We discuss Edmund Clerihew Bentley’s iconic novel, ‘Trent’s Last Case’, from chapters 1-5. Said by many to be the progenitor of the Golden Age of Detective Fiction, this friendly rebuttal to G.K. Chesterton’s ‘The Man Who Was Thursday’ can feel eerily familiar if you’ve read much of our back catalogue on the program. It may not be the best plotted or most challenging novel of the Golden Age, but it’s easy to see the springboard it left for the many writers who would follow in its wake. A parody so well versed in its own context that now over a century on, we look at it as a historical marvel more than the joke it seems was intended.

We’re also joined by Dr. Philomena Horsley, a long time member of Sisters in Crime Australia, and chair of their Davitt Awards, to talk about the posthumous crime fiction debut of another long-tenured member, Dr. Janna Thompson’s ‘Lockdown‘. An engagingly nostalgic romp through the annals of philosophy within the halls of an aged care facility, it shows with heart that age is no barrier to our beloved genre.

Thank you to Clan Destine Press & Shute The Messenger for copies of ‘Lockdown’

Check out Part Two and Part Three here!