The Case of the Christie Conspiracy

De: Kelly Oliver

Narrado por: Penelope Rawlins

Discover the delightfully gripping new historical mystery series that's perfect for fans of Helena Dixon, Verity Bright and T E Kinsey.

'If you thought the Golden Age of crime was dead, think again!' Verity Bright

Agatha Christie is about to embark on a new, gripping murder case. But this time, she’s not the author – she’s a suspect…

1926 – Christie is a darling of the literary circuit and the most desired guest in London’s glittering social scene. She can often be found at meetings of the Detection Club – where mystery writers come together to share ideas, swap secrets and drink copiously. But then a fellow author's initiation ceremony takes a gruesome turn, and one of the group ends up dead. Now, Agatha is no longer just the creator of great mystery plots – she’s a player in one.

And when Agatha disappears the day after the murder, she’s widely assumed to be guilty. Only Eliza Baker, assistant to the Club’s enigmatic secretary, Dorothy Sayers, is interested in investigating the case. But in a world where murder is the ultimate plot device, can Eliza piece together the evidence and find the killer before it’s too late?

©2025 Kelly Oliver (P)2025 Boldwood Books

KELLY OLIVER DID NOT DISAPPOINT IN THIS NEW SERIES!!

I've loved Kelly's Fiona Figg and Kitty Lane series of mystery and intrigue. This first book of The Detection Club falls in line with a lead character and sidekick to find the clues and make a case. This mystery was fascinating and complicated to solve. In the end it made sense. 😀

Interesting Beginning

As a huge fan of Golden Age mysteries and mystery writers, I’ve read not only the fiction by Detection Club members but biographies about them and “The Golden Age of Murder” by Martin Edwards and SO listening to this was a little treat.

First, my thoughts on the primary character, Eliza: we know she’s traumatized, but she also codes on the spectrum. I have no idea if that was the author’s intent, but there’s much that can be explored here and I hope it is. There’s a fantastic chance to establish a bright, traumatized, neurodiverse detective after Emily Brennan’s (“Bones”) own heart.

I was slightly put off by her continual snarky attitude toward detective writers and mystery fiction. It doesn’t soften that much through the book and many of the writers come across as virtually buffoonish, which is ironic considering that Eliza herself is literally a fictional character inside a detective novel. At least by the end she demonstrated some growing awareness of the writers as humans and not cartoons. I hope that as the series continues, that perception flourishes.

Outside of these thoughts, the resolution for the mystery was tidy and perfect.

I am only left with hopes for the series, hopes that include appearances by Margery Allingham, Baroness Orczy, Ngaio Marsh and Georgette Heyer (her own brand of special who turned down the Detection Club).

My hopes also include a slow establishment of mutual trust between the two main characters and a romance that continually moves forward and is not stopped by some sort of misunderstanding or Deus ex machina each book, which annoys the heck out of me.

Here’s to a great beginning! May each book be better than the last!