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In Anthony Price's debut novel, a WW2-era C-47 Dakota resurfaces twenty-five years after being officially "lost at sea". Its captain was transporting something hot from the dying embers of Nazi Germany and its plunders. The trail went cold when the plane got wet in 1945. But now that it's back, the intelligence networks of East and West resurrect their chase. "The Labyrinth Makers" is the first David Audley spy mystery and sees the Ministry of Defence analyst working to stay one step ahead of a Russain threat. Part art history, part-treasure hunt and part cold-war pursuit, Price's novel is the subject of our latest episode.
Fast Facts@02:30; Plot Summary@12:45; PIPES@53:45
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Collected in "The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes", this narrative is unique in the canon for a few reasons: first, it is the longest short story written by Conan Doyle for publication; secondly, it is one of only a handful of cases that is brought to Holmes by Watson; third, it happened to be one of Conan Doyle's personal favourites; and, finally, it's Josh's choice for this year's Summer series! "The Naval Treaty" follows the unfortunate mishap of Percy Phelps and the intrigue of a stolen document from the Foreign Office in London. This story serves as a warning to any public official who steps away from their work to chase up coffee. Our review here was originally produced in September, 2017.
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"The worst man in London... the king of all blackmailers."
These are the blunt, declarative answers Holmes provides to his Watson when asked about this story's titular antagonist. Some immodest letters have been intercepted that would mark the ruin of Lady Eva Blackwell and her upcoming nuptials. The fee for their return is a punishing £7000 (over a million dollars today). She's employed Sherlock to help her out and he's not afraid to go the distance for his client...
Our Summer Sherlock Selects has returned! First up, Scott's choice of "Charles Augustus Milverton" from the Return of Sherlock Holmes. Originally recorded in January of 2018, this early chat has been reproduced and explores one of the canon's best worst villains.
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As if the clammy heat of New Orleans wasn't enough for a nun in full habit, an arson spree is threatening the community of St Sebastian's School in Margot Douaihy's "Scorched Grace". This is the first of the author's Sister Holiday mysteries and introduces readers to the Order of the Sublime Blood and a crime spree that dredges up old trauma with impressive force. Steered by her uniquely queer, conflicted, punk-rock moral compass, Sister Holiday soon adds another vow to her list of holy solemnities - solving this mystery before more lives are taken!
FastFacts@6:00; Summary@40:15; PIPES@57:50
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The year is 1878. Detectives in fiction had cut shapes before (Poe, Collins and Gaboriau had all experimented) but few woman, if any, had ever been credited for work in the genre, let alone acclaimed. Along comes Anna Katherine Green, metaphorically brandishing "fingers up" to the establishment and bestowing upon the literary world this classic narrative. "The Leavenworth Case" is a story of two secretive cousins, a complex murder investigation and the lovestruck young lawyer driven to prove their innocence. It was a landmark publication when it appeared, impressively advancing the chains of the genre and introducing the world to Detective Ebeneezer Gryce in his first of 13 appearances. Thanks to Green, the modern mystery was about to get a transformative kick in the posterior!
FastFacts@15:00; Summary@38:30; PIPES@1:20:00
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In this episode, we head back to the world of graphic novels and explore the suburban mystery of "Where the Body Was" by celebrated comics duo, Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips. What starts innocently enough, with some feral Gen-X childhood crime-fighting, soon curdles into something darker: hidden affairs, small-time crooks, unrequited love and a dead body that nobody can quite explain. The mythology of the safe and honest American neighbourhood is left in tatters here by Brubaker and LTP has all the angles covered from its treehouse vantage on the cul-de-sac of Pelican lane!
FastFacts@05:00; Summary@31:30; PIPES@46:30
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The iron curtain has fallen. Intelligence is dispersing in its heavy draught. Europe is transitioning towards a single market. Conditions are ripe for a new world order... and for the twelfth continuation novel by John Gardner.
"Death is Forever" situates Bond upon the shifting sands of this new environment, investigating the disintegration of "Cabal" - an allied intelligence network that once ran the gauntlet of late Cold War conflicts.
From spider-egg sarnies to poisoned dwarves, light-grenade gimmicks to railcar assassinations, Gardner polishes up an old-styled Bond here for a new-era narrative.
Summary@06:30; PIPES@43:30
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The long-running "Assignment" spy fiction series by Edward S Aarons showcases CIA operative Sam Durell in a range of pulpy, Cold War adventures. "Sorrento Siren", its 17th installment, sends Durell to Naples where he races against the clock to locate some stolen art and a rogue, murderous agent with ties to a libidinous Italian Countess. What's worse, his communist counterpart is travelling a parallel path. And if that weren't adventure enough, there's also ancient ruins among an active volcano and warring Italian families to negotiate! The stakes couldn't be higher as LTP takes its first look at this enduring offshoot of genre spy fiction.
Shouts to Nick Anderson (https://linktr.ee/thebookgraveyard77) for the recommendation and Paperback Warrior (https://www.paperbackwarrior.com/) for more information on the author and series.
FastFacts@03:20; Summary@11:00; PIPES@49:00
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The Mystery Writers of America honoured John Dickson Carr with two Edgars (1950, 1970) and a Grand Masters Award (1963) in acknowledgement of his long career and contributions to mystery writing. Especially noteworthy across his 40 years of publishing were the innovations he made to the locked-room mystery genre. Though best known and celebrated for 1935's The Hollow Man, Carr's detective Gideon Fell appeared in over two-dozen works by the author. In this episode, Nick Anderson from "The Book Graveyard" joins LTP to discuss "He Who Whispers", one of Carr's most complex and intriguing whodunnits.
FastFacts@09:45; Summary@39:00; PIPES@01:08:00; Quiz@02:43:15
Check out Nick on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@TheBookGraveyard
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In February 1923, Howard Carter unearthed the tomb of Tutankhamun and fed the '20s zeitgeist an abundance of ancient-world dopamine hits. One writer who picked up on this wave was Agatha Christie, who would return to Egypt five more times in her famous stories. Here, however, she pits Hercule Poirot against a series of sudden deaths at the excavation site of Men-her-Ra's tomb in the Valley of the Kings. As tensions mount and another life hangs in the balance, Poirot must separate myth and whispers of a Pharoah's curse from human greed and murderous methodology. LTP sinks its feet into the soft, deceptive sands of Christie's pocket-size prose in this short episode.
Summary@5:00; PIPES@23:00
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In this episode, we crack open "Swag" from 1976, one of Elmore Leonard's leanest Detroit crime novels. This caper follows Frank Ryan and Ernest "Stick" Stickley, two likeable rogues from the morally-ambiguous side of the tracks who pair-up with a plan to get rich. As the stick-ups slowly stack up, Leonard dismantles the partnership's illusory hold on their American dream and makes room for hubris and happenstance. So keep your head on a swivel because, like any good con, there's a lot more going on beneath the surface of this pacy tale!
FastFacts@8:30; Summary@29:50; PIPES@1:03:20
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When an inconvenient corpse is discovered in a Battersea bathtub, a complex puzzle unfolds for the London authorities. What's with the pince-nez and birthday suit combo? And isn't that a surgical college just across the rooftops? In this episode we strike a match and settle in with Dorothy L Sayers' "Whose Body?" and review the first appearance of Lord Peter Wimsey, her amateur sleuth of impeccable tailoring and disarming flippancy. Layered with mistaken identity, social satire and post-war unease, this celebrated mystery from 1923 balances classic whodunnit mechanics with sharp observations about entitlement and trauma in a changing world.
FastFacts@12:45; Summary@47:25; PIPES@1:18:00
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When a celebrated Soviet hero is alleged to have marched among the SS in some of history's worst butchery, James Bond is sent to validate the claims and protect the source. Along the way 007 poses as cameraman in a deep-fake propaganda production designed to rewrite history and redirect the dying embers of cold war chaos. Marked by inter-agency intrigue and a staggering cast of secondary characters, John Gardner's "The Man from Barbarossa" was supposedly the writers favourite and might just earn the award for "thickest narrative stew" here on LTP.
Lights, camera, action?... well, sort of!
Summary@08:00; Review@23:00
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LTP Noir returns with a bang for a close look at the original 1947 adaptation of William Lindsay Gresham's novel "Nightmare Alley". From the fascinating, tormented life of its author to the tension between rising star and skeptical studio mogul, Josh gives the lowdown on how this conmen thriller and its controversial carnies were brought to life. This episode tracks the full-flavoured story of a once-forgotten Noir that's finally found its redemption.
Origins@02:30; Summary@08:30; Production@31:50; Rewiew@1:01:30
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Inspired by the real life Tang-dynasty magistrate, Di Renjie, Robert van Gulik's Judge Dee stories continue a rich history of Chinese crime writing, gong'an, featuring government figures who solve mysteries. In this adventure, Judge Dee and his entourage find themselves seeking shelter in the Morning Cloud Monastery, suspiciously linked to the mysterious deaths of three young women. Dee and his lieutenant Tao Gan leave no stone unturned (and no tea undrunk) in their pursuit to unravel the dark secrets of this two-faced, peace-proclaiming sanctuary! We had a great time talking about this intriguing text, recommended to us by our buddy Nick over at The Book Graveyard (https://www.youtube.com/@TheBookGraveyard).
FastFacts@9:45; Summary@46:00; PIPES@1:07:15
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In the conclusion of our two-part feature on Leslie Charteris' globetrotting collection from 1956, we join The Saint on his three final adventures. In "the Lovelorn Sheikh", Simon Templar buddies-up with a sympathetic dowser in the Middle East to aid his zany struggle for freedom and finance. Then it's off to Singapore, where a Somerset Maugham story holds the key to understanding the criminal conflict and history behind "The Pluperfect Lady". This gives way to the final yarn, "A Sporting Chance", wherein The Saint looks to expose the links of a drug chain while enjoying a spot of fly-fishing in Canada's great outdoors.
Story 1@01:30; Story 2@30:00; Story 3@57:30
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Our exploration of Leslie Charteris's famous character continues here in the first of a two-part special on this (not-so) short story collection from 1956. From the warm beaches of Bermuda to a naturalist colony on Ile du Levant, the Saint's predictable charm, comeuppance and occasional moral lecturing are all on display here amidst a series of globe-trotting capers. This episode features reviews of stories 1-3 in the collection, "The Patient Playboy", "The Talented Husband" and "The Reluctant Nudist". Pack lightly and leave your disbelief behind - you're travelling with Simon Templar, remember!
Story1 @04:00; Story2 @26:00; Story3 @48:00
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In this episode, our final of the year, we send 2025 on its way with a deep-dive into John Gardner's ninth James Bond continuation novel. While on "vacation" in Canada, Bond's forced leisure is cut short when he's sent to investigate Lee Fu-Chu, aka "Brokenclaw", a half-Blackfoot, half-Chinese billionaire with a penchant for deception and murder. When leading scientists begin disappearing across the continent, 007 gets drawn further into Brokenclaw's criminal world and his plans of economic sabotage.
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2025 has been a great year on the pod and in this episode we look back at this successful and surprising stretch of reading and collaborating across thirty episodes. In addition to sharing our rankings for the shared novels and stories we explored, we also share some laughs and challenges in tackling our annual Sherlock and Year-in-Review quizzes!
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Damon Runyan's Broadway stories are characterised by crooks, rogues and revelers with hearts of gold. In "Dancing Dan's Christmas" from 1932, we see a trio of pals, led by Dan, on a Christmas mission to make Gammer O'Neil believe in Santa. All it will take is a cheap disguise, some stolen jewels and the courage that only comes from necking Tom and Jerry cocktails for a couple hours beforehand! LTP Festive continues with Josh's choice for 2025 and a deep-dive into this short, charming holiday caper.
FastFacts@3:15; Summary@14:00; PIPES@19:45
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