:23.5	murder, a solve it yourself mystery. It came out on September 16th of this year in 2025,
1:31.0	and rather than a straightforward narrative, it's a compilation of interviews and letters and
1:37.4	photographs and newspaper clippings, the contents of various people's pockets,
1:41.6	just all sorts of clues and evidence provided directly
1:45.3	to the reader who in this way is given the means of solving a mystery. The author is Maureen Johnson,
1:53.0	number one New York Times bestselling author of the Stevie Bell mysteries among many other books.
1:58.5	Longtime listeners will remember that I've had Maureen on the podcast
2:01.4	before to discuss those Stevie Bell mysteries as well as other work she's written. I'm a big fan.
2:06.7	The illustrator is Jay Cooper, who has written and or illustrated more than 25 books for children,
	...

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