Tease your curiosity with Tom Mead, a UK crime fiction author whose passion for golden age mystery authors and locked room mysteries will captivate your attention. Tom unravels the craft of creating an intriguing whodunit, discussing locked room and closed circle mysteries, and the allure of puzzle style mysteries that have fascinated readers for centuries.
We then dive into the fascinating intersection of mystery writing and magic. Through Tom's insights, we discover how principles used by magicians can be instrumental in mystery writing. We also take a peep into the golden age of mystery pre-World War II England through Tom's meticulous research process and his use of language. Engage with an author's journey from a first manuscript to a publishing deal, as Tom shares his experiences with The Mysterious Press, an Imprint of Penzler Publishers. This episode is a treat for all mystery lovers, filled with rich insights, captivating anecdotes and a deep dive into the world of locked room mysteries.
Tom Mead is a UK crime fiction author specialising in locked-room mysteries. He is a member of the Crime Writers’ Association and the International Thriller Writers’ Organization. His debut novel, Death And The Conjuror, featured magician-detective Joseph Spector who also appears in his new novel is The Murder Wheel.
Tom Mead
Death And The Conjuror, Tom Mead
Otto Penzler on The Bookshop Podcast
Otto Penzler and Tom Mead Interview
Funeral in the fog, Edward D. Hoch
Borges: Ficciones, Jorge Luis Borges
The Bookshop Podcast
Mandy Jackson-Beverly
Social Media Links
Mandy Jackson-Beverly: Hi, my name is Mandy Jackson Beverly
00:00:13
and I'm a Bibliophile.
00:00:15
Welcome to the Bookshop Podcast .
00:00:18
Each week, I present interviews with independent bookshop
00:00:22
owners from around the globe, authors, and specialists in
00:00:25
subjects dear to my heart the environment and social justice.
00:00:30
To help the show reach more people, please share it with
00:00:33
friends and family and on social media, and remember to
00:00:37
subscribe and leave a review wherever you listen to this
00:00:40
podcast.
00:00:41
You're listening to Episode 222 .
00:00:45
Tom Mead is a UK crime fiction author specializing in locked
00:00:52
room mysteries.
00:00:53
He is a member of the Crime Writers Association and the
00:00:57
International Thriller Writers Organization.
00:00:59
His debut novel, Death And The Conjuror, featured magician
00:01:03
detective Joseph Spector, who also features in Tom's new novel
00:01:07
, The Murder Wheel.
00:01:08
Hi, Tom, and welcome to the show.
00:01:11
It's lovely to have you here.
00:01:12
Tom Mead: Hi, Mandy, thank you so much for having me.
00:01:15
Mandy Jackson-Beverly: It's my pleasure.
00:01:16
Let's begin with learning about you and what led you to write
00:01:20
crime fiction.
00:01:22
Tom Mead: Well, I used to work in education.
00:01:25
So I worked at the University of Derby, which is our local
00:01:32
university, and then at Derby College, which is for ages 16 to
00:01:37
18.
00:01:38
But in the meantime, while I was working those jobs, I was
00:01:45
also writing freelance.
00:01:47
I had studied creative writing at university, so it was always
00:01:55
something that I wanted to get into and I'd always been reading
00:02:00
crime fiction and murder mysteries from a very young age.
00:02:04
I mean, I've talked in the past about growing up surrounded by
00:02:09
Agatha Christie paperbacks, but there really were.
00:02:14
We had them stacked around the place, those Fontana paperbacks
00:02:18
of Agatha Christie novels with those fabulous painted covers by
00:02:23
the likes of Tom Adams, who was such a wonderful artist.
00:02:28
And even before I read them, obviously, those ages were
00:02:33
hugely appealing to me, very kind of lurid and gothic and
00:02:38
macabre.
00:02:39
So even as a child I was drawn to the books, even before I read
00:02:43
them.
00:02:43
So once I started reading, I discovered a love of classic
00:02:51
puzzle style mysteries where the question is who done it, but
00:02:56
also how, and where the emphasis is on resolving that puzzle.
00:03:02
So inevitably, I suppose, once I'd completed my studies and
00:03:08
once I was looking at writing professionally, I came back to
00:03:14
the genre that had really been my first love.
00:03:18
I suppose the genre that interested me the most from a
00:03:23
very young age.
00:03:24
Agatha Christie was obviously a gateway to the golden age of
00:03:30
crime fiction.
00:03:30
So the likes of John Dixon Carr, Ellery Queen, Helen McCloy
00:03:37
, Christiana Brand, Edmund Crispin, Nicholas Blake, so many
00:03:43
names.
00:03:44
When I started to write fiction under my own name it was very
00:03:48
much a conscious tribute to the golden age and to those great
00:03:52
writers.
00:03:53
Mandy Jackson-Beverly: Yes, it certainly was a golden age of
00:03:55
writers.
00:03:56
Your first novel, Death and the Conjuror, featured Joseph
00:04:00
Spector, as does your latest, the Murder Wheel, and they are
00:04:03
both presented as locked- room mysteries.
00:04:06
Now you've talked about this a little, but for our listeners,
00:04:09
I'm wondering if you could explain this sub-genre of crime
00:04:12
fiction and what draws you into writing this genre of mystery
00:04:17
fiction.
00:04:17
Tom Mead: Certainly yes.
00:04:18
Well, I suppose first of all I'd better define it.
00:04:23
As I understand it, it is a term that gets bandied around
00:04:27
not always correctly, in my opinion, anyway but locked- room
00:04:32
mystery I typically use it to refer to stories which feature a
00:04:37
seemingly impossible crime, so a crime which appears to be
00:04:43
physically impossible for anyone to have committed.
00:04:46
Mandy Jackson-Beverly: And that's where the locked room
00:04:47
comes into play.
00:04:49
Tom Mead: Yes, for example, a murder victim found in a
00:04:53
hermetically sealed space where there was no way that a criminal
00:04:58
could have got in or out.
00:04:59
But I use it more as an umbrella term for any crime
00:05:04
story where the puzzle is not only who done it but how.
00:05:09
So effectively it's the who done it and it's the how done it
00:05:13
.
00:05:13
I suppose the key thing about the locked-room mystery as a
00:05:16
sub-genre is that by its nature, it's very complex and it's very
00:05:20
demanding for the reader because inevitably there's an
00:05:24
element of the game of playing a mind game with the reader and
00:05:28
encouraging them to play along, to sort of buy into the mystery
00:05:34
and to attempt to solve it before the fictional detective.
00:05:38
Mandy Jackson-Beverly: And how does this differ from a closed
00:05:40
circle mystery?
00:05:41
Tom Mead: So effectively, the closed circle mystery refers
00:05:46
more broadly to the who done it, where you have a so-called
00:05:50
closed circle of suspects.
00:05:52
For instance, Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express
00:05:55
would be an example of a closed circle mystery where there isn't
00:05:59
that element of physical impossibility.
00:06:02
It doesn't seem as though it would be impossible for anyone
00:06:07
to commit this crime.
00:06:08
There's often overlap between the two, but I think that the
00:06:14
locked-room mystery is distinct in that, while it has a lot of
00:06:18
the same features as the closed circle mystery, that sense of
00:06:23
the physically impossible and also an element of the seemingly
00:06:28
uncanny or supernatural adds a different layer to the puzzle
00:06:36
than you find in the conventional who done it?
00:06:40
Mandy Jackson-Beverly: I think they're fun, but I was wondering
00:06:42
while I was reading your book, The Murder Wheel, you must have
00:06:46
a lot of pre-planning and outlining to do prior to
00:06:50
actually starting to write the novel, because of the
00:06:52
intricacies of the who done it and the layout and what needs to
00:06:56
be where within the story to make it work.
00:07:00
Tom Mead: Yes, for me there are basically two different
00:07:04
approaches that I can take, and this book, The Murder Wheel, is
00:07:09
a kind of combination of them both.
00:07:11
But it will either be a situation where I come up with a
00:07:15
gimmick or effectively the solution to a trick that I want
00:07:20
to use in a mystery, and it's a case of working out how that
00:07:24
comes into play.
00:07:25
Or it's coming up with the mystery first, coming up with
00:07:29
the unanswered question and looking at ways in which that
00:07:35
problem could be resolved.
00:07:36
This particular book that there are elements of both of those
00:07:41
approaches in the writing of it, but to me that's all part of
00:07:47
the fun of it, really just throwing these ideas at the wall
00:07:51
and seeing what sticks to begin with, and then, as it goes,
00:07:58
you're creating these links, you're seeing everything kind of
00:08:01
fit together and it's a very satisfying process.
00:08:04
Mandy Jackson-Beverly: Like putting a puzzle together, I'm
00:08:06
sure.
00:08:06
I would love it if you could read the first two pages of The
00:08:11
Murder Wheel, and then we'll follow your reading with a short
00:08:14
discussion about your character , Edmund Ibbs.
00:08:18
Tom Mead: Certainly, I've just got a copy to hand here.
00:08:21
Right, chapter one.
00:08:23
Can you solve the Ferris Wheel Murder Case?
00:08:27
It began with the book.
00:08:29
If not for the book, the rest of it would not have happened.
00:08:33
At least that's what Ibbs told himself after the fact.
00:08:37
But truthfully, the whole hideous thing, every single
00:08:42
facet of the case, slotted together so neatly that it was
00:08:47
like an immaculately timed sleight- of- hand trick.
00:08:50
The quickness of the hand deceives the eye, but at the
00:08:55
same time it had the kind of mad , surreal logic that is
00:08:59
typically found in the most lucid and frenetic of fever
00:09:03
dreams.
00:09:03
Ibbs did not believe in magic, and yet the macabre and bloody
00:09:09
comedy of errors that occurred at the pomegranate theatre that
00:09:12
night could not have unfurled more perfectly if it had been
00:09:16
planned and executed by some invisible hellion.
00:09:20
A puckish trickster, mocking his misfortune at every turn.
00:09:24
That was Friday, September 16, 1938, the day the gods played
00:09:31
their wickedest trip on Edmund Ibbs.
00:09:33
But first: the book.
00:09:37
The morning began, promisingly enough, a rap on the door of his
00:09:40
quarters.
00:09:41
He was lodging in upstairs rooms in Chancery Lane, not far
00:09:45
from the Inns of Court in central London.
00:09:48
Though he had not yet reached his 30th birthday, he'd
00:09:51
completed his legal studies the previous summer and was now a
00:09:55
full-fledged solicitor.
00:09:56
Like all greenhorns, he was the object of his colleagues'
00:10:00
blade-edged wit and frequently found himself lumbered with
00:10:04
heaps of the most tedious paperwork and monotonous
00:10:07
administrative duties.
00:10:08
But he didn't let it bother him .
00:10:10
In fact, he considered it to be a rite of passage.
00:10:13
No doubt they too had gone through it in their time, and
00:10:16
now it was his turn.
00:10:18
At the door was the elderly porter Lancaster; stout and
00:10:23
stolid as a pint of Guinness.
00:10:24
He was holding a parcel.
00:10:27
Morning, Mr Ibbs, sir.
00:10:29
How do, Lancaster?
00:10:31
Got something for me?
00:10:32
Book of some description, sir.
00:10:35
Ibbs took it, feeling its heft on his palm.
00:10:39
He had scarcely said a cheery goodbye and closed the door
00:10:43
again b The scraps drifted lazily to the
00:10:50
floor as he examined the book by the window.
00:10:52
Its embossed title caught the light: The Master of
00:10:57
Manipulation.
00:10:58
He could almost feel the book's talismanic power rippling
00:11:03
through his fingers and up the length of his arms like a
00:11:06
tangible electrical charge.
00:11:08
But it was just a book, he reminded himself.
00:11:11
Mere words on paper.
00:11:13
What he was actually experiencing was an adrenaline
00:11:16
surge, the excitement and anticipation bubbling over.
00:11:20
Ever since he first heard about the Master of Manipulation,
00:11:24
Ibbs knew that he simply had to have a copy.
00:11:27
It was not the sort of item a regular bookseller would stock,
00:11:32
but he had a man in Maryleb one who tracked down the mort outr
00:11:36
titles for him and who had been only too willing to source a
00:11:41
copy the day after it was published.
00:11:45
Mandy Jackson-Beverly: Thank you , Tom.
00:11:46
Tom Mead: My pleasure.
00:11:48
Mandy Jackson-Beverly: OK, so you've set the stage.
00:11:50
You've given us the year, which is this fabulous golden age of
00:11:54
mystery.
00:11:54
You've given us a great introduction to Edmund Ibbs, who
00:11:57
I love, but I'd love to know where he came from, who or what
00:12:03
inspired Edmund Ibbs?
00:12:05
Tom Mead: Yeah, that's a great question.
00:12:07
It's funny how readers have responded to Ibbs as a character
00:12:11
, because to me obviously the main focus is Specter, the
00:12:15
fictional detective.
00:12:16
But it's been a pleasant surprise how people have latched
00:12:19
on to this younger character, this sort of naive, plucky young
00:12:25
hero.
00:12:25
He I suppose, fits that kind of archetype which is there
00:12:31
throughout golden age mystery, this kind of young adventurer
00:12:35
type.
00:12:36
Like me, he's got a love of stage magic.
00:12:39
So there are certainly elements of my own personality and my
00:12:43
own inquisitiveness about things , I think.
00:12:46
But also he's a kind of necessary contrast, if you like,
00:12:54
with Specter as a detective, because Specter is a very kind
00:12:58
of assured presence in the narrative.
00:13:01
So to inject an element of uncertainty and jeopardy into
00:13:07
the plot, I thought it was necessary to have another
00:13:10
character who was central to the story but who was essentially a
00:13:14
novice in this world of impossible crime and
00:13:19
theatricality and deception and mystery.
00:13:23
So he's essentially the lens through which the reader sees
00:13:27
the events unfold, if you like.
00:13:29
Mandy Jackson-Beverly: And you talk about magic.
00:13:31
What is it about stage magic that intrigues you?
00:13:34
Is it the history, the psychology, how the audience is
00:13:38
fooled?
00:13:38
All of the above?
00:13:40
Tom Mead: Yeah, definitely all of the above really.
00:13:42
I mean in terms of the history of magic, I enjoy reading works
00:13:50
about the way that stage illusion has evolved over the
00:13:56
centuries, and I have a particular interest in Victorian
00:14:00
illusionists because that was the era when the real kind of
00:14:05
stage spectacles came into their own.
00:14:07
It's the era when gimmicks like Pepper's Ghost, for example,
00:14:13
became so prevalent in theater and just changed the way that
00:14:21
stage illusion as an art form was perceived by the public, if
00:14:26
you like.
00:14:27
But in terms of the psychology as well, I mean I enjoy reading
00:14:32
about the theory of magic and the way that it is practiced by
00:14:37
professionals.
00:14:38
I mean, I'm not a magician myself, but I am fascinated by
00:14:43
the way that magicians control the perceptions of their
00:14:47
audience, and I think that those principles can be readily
00:14:52
applied to mystery writing as well.
00:14:54
I think there are a lot of crossovers between the two in
00:14:59
principle, because in both instances you're effectively
00:15:04
talking about a lone performer, whether it's the magician or the
00:15:08
mystery writer who is trying to put one over on an audience,
00:15:12
and the methods in both instances are surprisingly
00:15:17
similar.
00:15:17
I would say I also have an interest in the neurological
00:15:21
aspect of it, so I am a huge admirer of the work of Oliver
00:15:28
Sacks, who you probably know was a very great writer but also a
00:15:35
neurologist who wrote very readable pop science works, if
00:15:42
you like, about different brain injuries and the the way that
00:15:49
they affected our perception of the world.
00:15:51
His work is kind of a gateway into that.
00:15:54
That world of which parts of the brain control which aspects
00:15:59
of our perception.
00:16:00
There was a recent book published in, I think, 2010,
00:16:04
called Sleight of Mind, which is a favorite of mine, and it
00:16:10
involves dissecting magic tricks and examining how they work on
00:16:17
the brain of an audience member and examining where the gaps in
00:16:22
our perception are exploited by magicians.
00:16:26
And I think that is so relevant in the process of coming up
00:16:31
with ah, an effective mystery, because you are essentially
00:16:35
placing all the clues in front of the reader but at the same
00:16:39
time you're defying them to spot where the trick lies.
00:16:43
So really it's .
00:16:49
Mandy Jackson-Beverly: And I'll make sure to put the link to the
00:16:51
interview you did with Otto Penzler in the show notes,
00:16:54
because you talk about stage magic and I think that will be
00:16:58
fun for our listeners to hear.
00:17:00
Your books are set in the golden age of mystery pre-World
00:17:03
War II England, and I too love that era, and I enjoyed the
00:17:10
style of your writing, in the language.
00:17:11
In particular, your use of words such as dawdle, and
00:17:16
phrases like, slipped him five bob, and so it begins.
00:17:20
Does this come from your love of reading authors such as
00:17:23
Agatha Christie, Clayton, Rawson, and Ellery Queen, and
00:17:28
does historic language come into your research?
00:17:31
Tom Mead: Absolutely, the terms of phrase and the certain
00:17:35
descriptions that are definitely suggested by my reading of the
00:17:39
classics.
00:17:40
Ah, often it's not an entirely conscious process, it's a kind
00:17:45
of mode of expression that I sort of lapse into because I
00:17:50
read so many books from that period.
00:17:54
It's easily the era that I read the most.
00:17:59
I have got quite a collection of classic murder mystery
00:18:04
novels, and when I'm writing that's the kind of thing that I
00:18:08
will read, just to kind of to try and latch on to the habitual
00:18:13
terms of phrase and the way that ideas and images are
00:18:17
expressed.
00:18:18
In terms of research, I also read things like court reports,
00:18:26
newspaper crime reporting, and the like, which also provides an
00:18:32
interesting kind of bedrock for the way that I express the
00:18:38
narrative and the way that the prose and the sentences are
00:18:42
constructed.
00:18:43
Mandy Jackson-Beverly: And I think it's so important when you
00:18:46
are writing historical fiction to immerse yourself in that time
00:18:50
, because when you, as a writer, infuse your pages with
00:18:55
intricate details about fabric or the feel of fabrics, the
00:18:59
scents and the sounds of that particular era, you can't help
00:19:04
but plunge the reader into your story, into that period.
00:19:09
And, as you said, reading newspapers from that era is a
00:19:13
fantastic way to help you understand the language of that
00:19:17
time.
00:19:18
You did a great job in your book and it really draws the
00:19:22
reader in.
00:19:24
Tom Mead: Thank you, that's very kind of you to say.
00:19:26
It means a lot, because that is something that I take a lot of
00:19:33
time.
00:19:33
It's, ah, it's quite a hoary old line, but writing is an art
00:19:41
but also a craft that comes with practice.
00:19:44
So I'm a big believer in, you know, editing and re-editing and
00:19:49
things like that, and trimming sentences and all that kind of
00:19:55
thing.
00:19:56
And it does fascinate me seeing how the work evolves as I'm
00:20:04
cutting and what have you.
00:20:06
So, thank you.
00:20:08
Mandy Jackson-Beverly: Do you have a favourite part of the
00:20:10
writing process?
00:20:12
Tom Mead: My favourite parts of the writing process are those
00:20:16
that come at the very beginning and those at the very end.
00:20:20
So it's the plotting, the early stages of the plotting, when
00:20:24
you're piecing it together and it's very much like you're
00:20:29
seeing how things slot together.
00:20:30
And then it's the very end, when you're making those final,
00:20:34
final edits and you're seeing a finished work for the first time
00:20:40
.
00:20:40
And there is a moment where you're reading something for the
00:20:48
umpteenth time and you're thinking, yes, this is a
00:20:50
finished piece now and I just love it.
00:20:52
It's great.
00:20:53
Mandy Jackson-Beverly: Yes, it's just fun putting it all
00:20:55
together and seeing how it begins and ends and all the
00:20:58
yummy stuff in the middle, a bit like eating a pie! Kind of in
00:21:01
the same vein as the language, I found that while I was reading
00:21:05
The Murder Wheel, I became sidetracked, looking up
00:21:08
information, and I was surprised to find when fingerprinting was
00:21:12
first used to solve murders.
00:21:14
Do you enjoy the research related to writing historical
00:21:18
fiction and do you research before you begin writing or go
00:21:22
back and forth during the writing process?
00:21:24
Tom Mead: Yeah, that's another great question because there are
00:21:27
different schools of thought on it.
00:21:29
Of course, I am someone who is very much led by the story.
00:21:33
Wr iters that I've spoken to will dive into their research
00:21:41
first and then develop their narrative around that, whereas I
00:21:47
tend to do the inverse.
00:21:48
I'll come up with the story first and my research will fit
00:21:51
around around that.
00:21:52
Um, uh, there's no exact science to it, but for me,
00:22:00
because the locked room mystery is so plot driven, I think it's
00:22:06
important to focus on that in the first instance.
00:22:09
Um, and then uh, I mean, I do have a fascination with real
00:22:15
life unsolved mysteries, and various macabre tidbits here and
00:22:20
there that I have great fun peppering throughout the book.
00:22:23
Um, but a lot of that is secondary to the main drive of
00:22:30
the story, if you like.
00:22:32
Mandy Jackson-Beverly: And Tom, can you share your publishing
00:22:34
story from your first finished manuscript to finding an agent
00:22:37
and landing a publishing deal with The Mysterious Press?
00:22:40
Otto Penzler from The Mysterious Press and The
00:22:43
Mysterious Bookshop was on the show a few months ago and I
00:22:46
admire what he's doing to support the mystery fiction
00:22:49
genre.
00:22:51
Tom Mead: Certainly, yes, it's um, I understand a fairly
00:22:56
unorthodox one from people I've spoken to.
00:22:58
Everything's happened the wrong way around, if you like.
00:23:02
I started off writing short stories, uh, several of which
00:23:07
feature Joseph Spector, my retired magician, turned
00:23:11
detective, and again, they were very much pastiches of the
00:23:17
Golden Age.
00:23:17
They were tributes to the writers that I love and they
00:23:20
were my um, uh, my kind of contribution to the locked room
00:23:25
genre, if you like.
00:23:26
It was me trying to come up with new ideas and new, uh, new
00:23:31
ways of exploring the locked room.
00:23:33
But um, uh, my first book, Death And The Conjurer, uh, and
00:23:40
the, the second one, actually the murder wheel, they were both
00:23:43
written during 2020.
00:23:46
So during the COVID lockdowns, as many people did, I uh, I uh
00:23:51
channeled my energy into uh, into creative projects, um, so
00:23:58
that these were my first attempts at full length novels.
00:24:03
It had always been in my mind to write um, a locked room
00:24:07
mystery novel, because obviously it's what I love to read.
00:24:11
It's again my attempt to kind of contribute something new to
00:24:15
uh, to generate a bit of interest in the genre that I
00:24:19
particularly relate to.
00:24:21
But uh, my my first interaction with Mysterious Press was
00:24:27
actually, um, a short story of mine called Heat Wave, which was
00:24:32
not a locked room mystery.
00:24:34
It was actually a pastiche of Ross McDonald, so it was more of
00:24:39
a noirish type of piece.
00:24:42
Uh, it was published in an anthology here in the UK from an
00:24:48
independent publisher called Flametree Press, and uh, it was
00:24:53
uh selected by Lee Child for his Best Mysteries anthology that
00:24:57
he was editing for Mysterious.
00:24:59
So the first interaction I had with Mysterious was Otto
00:25:03
emailing me to ask if he could uh reproduce that story in um in
00:25:09
the Best Mysteries collection.
00:25:12
Um and uh, I suppose it's a bit ironic because, though I admire
00:25:17
the genre a lot, I don't claim to know a lot about it, or even,
00:25:21
you know, I don't write much in that genre.
00:25:24
Uh, locked rooms have always been my thing.
00:25:26
It was very much a one-off, but it put me in touch with Otto
00:25:30
Penzler, who I know shares my uh particular passion for that uh
00:25:36
puzzle, mystery, the, the Golden Age, the locked rooms.
00:25:40
His multi-author collection that he's edited, the uh The
00:25:45
Black Lizard Book of Locked Room Mysteries is uh one of my
00:25:48
absolute favourites.
00:25:49
It's got everybody in there, all of the greatest locked room
00:25:53
mystery writers.
00:25:54
So having that communication with him, really it just gave me
00:26:00
a bit of a confidence boost, just to email him out of the
00:26:03
blue and say you know, I have written a locked room mystery
00:26:08
novel, would you be interested in reading it?
00:26:11
So I didn't have an agent or anything at that point.
00:26:13
It was very much a case of thinking you know, what have I
00:26:17
got to lose?
00:26:18
All I really expected, if anything, was perhaps some
00:26:22
constructive feedback.
00:26:24
But so you obviously, you can imagine what, what a delight it
00:26:29
was when he was so enthusiastic about that first book and gave
00:26:36
me a two book contract for Mysterious.
00:26:39
But it did mean, of course, that the books come out in
00:26:42
America before the UK and obviously I'm based in the UK.
00:26:46
So it's, like, I say, quite an unorthodox situation with the
00:26:49
book coming out in the US and me seeing photos of people in the
00:26:54
US with the stacks of copies of the book before it's available
00:26:59
here.
00:26:59
And it's interesting and it certainly you know, it takes
00:27:05
some getting used to, but I love it and it's so good that the
00:27:10
book has found publishers on both sides of the Atlantic.
00:27:13
MANDY JACKSON_BEVERLY: And did Otto edit the book for you?
00:27:17
TOM MEAD: He did, yes, he edited the first two books, both Death
00:27:21
And The Conjuror and The Murder Wheel were edited by Otto, and
00:27:25
obviously he's got such a wealth of experience and knowledge and
00:27:29
he knows, he knew, so many of the people you know, people like
00:27:35
Cristiana Brand, who I love as a writer, he knew personally and
00:27:39
things like that.
00:27:41
Mandy Jackson-Beverly: It sounds like you're both the perfect
00:27:42
fit.
00:27:43
When we were talking earlier, before the interview started, I
00:27:46
did tell you how much I love your covers, and I do want to
00:27:50
say that again on air.
00:27:51
They are fabulous.
00:27:53
Now, before we go, I have one last question.
00:27:55
What are you reading?
00:27:57
Tom Mead: Well, I'm actually on a short story kick at the moment
00:28:00
.
00:28:00
I'm dipping into various things .
00:28:02
I'm rereading Borges Ficciones and I'm reading Edward D Hoch,
00:28:10
the collection Funeral in the Fog, which is published by
00:28:13
Crippen and Landru.
00:28:14
So it's a collection of stories with his, with his sleuth,
00:28:19
Simon Ark, who was a big influence on the
00:28:23
characterisation of Joseph Spector in the early days, in
00:28:27
the way that he kind of, he seems to materialise almost
00:28:31
supernaturally.
00:28:32
You know he's, he's got a certain mystique about him.
00:28:35
Another example would be Agatha Christie's, Mysterious Mr Quinn
00:28:40
.
00:28:40
And alongside those I'm reading Robert van Gulik, the, the
00:28:50
Dutch author, and his collection Judge Dee at Work.
00:28:55
They are set in in ancient China, but they are murder
00:29:01
mysteries in the golden age of Tang.
00:29:03
Mandy Jackson-Beverly: Well they all sound fascinating, thank
00:29:05
you.
00:29:05
Tom, I wish you all the best of luck with The the Murder Wheel,
00:29:09
and it's been lovely chatting with you, thank Thank you.
00:29:12
Tom Mead: My pleasure.
00:29:13
Thank you so much for having me, Mandy.
00:29:14
Lovely to talk to you.
00:29:17
Mandy Jackson-Beverly: You've been listening to my
00:29:18
conversation with Tom Mead about his new novel, The Murder Wheel
00:29:22
.
00:29:22
To find out more about the bookshop podcast, go to the
00:29:25
bookshoppodcast.
00:29:25
com and make sure to subscribe and leave a review wherever you
00:29:31
listen to the show.
00:29:32
You can also follow me at Mandy Jackson Beverly on Twitter,
00:29:36
instagram and Facebook and on YouTube at the bookshop podcast.
00:29:41
If you have a favourite indie bookshop that you'd like to
00:29:44
suggest we have on the podcast, I'd love to hear from you via
00:29:48
the contact form at the bookshoppodcast.
00:29:49
com.
00:29:51
The Bookshop Podcast is written and produced by me, Mandy
00:29:55
Jackson Beverly, theme music provided by Brian Beverly,
00:29:59
executive assistant to Mandy, Adrienne Odtohan, and graphic
00:30:03
design by Francis Farala.
00:30:04
Thanks for listening and I'll see you next time.
