On a winter's night in 1974, a crime took place that would obsess the nation.

It was an extraordinary news story.

The story of an aristocrat, Lord Lucan, who's said to have killed the family Nanny,

mistaking her for his wife, then somehow just disappeared.

One of the great mysteries in English criminal history. We're still looking for Lucan.

It's honestly one of the most powerful stories of my lifetime.

I'm Alex von Tundselman.

This is The Lucan Obsession.

Listen on BBC Sounds.

BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts.

Hello. Today we meet writers taking our human failings

and turning them into irresistibly idiosyncratic comedy.

Later, Catherine Hiney and Josie Long

discussed their new collections of short stories,

and we hear about an odd couple who meet through a sex therapist named Om. But first,

in his previous novels, an evening of long goodbyes, Skippy dies, and The Mark and the Void,

Paul Murray has introduced us to Irish Life via greyhand racing, community theatre, an elite boarding

school, and the Dublin property scene in the boom and bust years.

Now his fourth novel takes us into the heart of a family in a small town, complete with its social strata,

gossips, secrets and lies. The Beasting is a family saga and one that allows each of its main characters

to take centre stage.

And to tell us more about it, I'm delighted that Paul Murray joins me now.

...