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Tea, Tonic & Toxin

Tea, Tonic & Toxin

著者： Carolyn Daughters & Sarah Harrison
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Tea, Tonic, and Toxin is a book club and podcast for people who love mysteries, thrillers, introspection, and good conversation. Each month, your hosts, Carolyn Daughters and Sarah Harrison, will discuss a game-changing mystery or thriller, starting in 1841 onward. Together, we’ll see firsthand how the genre evolvedAlong the way, we’ll entertain ideas, prospects, theories, doubts, and grudges, along with the occasional guest. And we hope to entertain you, dear friend. We want you to experience the joys of reading some of the best mysteries and thrillers ever written.

© 2026 Tea, Tonic & Toxin アート 世界 文学史・文学批評
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  • Died in the Wool by Ngaio Marsh with ZJ Czupor, Part 2

    Died in the Wool by Ngaio Marsh with ZJ Czupor, Part 2
    2026/09/01
    Send us Fan MailZ.J. Czupor has joined us TWICE to discuss Gaudy Night by Dorothy L. Sayers and Died in the Wool by Ngaio Marsh.His new murder mystery, Dead Men Don’t Drink, is published at zoltanjames.substack.com. He’s also the author of THE BIG WEIRD: Haikus in Times of Pandemic and Chaos. He is immediate past president of Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers and an active member of Mystery Writers of America and International Thriller Writers.History of Mystery book selections available in our Amazon Storefront or support your favorite local bookstore in our Bookshop Storefront as well! Guests have their own list here!Or if you happen to be in lovely Roanoke, Virginia, stop in person at the BiblioPub to get your copy.Watch clips from our conversations with guests!For bonus episodes and to get all episodes first, join our Patreon community.He is also the author of THE BIG WEIRD: Haikus in Times of Pandemic and Chaos, a collection of sublime poetry about his observations of the pandemic. More of his haiku poems are featured in Stop the World: Snapshots from a Pandemic, (Thalia Press), which includes authors, poets and essayists from around the world.His noir short story, The Man in the Corner, is featured in Crossing Colfax, by Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers.4. The Victim: Flossie as Power, Personality, and ProvocationFlossie is no shrinking-violet. How does Ngaio Marsh make her presence linger after she’s gone—through portraiture, reputation, household dynamics, and the aftershocks of her control?Flossie: Heroic public servant or unbearable authoritarian benefactor? What does the book seem to want us to feel about women who take up space publicly?Why would someone want Flossie dead? Rank the motive categories: personal resentment, romantic rivalry, political threat, ideological conflict, or something colder.5. Class, Gratitude, and the “Patron” ProblemThere’s a recurring tension around patronage—who is “helping” whom, and what that help costs. What does the book say about gratitude as a weapon?When a benefactor decides they’re entitled to your future, is that kindness or coercion? Where do you see the book landing?Several characters in Died in the Wool by Ngaio Marsh feel trapped by the role they’re assigned in the household hierarchy. Who seems most conscious of class—and who uses it as a shield?6. Character Web: Relationships, Pressure, and Emotional TruthLet’s talk characters. Who in this book is most capable of self-deception? Who is most brutally honest? Which characters behaved like adults under wartime pressure, and which behaved like sulky adolescents?Which relationships felt most combustible—and which felt most quietly sad?The idiom suggests fixedness—being set in your nature.Who is most “dyed in the wool” here: the victim, the killer, the ideologue, the loyalist, the snob, the romantic?7. Clues & Craft: Fair Play, Objects, and Alibis in Died in the Wool by Ngaio MarshThe musical alibi: fair, clever, or too cute? Did you enjoy the technicality of it—or did it feel like a trick you’re meant to swallow?What is Ngaio Marsh’s misdirection style here? Is it “hide the clue,” “hide the significance,” or “let you see everything but look the other way”? Which clues felt most “classic puzzle,” and which felt most psychologically revealing?Beyond shock value, what does the wool-bale concealment accomplish? Is it about industry, identity, compression of truth, the station’s economy, the idea of being packaged and exported? Does the method feel symbolically New Zealand or gimmicky?)The final trap: thrilling theatre or ethically dicey? Where do you land on detectives who lure the killer into action to prove a case?Fair play court: Did the solution feel genuinely inevitable in hindsight or mostly “authorial magician’s flourish”?Crippen and LandruThe very best in short mystery fictionDisclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.Support the showhttps://www.instagram.com/teatonicandtoxin/https://www.facebook.com/teatonicandtoxinhttps://www.teatonicandtoxin.comStay mysterious...
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    55 分
  • Died in the Wool by Ngaio Marsh with guest ZJ Czupor, Part 1

    Died in the Wool by Ngaio Marsh with guest ZJ Czupor, Part 1
    2026/08/14

    Send us Fan Mail

    DIED IN THE WOOL (1945) by Ngaio Marsh is a set in the remote New Zealand countryside on a sheep farm during World War II. The story follows Inspector Roderick Alleyn as he investigates the suspicious death of a politician while conducting counter-espionage work.

    The book is known for its blend of murder mystery and wartime espionage. Marsh’s vivid characterization and clever narrative structure make it a compelling and timeless entry in the genre. She was one of the Queens of Crime, and this novel is among her best.

    History of Mystery book selections available in our Amazon Storefront or support your favorite local bookstore in our Bookshop Storefront as well! Guests have their own list here!

    Or if you happen to be in lovely Roanoke, Virginia, stop in person at the BiblioPub to get your copy.

    Watch clips from our conversations with guests!

    For bonus episodes and to get all episodes first, join our Patreon community.

    Z.J. Czupor has joined us TWICE to discuss Gaudy Night by Dorothy L. Sayers and Died in the Wool by Ngaio Marsh.

    His new murder mystery, Dead Men Don’t Drink, is published at zoltanjames.substack.com. He’s also the author of THE BIG WEIRD: Haikus in Times of Pandemic and Chaos. He is immediate past president of Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers and an active member of Mystery Writers of America and International Thriller Writers. He’s represented by Terrie Wolf (AKA Literary Management).

    Died in the Wool by Ngaio Marsh

    1. The Hook & the Vibe in Died in the Wool by Ngaio Marsh


    Opening image: a missing public figure turns up inside a wool bale. Did that seem instantly macabre, instantly weird, instantly kind of funny? What was your initial response?

    Ngaio Marsh is doing “Golden Age puzzle” in a distinctly New Zealand landscape during wartime. Did that feel like a refreshing shift from the usual manor-house geometry, or did it still read as country-house logic in different clothes and during bleak times?

    BiblioPub
    The cozy reader’s refuge that Roanoke has always needed.

    Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.

    Support the show

    https://www.instagram.com/teatonicandtoxin/
    https://www.facebook.com/teatonicandtoxin
    https://www.teatonicandtoxin.com

    Stay mysterious...
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    48 分
  • On Fire and Under Water with Ippolito, McKenna, Guha & Brash

    On Fire and Under Water with Ippolito, McKenna, Guha & Brash
    2026/08/01
    Send us Fan MailOn Fire and Under Water is a new crime fiction anthology from Rock and a Hard Place Press. The anthology explores the intersection of climate change and crime through the lens of 15 short stories from some of today’s best crime fiction writers.Edited by Anthony Award-winning author Curtis Ippolito and the editorial team at RHP Press, the stories peel back the curtain on the ways in which climate change impacts real people in their most desperate hour.Get your copy of our guest's books here! History of Mystery book slections available in our Amazon Storefront or support your favorite local bookstore in our Bookshop Storefront as well! Guests have their own list here!Or if you happen to be in lovely Roanoke, Virginia, stop in person at the BiblioPub to get your copy.Watch clips from our conversations with guests!For bonus episodes and to get all episodes first, join our Patreon community.“The Devil Doesn’t Live Hand to Mouth” is a short story in the anthology by Puja Guha. Mozambique has been hit hard by Cyclone Jasper. Antonio’s Bahia Mar Sanctuary, a boutique resort/coastal B&B, has been destroyed. But he has another option. A Chinese spy, Ernest Mao, has asked Antonio to place a few bugs in the home of the uber-wealthy Fred and Gina.His dream is dead. His resort is gone. He drives a 10-year-old Toyota Corolla. Everything about Fred and Gina is a reminder of what he will never have. Antonio grapples with his decision – what should he do?“Long Night of the Polar Bear” by C.E. McKenna takes place in Longyearbyen, a small coal-mining town on Spitsbergen Island, in Norway’s Svalbard archipelago. Svalbard is between Norway and the North Pole. Atle Solas has been banished by his boss, Vlad, to Svalbard for accidentally killing an old woman during a job. He has a plan for escape: before heading to Svalbard, he had copied the contents of his boss’ daughter’s laptop onto a thumb drive. He has stored the thumb drive in a small cavern carved into the back of the leg of a dancing polar bear in the bar. His plan is to collect €2 million for the contents and retire in Thailand.“No one is allowed to be born on Svalbard and the dead are shipped immediately to be buried off-island. This place is a land of living, but not life, of dying, but not death.”C.E. McKenna is a writer and historian from Colorado. She has history theses in the libraries of Reed College and Oklahoma State, and her short stories have found awards and publication with Writing by Writers, Desperate Literature, Cagibi, Lumina, Quarterly West, Northwest Review, and Shift. In 2022, she completed AWP’s 17th Writer to Writer Mentorship Program, and in 2024 was invited to the Chateau d’Orquevaux for a 4-week writing residency. She is currently an MFA student at Emerson College with an expected graduation of 2026.Most of C.E. McKenna’s work focuses on the untold stories of the American West. Her short fiction and research often deals with the dangers of western environments—particularly wildland fire. Her long-form work combines deft historical research with speculative fiction, resulting in vivid, thrilling pageturners. Her debut novel, The Primary Source, is about the murderous origins of Stanford University.C.E. McKenna lives in Boulder, Colorado, where she works as a software developer and spends her free time traipsing local hiking trails, attempting to avoid moose.Tea, Tonic & Toxin interviews Raymond J. Brash, who discusses his short story “Ban Yuh Belly,” published in On Fire and Under Water: A Climate Change Crime Fiction Anthology. He’s joined by authors Curtis Ipppolito, Puja Guha, and C.E. McKenna.He’s is a Trinidadian-American writer residing in Colorado with his wife and rescue pittie, Bessie.He enjoys reading and writing speculative fiction, noir, and anything that crushes multiple genres into a pulpy, edible mash.Raymond has stories published or forthcoming in The Lines We Cross: Bouchercon 2026 Anthology, On Fire and Under Water: A Climate Change Crime Fiction Anthology, Shotgun Honey, Rock and a Hard Place Press, and others, and has been nominated for a Best of the Net Award. Follow him on Instagram @raymond.j.brash, Bluesky @rjbrash.bsky.social, or visit his website raymondjbrash.work“Ban Yuh Belly” is a short story by Raymond J. Brash published in the anthology. “Ban yuh belly” is Caribbean patios meaning “brace yourself and prepare for hard times. The story is set in Trinidad and Tobago. “Rainy season getting worse and worse by the year,” Jeffrey Perrera says. “And they say God is a Trini.”Jeffrey finds bodies washed up on the shore and takes their money. When we first meet him, he has also taken a watch. Jeffrey tells us, “I don’t read names on cards or stare at pictures too much. It’s easier that way.” Jeffrey is trying to do right by his sister, Denise, and her daughter, Hazel. Denise’s sound and look remind him of Mumzie, their mother.Curtis ...
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    1 時間 7 分
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