Author Archives: bina007

In this minipod, Bina007 discusses a 1959 Agatha Christie that combines elements of political thriller and a boarding school-set murder-mystery. Hercule Poirot makes an appearance in the last third of the novel but it is most memorable for its vibrant female characters. It features some of Agatha’s most charismatic female characters and her first mention of push-up bras!

Spoiler free to 20m15s.

[MP3] Download or play this episode directly
[Archive]View this episode’s page on Archive.org
[Discord] Join the VOK community
[iTunes] Subscribe to us on iTunes
[Stitcher] Subscribe to us on Stitcher
[RSS] Podcast Feed

In this minipod, Bina007 covers the 1958 murder-mystery that takes place in an unhappy family of adopted children. A year prior, one of the sons, Jacko had been successfully prosecuted for murdering their mother. Now a stranger returns from a Polar expedition to give Jacko an alibi, putting the other family members back under suspicion.

Spoiler free to 20m45s.

[MP3] Download or play this episode directly
[Archive]View this episode’s page on Archive.org
[Discord] Join the VOK community
[iTunes] Subscribe to us on iTunes
[Stitcher] Subscribe to us on Stitcher
[RSS] Podcast Feed

In this minipod, Bina007 covers the 1957 Miss Marple murder-mystery set amidst an unhappy family in a country house. Miss Marple’s friend is convinced she saw a woman strangled to death as two trains passed by each other.

Spoiler free to 20m45s.

[MP3] Download or play this episode directly
[Archive]View this episode’s page on Archive.org
[Discord] Join the VOK community
[iTunes] Subscribe to us on iTunes
[Stitcher] Subscribe to us on Stitcher
[RSS] Podcast Feed

In this minipod, Bina007 discusses the 1954 Cold War thriller. Bina argues that this novel is unfairly overlooked and speaks to the news stories and neuroses of the time – namely the perils of the Atomic Age, Cold war competition, communist infiltration and the treason of scientists such as Klaus Fuchs.

[MP3] Download or play this episode directly
[Archive]View this episode’s page on Archive.org
[Discord] Join the VOK community
[iTunes] Subscribe to us on iTunes
[Stitcher] Subscribe to us on Stitcher
[RSS] Podcast Feed

In this minipod, Bina007 discusses the 1953 Miss Marple nursery-rhyme themed murder-mystery. City financier Rex Fortescue if poisoned with taxine and rye grain is found in his pocket, just as his Prodigal Son returns from Africa.

Spoiler-free to 24m15s; spoiler-filled thereafter.

[MP3] Download or play this episode directly
[Archive]View this episode’s page on Archive.org
[Discord] Join the VOK community
[iTunes] Subscribe to us on iTunes
[Stitcher] Subscribe to us on Stitcher
[RSS] Podcast Feed

In this minipod, Bina007 discusses the Hercules Poirot murder-mystery that once again focuses on the potential inheritors of a dead man’s fortune. At the funeral or Richard Abernethie, his long-lost sister Cora alleges that he has been murdered. The rest of his family are incredulous, until she is found dead the next day.

Spoiler-free to 20m; spoiler-filled thereafter.

[MP3] Download or play this episode directly
[Archive]View this episode’s page on Archive.org
[Discord] Join the VOK community
[iTunes] Subscribe to us on iTunes
[Stitcher] Subscribe to us on Stitcher
[RSS] Podcast Feed

In this minipod, Bina007 discusses the 1952 Miss Marple murder mystery set in a country house that also houses a reform school for petty criminals. Miss Marple’s childhood friend Ruth Van Rydock is worried that something sinister is happening at Carrie Louise’s country house and sends Miss Marple to investigate.

Spoiler-free to 23m; spoiler-filled thereafter.

[MP3] Download or play this episode directly
[Archive]View this episode’s page on Archive.org
[Discord] Join the VOK community
[iTunes] Subscribe to us on iTunes
[Stitcher] Subscribe to us on Stitcher
[RSS] Podcast Feed

In this minipod, Bina007 discusses the Hercules Poirot murder-mystery that – shockingly – focuses on a working-class victim! Mrs McGinty was apparently bludgeoned by her tenant for her small stash of savings, and he is about to be hung for the murder. But this doesn’t sit well with the police officer in charge, who calls in Poirot to go back over the case….

Spoiler-free to 24m; spoiler-filled thereafter.

[MP3] Download or play this episode directly
[Archive]View this episode’s page on Archive.org
[Discord] Join the VOK community
[iTunes] Subscribe to us on iTunes
[Stitcher] Subscribe to us on Stitcher
[RSS] Podcast Feed

In this minipod, Bina007 discusses the Cold War thriller, They Came To Baghdad. A peace summit is to be held, with the US President and Stalin in attendance. Carmichael – a Kim figure – is going to deliver proof that an evil fifth column is working against both sides to cause global anarchy. But he dies in the room of plucky heroine Victoria Jones with three final words – Lucifer, Basrah, Lefarge. What can this all mean?

Spoiler-free to 25m45s; spoiler-filled thereafter.

[MP3] Download or play this episode directly
[Archive]View this episode’s page on Archive.org
[Discord] Join the VOK community
[iTunes] Subscribe to us on iTunes
[Stitcher] Subscribe to us on Stitcher
[RSS] Podcast Feed

In this minopod, Bina007 discusses the Miss Marple murder-mystery set in the village of Chipping Cleghorn. An advert is placed in a local newspaper announcing a murder that evening in the house of Miss Letitia Blacklock, much to her surprise! Read this novel for the sensitive depiction of lesbian romance, and the fascinating depiction of a disrupted post-war England, but not for the over complex plotting or indeed the problematic depiction of the refugee, Mitzi.

Spoiler-free to 25m; spoiler-filled thereafter.

[MP3] Download or play this episode directly
[Archive]View this episode’s page on Archive.org
[Discord] Join the VOK community
[iTunes] Subscribe to us on iTunes
[Stitcher] Subscribe to us on Stitcher
[RSS] Podcast Feed