In which Charis and Sharon discuss the first half of CLOUDS OF WITNESS, wherein Peter must defend his brother, the Duke of Denver, after the latter is accused of murdering their sister’s fiancé.
We cover British vs. American detective fiction traditions and what CLOUDS OF WITNESS owes to the Victorian country house mystery. We also talk about Sharon’s theory of epigraphs, depictions of marriage in the novel, options (or lack thereof) for independent women in the 1920s, and what a mystery with Charles Parker as the protagonist might look like.
This episode covers up through chapter 8 of the book and does not spoil the whodunnit.
(An alert for our listeners: this episode contains the sound effect of a rifle firing. If you wish to avoid hearing it, skip past minute 1:10.)
Download the episode 3 transcript.
Shownotes:
- “The Simple Art of Murder”; Raymond Chandler’s essay on British detective fiction (in which we think he was quite unfair to Sayers). Spoiler alert, the essay does give away the murder method for BUSMAN’S HONEYMOON, so don’t read it if you’d like to be surprised!
- We reference Edgar Allan Poe as the progenitor of the detective story with “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” and “The Purloined Letter” (full texts in the links).
- “Love a good diagram!”; The floorplan of Riddlesdale Lodge from the book:
- “She’s really like the Maris Crane of the Denver family”; Sharon is referring to the American sitcom FRASIER, in which there’s a running joke that the character of Maris Crane (also immensely unpleasant and whom none of her in-laws like) is never shown onscreen because the descriptions of her are so ridiculous.
- We reference THE MOONSTONE and THE WOMAN IN WHITE, two novels by 19th-century writer Wilkie Collins, in our discussion of influences for CLOUDS OF WITNESS. Charis’ homework from this episode is to read THE MOONSTONE and see if she thinks Rachel Verinder is a model for Mary Wimsey.
- We also briefly touch on THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES (Arthur Conan Doyle) as another literary reference for the novel.
- New Zealand writer Ngaio Marsh is considered one of the Golden Age “Queens of Crime” (along with Agatha Christie and Dorothy L. Sayers). Sharon’s homework from this episode is to read some of Marsh’s Inspector Alleyn novels and see if he reminds her of Parker.
- We touch on how the title of CLOUDS OF WITNESS is a reference to the Biblical book of Hebrews, chapters 11 and 12.
