Mystery Books Podcast

⛲️ Love an English stately home? Then come with me on a tour of Chatsworth House and find out how the English country home inspired not one, but two book series in this “Story Behind the Story” of Chapter 4 of Murder at Archly Manor, a 1920s historical mystery. Plus reading recommendations for Sherlock Holmes fans! 🕵️‍♀️

Recent read: The Missing Maid by Holly Hepburn (Affiliate link) and thank you to NetGalley and Boldwood Books for a review copy. All opinions are my own.

Read-alikes: The Baker Street Letters series (Affiliate link).

Murder mystery game: Death by Croquet Mallet. 

Next chapter in the next episode! 

If you want the rest of the mystery right now, you can get Murder in Archly Manor in ebook, audio, and print at SaraRosettBooks.com. 

📚 Buy Sara's books: SaraRosettBooks.com

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Family tensions and inspiration from Agatha Christie are the “Story Behind the Story” of Chapter 3 of Murder at Archly Manor, a 1920s historical mystery. 

Recent read: A Report of Murder by F.L. Everett (Affiliate link)

Mentioned: The Moving Finger by Agatha Christie (Affiliate link)

Next chapter in the next episode! 

If you want the rest of the mystery right now, you can get Murder in Archly Manor in ebook, audio, and print at SaraRosettBooks.com. 

📚 Buy Sara's books: SaraRosettBooks.com

🔎 Get more mystery in your life when you sign up for Sara's updates.

We’re traveling back to the 1920s in this season of Mystery Books Podcast with a chapter by chapter deep dive into Murder at Archly Manor, the first book in the High Society Lady Detective series. 

What inspired the location of Murder at Archly Manor? Was I intimidated to write historical fiction? (You bet I was!) How did I take the first step to write about the 1920s, despite my worries about accurately capturing the time between the wars? Find out in the “Story Behind the Story” section of this episode.

Then Elizabeth Klett narrates the first two chapters of Murder at Archly Manor. 

Book recommendation: Your Turn, Mr. Moto by John P. Marquand. (Affiliate link)

Next chapter in the next episode! 

If you want 1920s mystery right now, you can get Murder in Archly Manor in ebook, audio, and print at SaraRosettBooks.com.

📚 Buy Sara's books: SaraRosettBooks.com

🔎 Get more mystery in your life when you sign up for Sara's updates.

🤨 Are you fond of impossible crime mysteries? What about swanky settings for 1920s mysteries? If you answered yes to either question,  join me for a look at the inspiration and research behind Murder in the Alps, a 1920s mystery set in the glamorous winter playground of St. Moritz.

🔎 Olive Belgrave, discreet sleuth for the posh set, and her dashing companion Jasper, travel to the snowy resort for a little holiday, but find themselves mixed up in a mystery.

⚜️In this episode I delve into luxury travel to a winter destination, women’s sports,  couple dynamics, and some other wintery mysteries.

If you enjoy this you might also like:

•  Murder on the Matterhorn by Glyn Carr 
• Crossed Skis by  Carol Carnac (pen name of a pen name of E.C.R. Lorac)
• Airs Above the Ground by Mary Stewart
• One by One by Ruth Ware 
• Bright and Deadly Things by Lexie Elliott

Buy your copy of Murder in the Alps at SaraRosettBooks.com.

📚 Buy Sara's books: SaraRosettBooks.com

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Tis the season for . . . holiday mysteries! 

 Get your holiday reading sorted with this list of mysteries that feature holly, mistletoe, and plenty of murder.

Snowed-in country estates abound with tense family gatherings in these books. Cranky family members, too much food, and a patriarch threatening to change his will are the ingredients of a festive Christmas mystery. 

Mystery book to read at Christmas: 

• Murder on a Midnight Clear by Sara Rosett (Published: 2020; Setting: 1923) Season 1 Bonus episode: Murder on a Midnight Clear: https://www.sararosett.com/mbps1bonus/
• Murder at Midnight by Katharine Schellman (Published 2023; Setting: 1816)
• A Christmas Party by Georgette Heyer (1941)
• Hercule Poirot's Christmas by Agatha Christie (1938)
• The Santa Klaus Murder by Mavis Hay (1936)
• An English Murder by Cyril Hare (1951) 

📚 Buy Sara's books: SaraRosettBooks.com

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🕵️‍♀️ 🕵️ Get double the detection with this episode about odd couple crime-solving duos on TV. 

🔎 The mismatched partners span the globe, from small town librarians to big city detectives, grumpy inspectors and sunny caterers. Even though they get off to a rocky start, these teams find their differences make them unstoppable. From ancient Roman Baths to the sun-soaked Australian outback, these crime shows traverse the world.

⭐️ For each show, I'll recommend "book pairings" - crime and mystery books that match up to the settings and themes of the shows. Read a mystery book alongside your show for a double dose of mystery and mayhem.

Crime television shows covered:

MacDonald and Dodds
Bbook pairings: mystery books set in Bath

Mrs Sidhu Investigates
Book pairings: mystery books about caterers

My Life is Murder
Darby and Joan
Book pairings:  Mystery books set in Australia and New Zealand

Links to podcasts with more crime tv shows:
S2 E4 – Mystery in Translation: Foreign Language Mystery TV
https://www.sararosett.com/mbps2ep4/

MBP S1 E7 The Mallorca Files
https://www.sararosett.com/mbps1e7/

📚 Buy Sara's books: SaraRosettBooks.com

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⚓️ All aboard for a look at Death on the Isle, an amateur sleuth mystery from M. H. Eccleston with a nautical theme.

🚤 This isle-set mystery takes you to the Isle of Wight during yachting season. When freelance art restorer Astrid takes on a freelance job of appraising the art in an estate on the island, she ends up investigating a suspicious death with help from an artsy crew. A dash of family drama and a peek into luxury lifestyles of the uber rich set this drama apart. 

🏝️ Read-alike suggestions cover other island mysteries. 

Thanks to the publisher for sending a review copy. All opinions are my own.

📚 Buy Sara's books: SaraRosettBooks.com

🔎 Get more mystery in your life when you sign up for Sara's updates.

🍿 If you're in the mood for a mystery with Golden Age overtones combined with a behind-the-scenes look at the film industry, grab your popcorn and settle in for a discussion of The Three Dahlias by Katy Watson. 

🏛️ The modern day mystery is set at Aldermere House, home to the legendary author Lettice Davenport and her fictional 1930s sleuth, Dahlia Lively. 

⭐️ Three rival actresses, connected to Dahlia's adaptations, must collaborate to solve a murder rooted in the stories themselves. 

🔎 Themes discussed include fandom, author legacy, and female friendship, with a modern twist on the classic country house mystery. 

🎥 Read-alike recommendations include mysteries set around filming and Hollywood.

📚 Buy Sara's books: SaraRosettBooks.com

🔎 Get more mystery in your life when you sign up for Sara's updates.

📺 If you ever wished your favorite Doris Day/Rock Hudson movie was a whodunit, then the 1950s mystery, “The Socialite’s Guide to Murder,” by S. K. Golden is for you. 

🏢 Wealthy Evelyn lives a life of privilege in the New York hotel her father owns. The swanky Park Avenue address has everything she could want–a luxurious suite, excellent cuisine, a dress boutique, and attentive staff. In fact, she hasn’t left the hotel premises in fourteen months, so when a theft disrupts life at the hotel, she sets out to find the culprit. 

🔎 But a murder follows on the heels of the theft and Evelyn’s boyfriend becomes a suspect. She recruits hotel bellboy Mac to help her snoop for clues to find the murderer.

🍸 “The Socialite’s Guide to Murder” is a mid-century murder mystery with a dose of the madcap flare of a 1950s romantic comedy movie, but Evelyn’s struggles with agoraphobia ground the book and make for an interesting read in a fun setting.

📚 Read-alike recommendations include mysteries set at hotels and 1950s mysteries. 

Thanks to NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for a review copy. All opinions are my own.

📚 Buy Sara's books: SaraRosettBooks.com

🔎 Get more mystery in your life when you sign up for Sara's updates.

🔎 Are you looking for a mystery for a book club pick with a Golden Age flavor similar to Agatha Christie with the bonus of deep themes and interesting characters? Then you’ll want to read “Unnatural Ends” by Christopher Huang.

🧩 “Unnatural Ends” has a classic set-up. A patriarch dies and when the family gathers to read the will, it’s revealed the death was murder. Where “Unnatural Ends” departs from many classic mysteries is the depth of characterization of the three adult children as well as explorations of the themes of control, independence, expection, and competition. Add in a layer of Gothic overtones and you have a novel tailor-made for deep and interesting book club discussions.

📚Read-alikes include mysteries with sibling sleuths, Yorkshire settings, and Huang’s first book, “A Gentleman’s Murder.” 

❓What other mysteries feature siblings as sleuths?

Link to Youtube video about influence of Agatha Christie: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PkxV9gNOiPU

📚 Buy Sara's books: SaraRosettBooks.com

🔎 Get more mystery in your life when you sign up for Sara's updates.

Mystery Books Podcast is back with Season 4. 

Join me for spoiler-free discussions of mystery fiction along with “read-alike” book recommendations to keep your TBR (to be read) pile stocked. 🔎📚✨ 

📚 Buy Sara's books: SaraRosettBooks.com

🔎 Get more mystery in your life when you sign up for Sara's updates.

🔎 If you like mysteries with dapper gentlemen sleuths, vintage CSI, and Golden Age fiction with themes that still resonate today, you’ll enjoy The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club by Dorothy L. Sayers.

🎩 Lord Peter Wimsey is the epitome of the dapper gentleman sleuth. He hides his sharp intellect under a foppish and sometimes silly manner. In many ways, he’s a 1920s update to The Scarlet Pimpernel, a mystery-solving Sir Percy Blakeney.

☠️ When a veteran of the Great War dies, Wimsey is asked to look into the time of death, a simple matter that turns complex as a murder is revealed. 

⚡️ From shell shock (what we’d call PTSD) to the shifting cultural mores, impacts of the Great War reverberate throughout the book. There is also a look at crime scene forensics, 1920s style.

🕵️‍♂️ Read-alike recommendations include more books with gentlemen sleuths as well as my own book with that explores shell shock, Murder in Black Tie. 

❓Have you read any Dorothy L. Sayers? 

📚 Buy Sara's books: SaraRosettBooks.com

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🏛Take “Downton Abbey,” add a lady interested in science who becomes involved in a murder mystery, and you’d have “Poison at Pemberton Hall” by Fran Smith. 

🧪As Vita Carew pursues the murderer, the book considers some serious questions about education (and obstacles women encountered in 1903), the perceptions of beauty, and beauty versus brains. Thanks to Vita’s dry wit, the story has a light, fun tone. I was rooting for Vita to catch the culprit and pursue her dreams.

📖Read-alike recommendations include mysteries with female scientists/sleuths and more Edwardian mysteries.

❓What are your favorite Edwardian mysteries?

📚 Buy Sara's books: SaraRosettBooks.com

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🧐If you every wished for a mashup of Jane Austen’s Catherine Moreland from Northanger Abbey and a Christie-type shipboard murder, you’ll want to check out “Death in a Deck Chair” by K.K. Beck.

🕯While “Death in a Deck Chair” doesn’t have gothic overtones or take place at an abbey, it does feature Iris Cooper, a plain-Jane kind of heroine similar to Catherine Moreland.

🚢It’s the 1920s and Catherine is on an Atlantic crossing when one of the passengers is murdered. Class, generational, and cultural conflicts abound among the diverse passengers on the ship, which is a perfect closed circle mystery setting. 

📖Read-alike recommendations include more ship-board mysteries (historical and contemporary settings) as well as another “plain Jane” mystery protagonist.

❓What is your favorite “average Jane” mystery?

📚 Buy Sara's books: SaraRosettBooks.com

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Who wouldn’t want to visit a library made up of first editions from Golden Age authors? That’s the premise of The First Edition Library series by Marty Wingate. Haley is a curator at the unique private library in Bath. The third book in the series, “The Librarian Always Rings Twice” delves into the fun Books About Books trope. It’s a story rich in layers with mysteries in the main storyline as well as in the story within the story.Read-alike recommendations include contemporary cozies by Martie Wingate, books set in Bath UK, and books about books.What’s your favorite book or series about books?

📚 Buy Sara's books: SaraRosettBooks.com

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🗝 Locked rooms, secret staircases, and a family curse–-three things a mystery reader can’t resist!

🔎Join me as I delve into Gigi Pandian’s modern day locked room mystery, "Under Lock and Skeleton Key." With plenty of nods to Golden Age mysteries, this book will appeal to fans of classic crime as well as contemporary traditional mysteries.

📚Read-alike suggestions include more locked room mysteries as well as multi-cultural protagonists.

❓Have you read any other books featuring magicians?

📚 Buy Sara's books: SaraRosettBooks.com

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Do you have a fondness for lady scientists of the early 20th century who encounter mysteries? Then you'll want to read “A Botanist's Guide to Parties and Poisons” by Kate Khavari. 🔬

Research assistant Saffron Everleigh wants to follow in her father's footsteps and teach botany at University College London, but a poisoning threatens to upset her plans. Besides the gorgeous cover, the exploration of the impacts of The Great War along with the academic setting made this book irresistible. And did I mention the characters are planning for a research trip to the Amazon? 🦜

Read-alike suggestions include other academic mysteries as well as gardening mysteries. 🔎

📚 Buy Sara's books: SaraRosettBooks.com

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Do you enjoy enjoy the “Upstairs, Downstairs” contrasts of Downton Abbey, but wish it had the added element of a murder mystery? Then you’ll want to check out "Murder at Mallowan Hall" by Colleen Cambridge, which features a mashup of fiction and real life as it considers the the question, "What if Agatha Christie’s housekeeper had to solve a murder?" 

My read-a-like book recommendations include lists of country home mysteries, “Upstairs, Downstairs” mysteries, and historical figures as sleuths.

📚 Buy Sara's books: SaraRosettBooks.com

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If you’d like a fresh take on 1920s historical mysteries, check out “The Bangalore Detectives Club” by Harini Nagendra, which takes readers to India. Newly married to a doctor, Kaveri is juggling her own ambitions to get a degree in mathematics with society’s pressure to be a good wife. When a murder occurs, Kaveri is compelled to investiagate. Besides catching the culprit, she also creates a unique position for herself in her new world.

📚 Buy Sara's books: SaraRosettBooks.com

🔎 Get more mystery in your life when you sign up for Sara's updates.

Mystery Books Podcast is back with a new season of spoiler-free discussions of mystery fiction along with “read-alike” book recommendations to keep your TBR (to be read) pile stocked. 🔎📚✨ 

📚 Buy Sara's books: SaraRosettBooks.com

🔎 Get more mystery in your life when you sign up for Sara's updates.