Afoot

There’s something fishy about the murder in this episode. Novelist W. M. Akers joins us to talk about Murder Under Glass, an episode from the final season of the original NBC run of Columbo featuring Louis Jourdan as a food critic and, of course, a murderer. It is maybe not the most perfect episode, but well worth a visit for the variations on the formula—people are actually happy to see the good Lieutenant for once, and he gets to show off some serious culinary skills. We also get to talking about Will’s own mystery novels. Somehow, we wind up talking about Mack Bolan, the Executioner, of all things. And role playing games. And baseball. Oh, and there’s a little touch of film noir right at the start… Just one more episode, sir... David J. Loehr with W. M. Akers

As podcasters and fans of podcasts—as well as good murder mysteries—we’ve convened a panel to talk about Only Murders in the Building, the new Hulu series starring Steve Martin, Martin Short, and Selena Gomez, created by Steve Martin and John Hoffman. Yes, there are spoilers, so go watch the series first, trust us. Then come back and listen to us talk about murders, cats, sex toys, animations, El Paso, generation gaps, and dips. As you do. And remember, he’s 76 years old! That takes the slapstick in a whole new direction. Only Podcasters in the Podcast David J. Loehr with Annette Wierstra, Antony Johnston and Kelly Guimont Show Notes & Links Only Murders in the Building on Hulu El Paso by Marty Robbins

Yes, it’s April 1, but this isn’t a joke, Afoot is back from the grave as it were. And that question doesn’t refer to Glenn—or does it?—but to Lt. Columbo, one of the rare television characters to become as iconic as Holmes, Poirot, Miss Marple, et al, and almost instantly from his first appearance. Or, well, Peter Falk’s first appearance. Because he wasn’t the first actor to portray the good lieutenant… The UCLA Film and TV Archive presented a special stream of an episode of The Chevy Mystery Show, a 13 episode summer replacement series from 1960. The title? Enough Rope, written by Richard Levinson and William Link, originally aired July 31, 1960. It is the story they would later expand into a stage play, then a tv movie titled Prescription: Murder. The rest is mystery. History. One of those. Lt. Columbo, but not that one... David J. Loehr with Jean MacDonald and James Dempsey

We’ve all started reading down mystery series or authors, and then hit a point where we said, “nah, I’m good.” In this episode, we talk about what we gave up on and why, and some we loved all throughout. This comes from a place of love: we enjoyed early installments enough that we kept reading, but something eventually got lost for us. In fact, we often recommend the first few or even several novels, and tell you when the best point to stop is — the subtitle of this episode is “exactly when to stop reading.” An important note: this episode was accidentally recorded with macabre timing. The first author we discuss on this show, Sue Grafton, passed away while we were recording the episode — that same evening. We obviously didn’t know while recording, and found out the next morning. Thus, we speak about her as a current writer. We’ve edited the episode to remove some discussion about the planned final novel in her series, Z, which her family says wasn’t written and which they won’t hire someone else to write. Some Afoot news: we haven’t been able to get enough panelists together for regular tapings, so we’re going on hiatus. We will produce episodes occasionally in the future. Mystery series we initially enjoyed and then gave up on Glenn Fleishman with James Callan, Katie Lane, David J. Loehr and Shannon Sudderth Show Notes & Links Authors we discussed: Sue Grafton and her Kinsey Millhone series (several of us): some stopped at E, others at L Jacqueline Winspear’s Maisie Dobbs (Katie) Spencer novels: David found that they continued good through Robert Parker’s whole run, and through the subsequent author, Ace Atkins Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe: Glenn notes they’re readable and solid until just the last couple Ann Perry: Charlotte and Thomas Pitt (Shannon) through about book 20 Michael Connelly’s Harry Bosch (James) about 11th or 12th book Stieg Larsson’s Millennium Trilogy Lawrence Block’s Matthew Scudder (Glenn) Martha Grimes’s Richard Jury (Shannon, David) when he moves to America (Shannon) or until about the 5th or 6th (David) Laurie R. King’s Mary Russell series (Glenn), who still likes it, but stopped reading a few novels ago and hasn’t yet completed it Kate Ross’s Julian Kestral (Shannon); Ross died young, so there are only a handful of novels Dick Francis (Glenn, Shannon): retroactively, Glenn found it irritating that all the novels were nearly all one-offs Tony Hillerman: David notes when he teamed up his two characters it becomes more formulaiac, but then they get good again; his daughter has taken over, and they’re quite good Lilian Jackson Braun’s The Cat Who… series (Shannon) after book 24 James Lee Burke’s Dave Robicheaux (David) until the 4th or 5th Jonathan Kellerman’s Alex Delaware (David), good for the first few James Bond (several of us): they don’t change the character enough, says James

Forty years ago, Neil Simon wrote a pair of parodies in the mystery vein: the 1976 film Murder By Death, which sent up the great movie detectives, and The Cheap Detective in 1978, which took on hard-boiled Bogart characters, like Sam Spade. The two films have a lot in common, including Robert Moore as director, Peter Falk as the Bogie analog, and Madeline Kahn in a wonderful supporting role in each. But the Afoot panel prefers one to the other. Which one? You’ll have to listen to find out. We have spoiler-free parts of this podcast for each film, so if you just want our overview without any giveaways — hey, they’re parodies, but they’re still mysteries — use the chapter markers in your podcast app or these timestamps: 14:03: We start in on Murder By Death spoilers. 38:59: We blow the unspoiler horn to start talking about The Cheap Detective, spoiler-free. 46:22: Once more, the horn, and we get into the details of The Cheap Detective. Murder By Death and The Cheap Detective Glenn Fleishman with David J. Loehr, Erika Ensign, John McCoy and Suzi Steffen Show Notes & Links I recommend renting at YouTube, which costs less or has longer watching periods for rentals. These two films are $2.99, a 30-day rental, and 48 hours to watch once you start. Murder by Death, The Cheap Detective