Do my favourite detective writer's methods hold up?

 This article contains POTENTIAL OR ACTUAL MASSIVE SPOILERS for the novels of Dorothy L. Sayers. Also, shameless plug for my latest novel The Murderer's Lament, a sci-fi murder mystery inspired by Sayers among others.

The Murderer's Lament is out on the 29th of this month, and I'm still in the mindset of thinking about detective stories, which I used as heavy inspiration for this book. One of my favourite writers in the medium is Dorothy L. Sayers, who between 1920 and 1937 wrote stories about the aristocratic detective Lord Peter Wimsey (with a posthumous short story trilogy in 1972). Is she perfect? No, not only because she was a British white woman writing in the interwar period, but because...her murder methods don't always hold up.

I've already done an entire article talking about my journey researching the now-debunked "Status Lymphaticus" as used by Margery Allingham in 1937's Dancers in Mourning. And while I love Sayers dearly for her characters and prose and aspects of her mystery crafting, I know that her murder methods are not being informed by in-depth medical knowledge. This is in contrast with Agatha Christie, who was a trained nurse and knew about poisons, along with doing copious research.

So I'll go down through most of her major works, and see which still hold up and which are just stories to enjoy rather than for a scientifically-compelling mystery. I'll be skipping over some stories like Whose Body? and Five Red Herrings because they're very analogue murder methods, things like getting bashed with a blunt instrument. I'm focusing on the stuff that gets unusual. Going by release order:

*Unnatural Death: One of my favourite stories, but also one that comes under the most fire. In this story, there is a lot of obfuscation, since all the victims seem to die from natural causes. But ultimately, the murder method is an artifically-induced air embolism in a major artery which causes heart failure. While sort of plausible (and I remember a version of this being used in an early NCIS episode), using a syringe to produce this effect has been ruled out as impossible. But it must be noted that there are modern documented cases of accidental air embolisms causing cardiac issues, it's just her described method wouldn't work.

*Strong Poison: So...this one really genuinely doesn't hold up, just saying that right now. The victim falls fatally ill from arsenic poisoning after taking a meal in one house and coffee in another. The meal has surviving elements from all parts except a jam omelette, and the other eater wasn't ill. Turns out, that other diner was immunising himself with small arsenic doses so an otherwise fatal dose didn't matter, aka "mithridatism". This has been categorically proven as impossible, as even in small amounts arsenic would cause health complications over a length of time. While it can work with some toxins, with a heavy metal poison like arsenic, it's a bust.

*Documents in the Case: This is a novel I've already written about, and it was one Sayers co-wrote with Robert Eustace, who in real-life was a doctor. The key point in the story is the difference between natural and artificial muscarine in terms of their chemical structure. The polariscope had only been invented within the last couple of years of the novel's publication, and takes centre stage in a mystery that Sayers wanted to balance scientific advancement with her own theological background. I believe there has been some recent doubt cast on the viability here, but it's still one of the most scientifically sound out of the Lord Peter series.

*Have His Carcass: This is an aspect of the murder that does hold up. The victim's time of death combined with various alibis causes endless headaches. Turns out, in one of the first major fictional uses of this conceit, the victim is a sufferer from either moderate or severe haemophilia, which to greatly simplify is a hereditary condition which in this case means the blood can barely clot, which here is accompanied by other physical symptoms. This holds up, as here it seems like Sayers really did her research about symptoms, severity, and impact on long-term physical health.

*The Nine Tailors: This one is a little odd, because...technically it isn't the most outlandish. A man dies while trapped in a snow-choked belfry during a nine hour bell peal during the New Year. The very, very, very end of the book has Lord Peter realising that the bells are the murderers in a sense, after his own near-death experience with the cacophonous bell sounds. The issue here is that bell sounds alone wouldn't have done that, but the novel covers itself with the additional dialogue: "I don't know what of exactly. Stroke, apoplexy, shock, anything you like." I've had my own unintended experience being right next to a belfry when bells rang, and it does go through you, but I doubt I'd get much worse than tinnitus unless one of the bells actually hit me. If the bells did cause death in this book, it was by triggering off a pre-existing condition.

*Honourable Mentions: The short stories collected in Lord Peter Views the Body and Hangman's Holiday. Not all the more outlandish elements are specifically related to murder, but I thought they were worth mentioning. These include a Sheffield-plated corpse (which was almost a thing and got patented in the USA as part of the funeral industry, but thankfully never actually happened because of inevitable unsightliness of certain parts), a situs invertus twin with some rather unrealistic shenanigans attached, and a woman coming under a doctor's coercive control due to her hypothyroidism.

 

This was a lot of fun to go through. If you'd like some murder methods where real work was put in for them to work in style, timing and symptoms, then The Murderer's Lament is available for pre-order now in hardcover, and the ebook shall be released on September 29 alongside the hardcover. The paperback edition will be releasing in March 2027.

What would the Cluster Cycle have on TV Tropes?

 So...since The Murderer's Lament is releasing in under ten days on September 29, I choose to do something very silly. There's a website called TV Tropes, which lists pieces of fiction with their associated tropes. It's just funny, and I find browsing through it an occasional fun distraction. So I've decided to take TV Tropes by the scuff of the neck and see what tropes I can find that roughly correlate to the three published Cluster Cycle books (links to them here). Let's get started with the page "Queer as Tropes" and see what there is present with a little spoiling as possible.

*"Speculative Fiction LGBT": Obviously! It's sci-fi and literally thousands of lightyears from Earth. Our Victorian stuffiness has pretty much died the death apart from a few weird holdouts.

*"Non-Heteronormative Society": See above.

*"Family of Choice": Not exclusive to queer contexts, but "Lost Station Circé" definitely has a crew as found family. Including squabbles.

*"Preserve Your Gays": Yes, I proudly announce that while there is a lot of death in these books one way or another, the vast majority of the LGBTQIA+ characters featured survive to the end without undue injury or trauma. Not all, apologies, but the vast majority.

*"Manly Gay" and/or "Straight Gay": Multiple. It's a preference, I admit.

*"Bisexual Love Triangle": No spoilers, but it gets messy.

*"Word of Gay": Yes, one of the characters isn't explicitly gay, but I always thought of him as such. But maybe there is some hint there, I don't know.

*I must admit there is "Seme" and "Uke", with a dash of "Depraved Homosexual" for a truly despicable character in Starborn Vendetta.

Now for some of the more general sci-fi tropes. These are much broader, so I've needed to be selective. But also, a writer is never the best judge of what tropes are in their work because they're not usually very aware or what they're putting in. Also tropes are extremely flexible and some would argue not worth considering. But this is my article, so here goes!

*"Melting Pot Sci-fi Setting": The entire series is this, changing from the high society and elite to the scientific bodies to the average working class.

*"Fish People": Say hello to the Kavki! Although they're more amphibian.

*"Intelligent Gerbil": The Feles and Ekri, but it's incredibly insulting to insinuate the resemblance to their face.

*"Mechanical Lifeforms": Enjoy Livesey, a main character of Lost Station Circé.

*"Ultraterrestrials": Humans count as this, it's a running undercurrent within the pentalogy.

*"An Alien Named Bob": Us poor humans need something else to call our new alien colleagues.

*"Phlebotinum": This isn't hard sci-fi, despite wanting to be at least a little sound. There's gonna be a lot of this here and there.

*"Casual Interstellar Travel": Er...not too casual, but it's definitely a little handwaved. Warp travel. I needed to get characters places in days or weeks rather than centuries.

*"Klingons Love Shakespeare": Cross-cultural exchange happens.

*"Humans through Alien Eyes": Most of The Murderer's Lament is told from the perspective of either an Ekri or a Kavki, so humans are very much the aliens in most instances.

*"We Come In Pease - Shoot to Kill": The implied first contact issue that either kinda happened or almost happened in the Cluster's history.

*"Blue and Orange Morality": There are some plot points in both Starborn Vendetta and The Murderer's Lament focusing on this kind of cultural oddness. Humans included.

*"Animalistic Abomination": Yeah, read Lost Station Circé to find out more!

*"Space Isolation Horror": Again, see above.

*"The Virus": Maybe I should collab with Gareth Powell...

*"Alien Princess": You'll need to read Starborn Vendetta to get this one.

 

If you want some extra silliness related to the original date announcement, here's my video that I released that at the beginning of this month.  It's gonna be a crazy time for me over the next two months. A book release, the next stage of my Open University degree, and...of course...BristolCon 2026. Enjoy!

Now on Author Talks: An Announcement...and a ranking

 It's time! I'm doing this early because this needs reporting and repeating. This is the video version of the grand announcement! The Murderer's Lament, coming September 2026.

Also included is a brainworm of mine that wouldn't go away until I got it out there. You know Ian Fleming's Bond books? Almost all of them have aged like milk in a hothouse. But since I ended up reading them one way or another, I decided that I'd rank them. If you like someone ripping into an author and their work, this is the video for you!

Cover Reveal: The Murderer's Lament

 It's here! At last! Well on track for a release next month in September 2026 from Roan & Weatherford, 'The Murderer's Lament' is the third entry in the Cluster Cycle series, my debut project. Below is the cover art designed by Casey Cowen.

Inspired by the political turmoil of the late 2010s to early 2020s, and still frighteningly relevant today, I'm super thrilled that this book is finally approaching its release after long delays. Here for you now is the blurb you'll find on the hardcover dust jacket next month!

"JUSTICE HAS NEVER BEEN MORE DANGEROUS.

The Cluster's Synod is preparing to decide whether humanity will be welcomed into its ranks. To some, the vote promises a new era of unity. For others, it represents an existential threat that must be stopped at all costs.

Sedna has spent her life as an assassin. Now, as an investigator, she is invited to the estate of Sienyd, a former client whose vote could determine humanity's fate. She expects political manoeuvring and bitter rivalries. What she doesn't expect is murder.

Sienyd knows someone wants him dead. Before long, his fears become reality, leaving Sedna with a final request -- uncover the truth and bring his killer to justice. To solve the crime, Sedna must join forces with Ajax, a Kavki Synod Enforcer. Together, they discover every guest has a secret, every alliance conceals a hidden agenda, and anyone could be the killer.

As the Synod vote draws closer, Sedna and Ajax must unravel a conspiracy before the killer strikes again. Because the truth behind the murders could determine not only who controls the Cluster, but whether humanity has a future within it.

The gripping third entry in Thomas Wrightson's Cluster CYcle delivers a heady cocktail of science fiction, mystery and political intrigue -- where betrayal is universal and justice comes at a deadly price."

The Murderer's Lament is scheduled for release in September 2026. Find a sample of what's to come in this episode of my podcast.

An Author's perspective on an Eclipse

 On 12 August 2026, something happened. A total solar eclipse passed over the region of Europe for the first time since 1999, and the majority of the UK were within the range of its near-complete coverage. Totality wasn't visible from here, only from the Atlantic and later from Spain. And I decided I would pay active attention to what was going on, since I really didn't in 1999.

Also, speaking of eclipses in 1999, you may want to check out my radio play The Angry House which is set during the week leading up to it.

I'd seen people talking about eclipses, but this was the first time I'd be paying full attention to its clear and visible effects. Needless to say, my writer's brain was taking feverish notes during the whole process. There is something special about being present for this kind of event, an astronomical (literally) event that shows both the speed of the universe and the impact it can have on the environment, and on one's self. Red of Overly Sarcastic Productions has gone into far greater detail about eclipses with her videos on two total solar eclipses that happened in North America in 2023 and 2024.

If there's one thing that really hits home when looking at the effects of even a partial eclipse, it's how the light and warmth are impacted. Genuinely, on a day where a heat wave was gripping the UK, the drop in temperature was palpable. And while the light was fairly normal at around 18:45, by 19:00 things looked dimmer. At the height of the eclipse, the light level was roughly equivalent to an autumnal sunset.

And more than that, the birds were going nuts. That's something which caught me off guard. As the light dimmed, the birds started behaving as if it were one or two hours later than it was in terms of light levels. The eclipse, even if it wasn't total, was throwing off the habits of animals which were guided by light levels. It was unsettling on a deep level, as I knew that this strange behaviour had a reason that was far beyond our control. It was a movement of our satellite to pass across the Sun. The shadows were also acting strangely by comparison, all with fuzzy outlines and low definition compared to the stark lines that I'd been seeing throughout most of the hot, sunny, practically cloudless day.

I didn't see the disc through eclipse glasses, but instead through a home-rigged system: two bits of paper with a pin-hole through one of them. It was quite something to see the disc of the sun with the moon's shadow creeping across it. I did end up catching a momentary glimpse of the eclipse itself by accident, when I was turning round and got into the sun's path. And my eyes had the split second impression of the moon's shadow passing over it. It was a fascinating thing to see in person, and it's brought me up close and personal to an aspect of why eclipses were so significant.

Just throw yourself back, if you can, into the mind of someone who doesn't fully grasp the mechanics of an eclipse yet, even though the rough outlines of how eclipses work was essentially sussed out in Aryabhata in the 5th Century CE.

Suppose that someone, either the average person or someone who just hasn't studied that aspect of the sky, haven't even sussed about the nature of the moon and the sun, certainly not from our modern perspective. In that instance, the moon has disrupted the normal flow of day and night. The light dims and changes to become a sunset orange which alters how our eyes perceive the colours around us, the sun's warmth diminishes, animals are behaving oddly, the shadows taking on a shifting perspective at their edges.

Such a thing would be magical, frightening, perhaps momentous. Eclipses as special events or even ceremonial occasions are nothing new. They were seen as mythological battles, portents of great change, messages from a deity or deities. While lunar eclipses -- aka "Blood Moons" -- are very frequent and delightfully spooky, a solar eclipse feels like it has some real weight behind it. A sense of enormity and significance that in those moments on 12 August made me feel small. It put things into perspective, as the UK was cast into partial shadow by something that was happening hundreds of thousands of miles above us.

I've had a similar feeling of wonder before. During a trip out to an event in the mountains, it was a beautifully clear night and there was a telescope set up. I was able to see Jupiter and its moons, the rings of Saturn, and even faintly Uranus and Neptune before the Moon rose and blotted out all but the brighter stars in the sky. But this was different, it felt more tangible. The other planets are much further away, much less tangible to me. It's that feeling of immediacy that I had during the Eclipse which is precious. Those twenty or so minutes during which the world darkened, the heat lessened, and the birds went wild.

That's the stuff history remembers. That's the stuff stories are made of.

Now on Author Talks: The Novelisation

 

Another month, another Author Talks episode. This time, I go on for roughly twenty minutes on the subject of the novelisation. After listening to a novelisation of a Paul Temple serial and becoming interested in how it both matched and deviated, I decided to actually dig into it. Here's to novelisations, perhaps the most underappreciated example of the literary art; turning the story of one medium into another.

YouTube link

Spotify link

My Anime Life: Kusunoki's Garden of Gods

 Slice of life comedy is something I sometimes don't have much connection to, mostly because many of them haven't been that compelling, especially in the anime space. I adore (most of) Azumanga Daioh, but others like Nichijou and Lucky Star leave me cold. But I recently watched a new series that is essentially a fantasy slice of life.

Kusonoki's Garden of Gods is a 2026 anime produced by Juvenage, and based on the light novel series by Enju. It follows Minato Kusunoki, a young man with overwhelming levels of spiritual energy and a latent talent for dispelling kegare, as he is put in charge of a former family residence. Since he also accidentally purifies a shrine belonging to the local kami Yamagami, the wolf kami comes to live with him. As to a procession of kami and sacred beasts and yokai. Gentle hilarity ensues.

From what I've gathered, the anime is based on the first four volumes of the original light novel series, and cuts or condenses a lot of stuff. I think? It is apparently a good adaptation of the source overall, but oh boy is this anime lean compared to the light novels. But as someone who generally doesn't do light novels (though that may change), the anime was a fairly nice watch.

What so I need to say? It's a slice of life fantasy, something I haven't encountered that often, and it's generally a great comfort watch. The anime does fall into the trap of having so many secondary characters that it becomes cluttered, but I think this is more due to how few episodes there are per volume adapted. Having read samples of the ongoing English translation, there's a tone of breathing room and nuance, plus a number of funny bits that don't make it in, like a full-sized and invisible Yamagami riding in a taxi and badly crowding Minato.. Also I have no idea as yet whether the more actiony parts of the anime come from the light novel, but I'm gently leaning towards...perhaps, but the anime probably overblew them.

The make-or-break point for these kinds of stories is the core cast, here limited to two: Minato and Yamagami. Their chemistry is great, as Minato is basically dumped into being caretaker for a kami who is one of the pickiest eaters in the region and has a rivalry with the neighbouring kitsune kami. They seem to get on with each other at an instinctively level, almost like they're soul mates. Though something that isn't communicated that well in the anime is how lazy Yamagami is, something summed up perfectly in the light novel line: "That slothful wolf, who hardly ever moved from its favourite cushion, truly was a troublesome kami."

So, just like my last anime life, this is something that was a pleasant surprise. An example of a genre I typically don't vibe with, but that managed to click with its character chemistry and lore inspired by Japanese Shinto traditions. It's also got very entertaining performances by the actors, better-than-expected animation, and enjoyable music. Worth a watch? I'd say so. Read the book? Certainly from what I've read, just don't expect them to be one to one. Something I'm learning these days is that adaptations seem to share a similar property between east and west: with a few exceptions, a lot of creative liberties are taken.