Miriam Toews, Olga Tokarczuk and detective fiction – welcome to episode 119!
In the first half of this episode, we discuss detective fiction – do we prefer the mystery-solver to be a professional or an amateur? And in the second half we compare two fairly recent novels – Drive Your Plow Over The Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk, translated by Antonia Lloyd-Jones, and Women Talking by Miriam Toews.
Do get in touch if you have any questions or suggestions for the podcast – at teaorbooks[at]gmail.com – and you can listen wherever you listen to podcasts! You can support the podcast at Patreon, should you so wish, with various available rewards.
The books and authors we mention in this episode are:
Mrs Hart’s Marriage Bureau by Sheena Wilkinson
Day by Michael Cunningham
No Leading Lady by R.C. Sherriff
Journey’s End by R.C. Sherriff
Marghanita Laski
The Dark Fantastic by Margaret Echard
The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
The Love-Child by Edith Olivier
The Venetian Glass Nephew by Elinor Wylie
Sherlock Holmes novels by Arthur Conan Doyle
Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple novels by Agatha Christie
Lord Peter Wimsey novels by Dorothy L. Sayers
Jackson Brodie novels by Kate Atkinson
The Thursday Club Murders by Richard Osman
Murder Before Evensong by Richard Coles
The No.1 Ladies Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith
Sergeant Cluff series by Gil North
Mrs Bradley series by Gladys Mitchell
Quick Curtain by Alan Melville
Maigret series by Georges Simenon
Illyrian Spring by Ann Bridge
A Favourite of the Gods by Sybille Bedford
A Compass Error by Sybille Bedford
Travels With My Aunt by Graham Greene
Balkan Trilogy and Levant Trilogy by Olivia Manning
Flights by Olga Tokarczuk
William Blake
The Book of Jacob by Olga Tokarczuk
The English Air by D.E. Stevenson
The Morning Gift by Eva Ibbotson
For a fine contemporary spin on the amateur sleuth, check out Jill Paton Walsh’s Imogen Quy series—Cambridge college nurse finds herself in reasonably plausible situations that necessitate her investigating.
Thanks for the suggestion, Jack!
Interesting episode, both! I can’t really come down on one side or the other when it comes to amateurs vs the official detectives – I think both can work in GA crime but of course it depends very much on the book. As for Drive Your Plow vs the Toews, I’ve only read the former so again I can’t pick. However, I loved the Tokarczuk very much and I’m not sure I would go for the Toews after what you both say…
I am still keen to read All My Puny Sorrows because I’ve heard such good things, but this one was such a disappointment.
Doesn’t Murder on the Orient Express go through many countries? Also, I just finished reading Killers of a Certain Age by Deanna Raybourn which takes place all over as well. Plus, certainly the James Bond novels go all over as well.
I have never actually read that one! Because I’ve seen the film a few times, I’ve stuck to the ones I don’t already know the solutions to.
Rachel’s comments on Frankenstein were interesting. But, apologies. I must have missed something. Is Rachel going back to teaching full time?
Good question! She is going back to teaching for the time being, though I’m not sure if this role is permanent.
I am definitely for cosy crime only. I cannot cope with gore or gruesome scenes so no modern novels with pathologists in for me! I also prefer amateur sleuths because I think that generally adds more interesting interactions than those achieved with professionals investigating. My favourite in this category however, would be the early Maisie Dobbs novels by Jacqueline Winspear (I don’t like the later ones as much) and the Isabel Dalhousie series by McCall Smith. Both these are actually private detectives, which rather contradicts my point above, but there are still a lot of domestic and personal details in them.
I did not read either of the books this time. I was waiting to hear your views as neither book especially appealed initially. I found Women Talking in a bookshop and was not inspired to read it after skimming the first chapter. I do now want to read Drive Your Plow over the Bones of the Dead after hearing your considered reflections.
It’s back into my comfort zone for next month. I’m looking forward to pitting D E Stevenson against Eva Ibbotson; I have not read either of them.
Enjoy Hay on Wye Rachel. I’m envious!
Oo I don’t know those series, so will keep an eye out – thank you. And I have a friend training to be a pathologist and truly don’t understand why she would :D
Yes, we took an uncharacteristic step away from our usual fare – I am also feeling more comfortable about reading Stevenson and Ibbotson!
I read a lot (probably too many) mysteries, so this episode was an extra special treat for me. I wanted to add to the awareness-raising of Margaret Echard. After listening to this episode, I searched the catalog of our library network – a fairly large group of fairly small libraries in rural Ohio – and found just one of her titles available, I Met Murder on the Way. I read it on a stormy afternoon in one sitting and enjoyed it thoroughly, especially so because the writing was so vivid and immersive. This suspenseful story is set in Kentucky, but has the feel of a British country house mystery. The narrator is a teenage girl, an orphan living with rich relatives, whose testimony is critical in the acquittal of a doctor accused of murder. But should he have been acquitted? And if so, who is the real culprit?
I’ll definitely be keeping my eyes open for any of Margaret Echard’s other books, should I be fortunate enough to come across one in a used bookstore. Thanks for opening my eyes to a book I would never otherwise have discovered.
Oo really good to know about the Echard – that sounds even more up my street. I’d never heard of her, but she sounds a very interesting author.
I listened to Drive Your Plow on audio, too, and thought it was one of the best audiobooks ever. The reader was expressive and made me want to see what happened next. I did not guess the twist at the end either. I haven’t listened to or read Flights yet, although I have the physical book TBR, and your description intrigued me.
I guess the amateur sleuths don’t have to get bogged down in tedious admin and regulations so allow for more flexibility/opportunity (in the same way that orphan children are popular protagonists as they don’t have to come home in time for tea, etc). I quite like Josephine Tey’s Alan Grant, who has quite a bit of depth to him, particularly in ‘The Singing Sands’ where he is recovering from a nervous breakdown.
I am not an audio person, so it’s difficult for me to listen to a whole hour of podcast. However, I stuck on because of the discussion of Drive Your Plow over the Bones of the Dead, which I really loved, and I saw in the list of books that you were going to discuss The Books of Jacob, which I am in the middle of reading. No insights there, because you just mentioned the name of that book. Anyway, good podcast. I thought everything you discussed was interesting, and I managed to hang on despite my usual inability to concentrate with just aural stimuli.
BTW, I don’t prefer either amateur sleuths or professional ones. I think it all depends on plotting and good writing. However, unlike Simon, I like a good dark novel now and then. Not too horrifying, but I don’t mind gore as long as I don’t have to look at it onscreen.