I thought I would have done a few more episodes of my increasingly-occasional podcast In GAD We Trust by now, but a couple fell through and I didn’t want to rush out something to replace them that didn’t have my heart in it. Instead, to ward off the dark nights, let’s cast our minds back over a few favourites already available to you, in case you missed them first time around.
Why are these my favourite? Dunno; sometimes I just feel like my questions aren’t too inane and I hit a bit of a stride where the episode is concerned; sometimes it’s because it’s lovely to sit and talk with knowledgeable people about their pet subject; sometimes it’s because I particularly enjoyed the subject and had a great time regardless of who was on the other end of the Zoom call.
Whatever, don’t overthink it — no shade is being thrown at the episodes not featured here, and only a bloody idiot would look for it anyway.
And so, in chronological order by their first release, we have…
1. Detective Fiction is Comedy [w’ Alasdair Beckett-King]
“I knew Prufrock before he got famous…”. In which red-headed comedian BBC favourite Alastair Beckett-King discusses crime fiction and comedy without ever letting on that he was about to unleash his own brand of whimsy onto to genre for kids with the excellent Montgomery Bonbon series.
2. Japanese-English Translation [w’ Louise Heal Kawai]
Fresh off the excitement of her English translation of The Honjin Murders (1946) by Seishi Yokomizo, Louise shares an eye-opening account of the sheer amount of research that can sometimes go into carrying these books over the language barrier. Fascinating, and makes you realise how lucky we are to have such talented people working on this genre for us.
3. Genre and Detective Fiction [w’ Ryan O’Neill]
The notion of carving fiction up into little camps has always intrigues me, so when Ryan O’Neill published the utterly superb and genre-baiting The Drover’s Wives [ss] (2018) you can bet that I was going to pick his genre-savvy brains about what makes a mystery and where the lines blur.
4. The Tropes of Detective Fiction [w’ James Scott Byrnside]
Byrnside has been one of the most exciting authors to appear in the impossible crime in recent years, and it’s unsurprising that his perspectives on the tropes of detective fiction — the trappings we come across regularly in the genre — are so astute and well-formed. Aspiring authors could learn plenty.
5. The Dr. Thorndyke Stories [w’ Dolores Gordon-Smith]
Dr. John Evelyn Thorndyke might well be my favourite sleuth of all detective fiction, and the chance to sit down and discuss the canon with the always-delightful Dolores Gordon-Smith was one I jumped at avidly. Seriously if you’re a fan of genuine detection and haven’t tried Thorndyke at his best then, wow, are you ever missing out.
6. Diversity of Approach [w’ Martin Edwards]
Friend of the blog and President of the Detection Club Martin Edwards talks about the scope and range of his career, which has always had at the back of it a real passion for the tenets of the Golden Age. This was a hugely generous discussion, in which he reflects very frankly on just how he keeps writing after so many years. Aspiring authors could learn plenty.
7. What’s in a Watson? [w’ Caroline Crampton]
Shedunnit‘s Caroline Crampton and I unpick the nature of both Sherlock Holmes’s biographer and the wider use of the term Watson to mean ‘Accomplice of the detective’. What makes a good one? Why is the role necessary? And who are the best besides ol’ John H.?
8. The Maxims of Misdirection
In which I monologue about Paul Grice’s co-operative principle of communication, and how it applies to fair play detective fiction. I’ll be honest, this is the episode I’d most like to do a follow-up to, so if you have any training in formal language theory get in touch and let’s chat!
9. The Highs and Lows of Jonathan Creek [w’ Nick Cardillo]
Two hours of what’s great and what’s not-so-great about the wonderful BBC show Jonathan Creek (1997-2016) with additional superfan Nick Cardillo. This show has undoubtedly been so, so important to me when it comes to my appreciation of the classic mystery and the impossible crime, and it was a joy to go through everything in such enthusiastic company.
10. Writing for Younger Readers [w’ M.G. Leonard and Sam Sedgman]
In which the writers of perhaps the best series for younger readers I’ve read very kindly give of their time to discuss how to write murder and mayhem for a slightly more delicate audience without ever talking down to them. If you’ve somehow not encountered their work, there’s much here to consider and nary a spoiler in sight.
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I remain committed to In GAD We Trust for the foreseeable, with at least a couple of new episodes planned for later this year. Hopefully this brings out a few highlights some of you may have missed, in which case you can find all the episodes freely available and with no adverts here.
Happy reading, and expect more IGWT at some point…
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My Ten Favourite…
- …Literary Detectives
- …’New to Me’ British Library Crime Classics
- …Ramble House Novels
- …Impossible Crimes
- …Locked Room International Titles
- …Golden Age Reprint Covers
- …Orion Crime Masterworks
- …Mysteries of the 1930s
- …Mysteries of the 1940s
- …Paul Halter Translations
- …Juvenile Mysteries
- …Inverted Mysteries
- …In GAD We Trust Episodes
The Invisible Event 
Thanks for the list. Some of these will get a relisten from me.
I also was a fan of your “The Men Who Explained Miracles” podcasts of several years ago. I was early to GAD back then, and they gave me a great overview of the best of the best from the genre as a newcomer.
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I thoroughly enjoyed working with Dan on TMWEM — indeed, I’d go so far as to say that most of the insight in that short-lived undertaking came from the perspectives Dan brought to stuff as a relatively new reader himself. Alas, I think we limited ourselves by only looking at impossible crimes (for the most part…), but I’ll always be grateful to him for getting me started in the world of hard-to-predict podcasting schedules.
Thanks for all your support; there IS more IGWT on the way, I promise. The next episode in particular is one I’m quite excited about.
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The Reprint episode that came out during the pandemic, with all the bloggers suggesting which books should be reprinted next, might be my favorite podcast episode ever.
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Well, that’s exceptionally kind of you to say. I tend to forget about that one, since I just asked people to send me recordings of their choices and I merely spliced them together, so it was less work than episodes usually are. Maybe I should try something like that again –everyone could give their opinion on a topic and I just cobble them together. Food for thought…
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Obviously number 11 was our discussion of the Father Brown stories! I re-listened to the Ryan O’Neill episode. I need to get hold of The Drover’s Wives and Their Brilliant Lives and also Jack Glass by Adam Roberts.
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Definitely check out Ryan’s two books — I think the guy’s a genius on the subject of genre, and those two play around with the concept amazingly. I’ll confess to having been a little sceptical about Their Brilliant Careers at first, but it’s a magnificently-structured book and pays off with a series of absolutely brilliant jokes.
I had agreed in principle to do a podcast with Adam Roberts at one point, but the scheduling fell through. I always hoped he’d do another SF murder mystery, but thus far he seems to have avoided them. Shame, because there are some great ideas in Jack Glass, and The Real-Town Murders is one of the great utilisations of modern technology in the impossible crime. Hope springs eternal, however…
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Like you, I’ve been writing down my thoughts for eleven years now. I enjoy it, but nothing – nothing! – beats actual conversation. Listening to these, and having the opportunity to join you in several of them, has been an utter delight. Don’t stop, whatever hassles it entails, and please invite me back one of these days!
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If only we could find a topic we agree on, hein? I mean, you hate Perry Mason so much…
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I’ve listened to many of these and really enjoyed them, and look forward to listening to the others! Question though- did something happen to the round table discussions of the Agatha Christie books? I feel like one or two of them are still up but I was looking for one of them recently only to realize that it and a few others weren’t there… I really enjoyed all of you guys discussing Five Little Pigs! (At least one person agreed with me that the episode is better than the book…)
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Hannah, I’m really happy that you enjoyed the Christie conversations because they were a blast to do! I think if you explore Jim’s blog and search for “Spoiler Warning,” you’ll find more of them. We went under that title to separate what we were doing from Jim’s work with actual authors on In GAD We Trust. I think I posted links to most of them on my blog, too; I put the links in my Agatha Christie Index, but honestly, they might just be links to Jim’s posts!! LOL
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They were super fun to listen to, nice work! It does seem to be streamable straight from the blog at 2x speed which is good enough for me even if it’s not on the podcast app that I can find, so thank you!
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If it’s not showing up on Spotify or Apple, I don’t know what to tell you. The process to get the podcast to appear there is so damn confusing that I’m honestly astonished it ever worked.
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The Christie round tables sort of ran their course, I feel. I loved chatting with Moira and Brad, but my heart wasn’t quite in it towards the end, and it’s a lot of work to do for something that had limited appeal.
I’d much rather do very occasional podcasts that I’m excited about than grind out something every three months that holds less and less interest fore me. Thought I did enjoy those Spoiler Warning posts, so maybe I should look at resurrecting them somehow…
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That makes sense! Yeah, I was looking for the past episodes, I get why you’d want to focus on new topics. But if you did more of those that would be fun!
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