Shedunnit

Caroline Crampton turned her obsession with Golden Age detective fiction into one of the most well-researched literary podcasts around. Shedunnit explores the world of classic mystery writing -- Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers, Ngaio Marsh, and their contemporaries -- but through a lens that goes far beyond whodunit plot summaries. Each episode picks a specific angle. One might examine how divorce law shaped mystery plots in the 1920s. Another looks at the role of servants in country house murders. A third traces the history of forensic science through detective fiction. Crampton is a journalist by training, and it shows -- the research is meticulous, the storytelling is tight, and episodes run a focused 25 to 55 minutes. She also hosts a Green Penguin Book Club series where she reads through specific novels with guest experts, which adds a communal reading dimension. The show has 196 episodes and an impressive 4.9 rating from over 700 reviews on Apple Podcasts. Listeners consistently praise how Crampton reveals unexpected connections between detective fiction and social history. The biweekly release schedule gives you time to actually read the books being discussed, which is a nice touch. Even if you have never picked up a Golden Age mystery, Shedunnit makes the genre feel vital and surprisingly relevant to understanding how society worked (and sometimes failed to work) in the early twentieth century.