I am cautious about setting myself too many reading goals, so this year I only set myself the one: To read once a month, one of the short story collections sitting on my TBR pile. The list for this project can be found here. Yesterday I put up my review for March’s read: Bodies from the Library 5 (2022). As with January and February, I refrained from commenting on one of the stories in this collection and that is because this year my mother and I are going to be doing a mini book group. Each month we will head out to a different café in our local area (Northumberland/ Tyneside/ Durham – as Northerners local can cover a lot of ground!), and we will discuss one short story. Then on my blog I will be reporting back about our café experience, plus share our thoughts on the story in question.
In March we were a little strapped for mutually available time, so we had to combine the hunt for a pair of jeans with our monthly book group chat. As such our choices of café were a little bit more restricted, opting for the Muffin Break. This is not a chain that I frequent often as their branches are not located in places I go to on a regular basis. However, their one big bonus is that they do very nice gluten free muffins, so I can definitely recommend those.
Our choice of story this month diverges from our previous reads, as it comes in the format of a radio play, a style which is heavily dialogue driven. ‘Where Do We Go from Here?’ ‘was first broadcast on the BBC Light Programme on 24 February 1948 for Mystery Playhouse, a series of six plays written by members of the Detection Club in order to raise funds for the Club.’
Sayers’ radio play concerns a man named George, who is eager to get his wife, Laura, out of their home for the evening. His second wife I should say. His reason for encouraging her out to bridge, is soon made apparent by the arrival of an unwanted visitor. A man called Walter, who has something to say about the demise of George’s first wife…
Now I am going to hand over to my mum, for her thoughts on the radio play…
I thoroughly enjoyed this short radio play. It was gripping and kept me compulsively reading to get to the end, with revelation after revelation coming out in quick succession. Since I like a quick pace in the fiction that I read, naturally this story appealed. There were lots of twists and turns, first being led to think one thing, then another, and I was not expecting the ending!
Obviously, as it was a radio play, it was all dialogue, but the actors’ spoken words carried it along beautifully and the listener/reader was able to garner description of place, surroundings, and details effortlessly as the play progressed. I loved the typical turn of phrase of the 1940’s and for me it was very reminiscent of Brief Encounter (1945) as the actors shared their feelings and thoughts.
I enjoyed how Laura recapped and summarized all the options of the possible scenarios of what might have happened to her husband’s first wife, as this helps the listener/reader to keep all the salient points clearly in mind.
SPOILER WARNING – SIGNIFICANT PLOT DETAILS MENTIONED
I felt it was very clever how Laura appeared to be telling the truth to Walter when she was in fact giving George an alibi. Near the end of the play, when Laura admits to George, she had killed her own first husband, it was interesting to surmise her motive behind revealing this information. Perhaps it was due to pride and a desire to show off? Maybe she wished to outdo him and create a power reversal within their relationship? Or was it a form of protection; you killed your wife, I killed my husband, so neither of us can ever go to the police about each other?
As the murders were committed during WW2, it was a time when these types of killings could be much more easily concealed, and I like how Sayers made use of the recent conflict. The play was unlike her novels in that there was no detective, and no conventional justice seen to be done. Perhaps the joint punishment was that they were both stuck with each other.
My favorite character was Laura, no surprise there, as I have blithered on about her to the exclusion of the gents involved. Even though she was a murderer she came across as bright, independent, not easily intimidated or threatened. In essence a strong woman and I found it difficult to dislike her.
I have not read a radio play for years, yet again Kate has re-introduced me to a different form of fiction, and I can now go off and hunt out others to enjoy.
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It is always pleasing when a choice goes down well, and I must admit I also really enjoyed this radio play too, for many of the reasons my mum has already outlined. Sayers makes full use of the opportunities the bombing in London could afford potential murderers, particularly in regard to mis-identifying a body; something which R. A. J. Walling also does in The Doodled Asterisk (1943).
The character of Laura was a big draw for me too. She really is the driving force in the plot, moving it forward. Moreover, when George and Laura are alone at the end of the play, it is clear he wants to control the conversation, so it was great to see Laura holding her ground, and even turning the tables on George one final time. In that respect this story shares qualities you would expect to find in Anthony Berkeley’s work. Thematically I think there are some similarities between this story and the one we read in February. There too the story starts out with a woman bossed and pushed around, but who through circumstances is able to change this. In particular in Sayers’ story there is a playful variation on the cat and mouse trope. However, both writers are also able to provide a deviant female who steps outside of accepted social norms, but does not repel the reader in the process, instead being someone you are rooting for or invested in.
Sayers knows when to end her story, leaving the reader wanting to know what happened next, as the narrative cuts off when the psychological stakes have been raised very high.
For April’s selection we will be diving into the world of locked room mysteries, reading a story from Golden Age Locked Room Mysteries (2022), edited by Otto Penzler.
Posts so far in the Cafes, Cake, and Crime Series:
January 2024 – Saradindu Bandopadhyay’s ‘The Man in the Red Coat’
February 2024 – Roald Dahl’s ‘The Way Up to Heaven’
crossexaminingcrime 