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Summer Mysteries
237 Plays5 months ago
When the heat is on and tempers flare, you have the perfect condition for a mystery. Brook and Sarah discuss how to stay cool by reading some of their favourite summer-themed mysteries.
Discussed
Midsummer Mysteries: Tales from the Queen of Mystery (2023) Agatha Christie
Have His Carcass (1932) Dorothy L. Sayers
The Talented Mr. Ripley (1955) Patricia Highsmith
Rear Window (1954 film) Alfred Hitchcock
The Lost City (2022 film) Aaron and Adam Nee
The Hunter (2024) Tana French
Ladykiller (2024) Katherine Wood
Look in the Mirror (2024) Catherine Steadman
Summertime, All the Cats Are Bored (2019) Philippe Georget
Murder Under the Sun: 13 Summer Mysteries by The Queen of Crime (2019) Agatha Christie
Outer Banks (2020-2023) Netflix
The Box in the Woods (2021) Maureen Johnson
The Cousins (2020) Karen M. McManus
Five Survive (2022) Holly Jackson
The Retreat (2022) Sarah Pearse
The Overnight Guest (2022) Heather Gudenkauf
Her Last Holiday (2021) C.L. Taylor
Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery (2022) Rian Johnson
For more information
Instagram: @cluedinmystery
Contact us: [email protected]
Music: Signs To Nowhere by Shane Ivers – www.silvermansound.com
Transcript
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Transcript
Introduction and Listener Engagement
00:00:10
Speaker
Welcome to Clued in Mystery. I'm Sarah. And I'm Brooke, and we both love mystery. Hi Brooke. Hi Sarah, how are you doing? I'm doing really well. How about you? I'm great. Should we tell our listeners a little more about the cartel?
00:00:29
Speaker
I think that's a great idea and we can tell them about what is probably going to be one of the scariest writing experiences for both of us and that's the ride along that we have coming up. That's right. Talk about Spooky. We are going to be writing and sharing as we go with our cartel members who will also have some opportunity to input information into the story.
00:00:55
Speaker
Yeah, I think it'll be definitely an experiment and hopefully lots of fun. I think it will be a lot of fun, Sarah. So be sure to check out the opportunities to join the cartel and don't forget to join our newsletter so you can always know what episodes are coming up next and some other tidbits about what Sarah and I are up to.
Celebrating the 100th Episode
00:01:15
Speaker
And we should probably mention that our 100th episode is coming up soon. And we will be asking our newsletter readers and our listeners for ideas on how we can celebrate that milestone. Yes. Can you believe 100 episodes, Sarah? I don't think I ever imagined Brooke that we would get to 100.
00:01:38
Speaker
I know, and really so quickly actually. So that's why we need your help in deciding how to celebrate because we're just kind of overwhelmed by it all.
Summer Mysteries Theme
00:01:46
Speaker
So let's get to today's topic, summer mysteries. And you know, we often think of Halloween time or winter as the spooky seasons, but summertime has its share of unique scenarios that can be perfect for a good mystery.
00:02:02
Speaker
For instance, summertime signals change. Our schedules change, as does the weather and the scenery. Kids are out of school, staying out later at night, and some adults take on different work schedules in the summer. This different world feeling can be the disturbance that kicks off a great fictional story.
00:02:22
Speaker
The summer solstice is the time of ancient pagan rituals and many conspiracy theories surrounding it. But that aside, the long hours of daylight mean members of a community are outside later each night than usual and may see something or someone. That open window may let in more than a cool evening breeze.
00:02:45
Speaker
Summer carnivals with their wild rides, sticky treats, and flashing lights are enjoyable, yes, but also a bit creepy. The haunted house and the fun house are both good examples of fun with a side of spooky. Carnivals bring outsiders in to acquaint closed community. The screams of those enjoying a scary ride might hide the screams of a victim. And at carnivals, there are clowns. Need I say more?
00:03:15
Speaker
Camping or summer camp setups are something we often see in mystery as well as horror fiction. With these, there are things to be frightened of out in the forest such as wild animals or a Sasquatch. And we like to tell ghost stories around the campfire to have some good, eerie fun. And don't forget that campers are cut off from help if they need it.
Literary and Film Inspirations
00:03:39
Speaker
Likewise, they're put together in a cabin or a tent with a group of others who are complete strangers. Or are they? Summer vacation resorts seem carefree and perfect on the outside, but in a summertime mystery, there's a truth underneath that vacationers uncover bit by bit.
00:03:59
Speaker
Even the beach isn't safe. Things that add a spook factor there are the threat of sharks or other creatures of the sea, or maybe a storm coming either metaphorically or literally. And one of my favorite setups at the beach are treasure hunt stories.
00:04:17
Speaker
When I think of summertime set mysteries, there are some classics that come to mind. Agatha Christie's Midsummer Mysteries collection, and that features mysteries starring Miss Marple, Poirot, Parker Pine, and Harley Quinn. Or Dorothy Sayers' Have His Carcass, where whimsy and vain try to take a walking holiday and, of course, mystery will ensue.
00:04:41
Speaker
And then another favorite classic is The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith, where the Italian holiday turns deadly. In TV and film, there are lots of good examples, and I hope we'll talk about some of those. But one of my all-time favorites is Rear Window from the Master of Suspense, Alfred Hitchcock. We've got that intense heat and the open windows that lead to the murder mystery.
00:05:08
Speaker
And another more recent favorite that I discovered was The Lost City. And this is one of those treasure hunt stories and also an author as sleuth with Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds searching for treasure. You get all the summer and tropical vibes with that one.
Young Adult Summer Mysteries
00:05:27
Speaker
This summer, 2024, we have some summer mysteries to look forward to. Tawna French is releasing The Hunter. This is a mystery set in summertime in Ireland.
00:05:39
Speaker
Catherine Wood will have Lady Killer, which is a Greek island estate mystery. And then one I'm really looking forward to from Catherine Steadman, Look in the Mirror. And in this one, the main character inherits a tropical vacation home from her father that she didn't even know existed.
00:06:00
Speaker
So those are a few of the titles I look forward to this summer when it's hot and sunny outside, and I can best relate to the settings of those books. What about you, Sarah? Do you have some favorite summer mysteries? I do, Brooke, and thanks for that summary. I think one of the things that I like when I'm reading a summer mystery is kind of the descriptions of the heat and how heat
00:06:28
Speaker
plays can often play such an important role in the mystery, right? People are a little bit more irritable because they just can't cool down. They're always covered in sweat and uncomfortable. And I think that just lends itself to some really great hot tempers and hot mysteries.
00:06:51
Speaker
So when we were talking about doing this episode, I tried to think back to books that I've read that are set in the summer. And one that I read recently is, it has summer in the title, it's translated from French and it's Summertime All the Cats Are Bored by Philippe Georgi. So it's set in the summer in Perignon in France and that is in the south of France.
00:07:18
Speaker
hot there. And so there are several scenes where one of the characters is a police detective and he's sitting on the edge of his pool with his wife who's in the water and he's dangling his feet and you can just kind of
00:07:36
Speaker
sense the relief he gets from the heat as they're having this conversation. And of course, there's lots of wine and great descriptions of food as well. But it was a good read. It's a little bit dark, but it was definitely a good read.
00:07:57
Speaker
And you mentioned Agatha Christie, and she has a lot of stories that are set in the summer. You know, I don't know if it's the summer drinks kind of lend themselves to a poison or, you know, I know she's set a lot of books in the Middle East where it's kind of, we would consider summer all the time.
00:08:22
Speaker
Yeah, there's another collection of short stories that was released by the Agatha Christie estate called Murder Under the Sun, and it probably has some of the same stories that are in the book that you mentioned, The Midsummer Mysteries, but another example of some of Agatha Christie's work that's set in the summer.
00:08:41
Speaker
I would agree that heat, it really comes through as almost another character or a force in these stories. And you definitely sense that going back to Rear Window and those close-ups, they're always sweaty.
00:08:58
Speaker
definitely uncomfortable. But I think that the sweat also, because we sweat when we're afraid too. So sometimes I think, you know, there's that close proximity of like, am I afraid? Am I hot? Am I, you know, am I stressed out? There's that very sensation of being irritable, like you said, and I just love that about these.
Summer Settings in Thrillers
00:09:19
Speaker
You mentioned Treasure Hunt and there's a series on Netflix that's set in the Outer Banks but is also called Outer Banks. And it is summertime and it's more of a YA series. I would say all the characters are kind of in high school or just finishing high school, I think.
00:09:42
Speaker
But, you know, so they're all in shorts and flip-flops and T-shirts and really enjoying summer and being young, but also with this mystery. And another set of mysteries that's set in the same area is Melissa Bourbon's mysteries. And we've had her as a guest. And her book magic mysteries are set in the outer banks of the Carolinas in the U.S.
00:10:10
Speaker
Yeah, that is a great series and a great example of that summertime feel in Melissa's series. And I like that you mentioned the YA aspect of this because I do think we get, I mean, certainly there are lots of stories where the
00:10:27
Speaker
characters are adults, but kids have all this time on their hands. And so I think summertime lends itself really great to a YA or even younger, like a middle grade mystery because kids are out on their own, they're riding their bikes around town. So we see a lot, like I remember Nancy Drew and Hardy Boyz stories that are both set in the summertime. And yeah, it's a great opportunity to send them on an adventure.
00:10:55
Speaker
And you're right, I think there's some great examples of YA mysteries that are set in summer. Another couple that I've read are Maureen Johnson's Box in the Woods, which is the fourth book in her Truly Devious series. And the characters are working at a summer camp. And there's a mystery for them to solve while they're there.
00:11:20
Speaker
Karen M. McManus has the cousins and that features cousins who go to a summer resort community. I think it's an island where their grandmother kind of runs the community and the resort there. And there's a lot of mystery, family mystery that they have to
00:11:49
Speaker
solve while they're there. And another one is Holly Jackson's book Five Survive. So she wrote the series A Good Girl's Guide to Murder. This is a standalone. It's not related to that series at all, but it's, you know, a group of young adults who go on an RV vacation and get into some trouble.
00:12:18
Speaker
Oh my goodness, those are three wonderful suggestions. And I hadn't even thought about the idea that summertime is usually when family reunions happen, right? And what a great opportunity to put a bunch of family together and then uncover family secrets. And yeah, I love those. And it's very funny because I was just thinking about the Maureen Johnson
00:12:43
Speaker
series recently, I think I've read two of those and I have a hankering to continue. So I'm glad to know that that there's one coming
TV Mysteries and Visual Storytelling
00:12:51
Speaker
up that's set in the summer. Well, and and some of her books are set in the winter. I can't remember which one it is, but there's definitely one. You know, I know we're not talking about winter mysteries, but she kind of covers a lot of seasons in in her books.
00:13:11
Speaker
So I have two other books that kind of came to mind when we were talking about this topic, Brooke. And so one is The Retreat by Sarah Pierce. And I read this because you recommended The Sanatorium by her when I don't know if it was when we were talking about winter mysteries or another topic. So The Sanatorium takes place in winter during a winter storm.
00:13:39
Speaker
and the retreat takes place at a holiday retreat in the summer with the same character. And the other book, and I just finished reading this, and I picked it up. I didn't realize that it was a summer mystery, but it's dual timeline with
00:13:58
Speaker
one part of the story taking place during a severe winter storm and the other part of the story taking place during the heat of the summer. So it kind of captures both of those tensions that we can get due to weather. And this is called The Overnight Guest by Heather Guttenkopf. And I really enjoyed that as well.
00:14:22
Speaker
Oh, that sounds great. I like the dichotomy between those two things because it is a very different experience. So that's a great idea.
00:14:32
Speaker
Well, one that I've read recently was Her Last Holiday by C.L. Taylor. And this one was a really fun ride because it's playing off of those kind of cultish retreats that people go to and some of the trouble that ensues. And so I found that really fascinating. I have watched and listened to some true crime.
00:14:55
Speaker
about some of the trouble that people get into when they go to some of those retreats. And so this was fun to see it fictionalized and it was a great read. It sounds very interesting.
00:15:06
Speaker
You know, thinking about TV Summer Mysteries, Sarah, one thing I found that is kind of interesting is many times those series are set darker than you would imagine. Like, maybe they're a little bit gray, a little dark, as if the producers think that we can't have
00:15:25
Speaker
you know, mystery if it's bright and sunny. But I did really love that in glass onion, they completely went for it. I mean, it is the brightest of colors. It's sunny. They're wearing really great clothing, actually, you know, these people have money. So they've got really fun summertime outfits. And they didn't shy away from that at all. And I don't think it took away from the mystery at all. It was a fantastic mystery.
00:15:53
Speaker
Well, that's such an interesting observation, Brooke, the kind of way that light impacts a mystery. And you're right, a lot of the time when we're watching mysteries, it's really dark. But there's almost something, I don't even know if I can think of the right word, but there's almost something that's a bit daunting or intimidating.
00:16:15
Speaker
when it's so bright, right? Like, you know, when it's summertime here, everybody's wearing sunglasses because it's so bright, right? We have to shield ourselves from that light. So it's almost like you can have too much light and, you know, what happens when there are no shadows?
Conclusion and Call to Action
00:16:38
Speaker
And from a storytelling standpoint, I think you can really use that because it's like there's nowhere to hide, right? The spotlight is on, so to speak. So yeah, I found that interesting and I really liked it about that movie. Well, Sarah, this has been so much fun talking about summer mysteries in the summertime. And I look forward to going and picking up some of your recommendations.
00:17:02
Speaker
I feel the same way, Brooke. Um, and I look forward to reading a few of the books that, that you've highlighted today too. So thank you everyone for listening. Don't forget to go out and join the newsletter, consider becoming a cartel member and join in on all the fun until next time. I'm Brooke and I'm Sarah and we both love mystery. Including mystery is written and produced by Brooke Peterson and Sarah M. Steven. Music is by Shane Ivers.
00:17:30
Speaker
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