In this holiday episode, Charis and Sharon discuss “The Locked Room,” a Lord Peter short story that was just published for the first time in 2019. It appeared in BODIES FROM THE LIBRARY 2, edited by Tony Medawar. Special thanks to Tony Medawar and to Laura Schmidt, archivist at the Marion E. Wade Center at Wheaton College, for speaking with us about the background for anthology collection and the story manuscript respectively!
We also wrap up loose ends from our conversations about UNNATURAL DEATH by revisiting our talk about the racism in the book, quoting our favorite lines, and talking about the novel’s original US title. And we ring out the year by answering some questions submitted by our listeners!
Note: If you would like to remain completely unspoiled for “The Locked Room,” our discussion of the story starts at minute 19 and ends at 49:13.
Download the episode 6.5 transcript (prepared by Melanie Sliker)
Shownotes:
- This is Sharon’s “very lurid 1960s cover” of UNNATURAL DEATH:
- The “lovely new covers” that Charis and Sharon are both slowly collecting are from Hodder & Stoughton.
- Artist Cathie Bleck illustrated the mass market paperback covers for HarperTorch’s Lord Peter series in the early 2000s. This is her cover for UNNATURAL DEATH:
- “That doesn’t make sense!” We are still very puzzled by this particular cover:
(We will also be posting more UNNATURAL DEATH covers on our Instagram!) - Here’s the transcript of Charis’s conversation w/ Tony Medawar.
- We both adore A.S. Byatt’s POSSESSION, wherein the plot is kicked off by a researcher finding an uncatalogued letter in a library archive.
- Charis brings up the following Sayers’ quote from ARE WOMEN HUMAN? in our discussion: “A man once asked me… how I managed in my books to write such natural conversation between men when they were by themselves. Was I, by any chance, a member of a large, mixed family with a lot of male friends? I replied that, on the contrary, I was an only child and had practically never seen or spoken to any men of my own age till I was about twenty-five. ‘Well,’ said the man, ‘I shouldn’t have expected a woman (meaning me) to have been able to make it so convincing.’ I replied that I had coped with this difficult problem by making my men talk, as far as possible, like ordinary human beings. This aspect of the matter seemed to surprise the other speaker; he said no more, but took it away to chew it over. One of these days it may quite likely occur to him that women, as well as men, when left to themselves, talk very much like human beings also.”
- In “The Locked Room,” Peter compares Mrs. Deerhurst in his mind to Amelia Sedley from Thackeray’s VANITY FAIR and Cleopatra.
- In response to a listener question about mysteries that replicate the feel of Christie and Sayers with fewer problematic bits, Sharon and Charis were both a bit stumped. But Sharon does recommend TO SAY NOTHING OF THE DOG by Connie Willis. We also bring up Garth Nix’s SABRIEL in response to a reader question.
