Our full, extended discussion of Tales From Two Pockets by Karel Čapek. We discuss four of our favourite stories from the collection; The Fall of House Voticky, Disappearance of an Actor, The Cactus Thief and An Ordinary Murder. A well-read mystery reader, Čapek’s collection deconstructs the genre in short, engaging bursts, that will have you understanding the weird world of the locked room in ways you haven’t even considered before. One reviewer might have described Čapek’s journey into writing mystery fiction as ‘ill-fated’, but this collection proves there is still gold to be found.

We were joined by Professor Alex Simpson from Macquarie University, talking about how to interpret the world of crime, as well as his ethnographic studies into getting people to talk about the darker sides of their life. We also spoke with author Andrew B. Patterson, former Detective Sergeant in the WA Police, working in paedophilia and vice, as well as Chief Investigator with the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption, as we break down what it means to be a reader in the world of Detective Fiction.

For this episode, nobody was blind; but we did get Andrew B. Patterson to join us for An Ordinary Murder, providing unique insights to the compartmentalisation the story presents.

The original episodes:
Part 1
Part 2

Death of the Reader’s extended cut brings all three shows for a book into one bundle, with extra content, discussion, and sometimes even a meta discussion; a behind-the-scenes peek at how we put the episode together.

This extended cut was edited by Felix Shannon.