Crafting a Whodunnit for Our Time: Guest post by Jonathan Santlofer

I grew up on Edgar Allan Poe, the Hardy Boys, Agatha Christie, Patricia Highsmith, and comic books. In between, I read a few adventure stories, The Three Musketeers, Robinson Crusoe (though it’s possible I read the latter in a Classic Comic version and only think I read the book). Reading was difficult for me, so I concentrated on what I considered my only gift: art. Though a poor student, I could draw anything, and that got me into art school where I learned I had slight dyslexia and after a year-long series of exercises, became a voracious reader making up for lost time.
 
When I started writing my first novel—after a successful career as a painter, sidetracked by a fire that destroyed 10 years of my artwork—I chose to write a semi-autobiographical novel (auto-fiction in today’s literary lingo). It was about a mid-career artist who had lost all his work and was professionally and emotionally adrift. Sound familiar?
 
At the time, I was living at the American Academy in Rome where I had a large airy studio with a spectacular view overlooking the eternal city. The only problem was I couldn’t paint; the fire and the loss had left me in doubt, questioning why I had become an artist in the first place. 
 
It was a difficult time, but Rome was glorious, the perfect city in which to be depressed. Every morning, after coffee and a cornetto (a sweet, crescent-shaped pastry that looks like a croissant only denser and sweeter and filled with crema or albicocca, apricot jam), I’d find a church and make exact replications of the interiors and the artwork, eventually filling several sketchbooks. (Little did I know I was in training to later become a legal art forger, but that’s another story). 
 
When I got home to NY and reread the 200 or so pages I had written, I couldn’t stand the main character, a 40-something artist, whiney and entitled. So, I killed him. Instant catharsis. That’s how I found what I wanted to write: a crime story. The book ended up being my first novel The Death Artist, about a serial killer loose in the New York art world. The New York Times Magazine did a feature on me (the well-known artist turned writer) and People Magazine chose my novel as their Page Turner of the Week, both of which helped make the book a success.
 
It followed with a contract to write two more books, but I never wrote a good old-fashioned whodunit until now, Ten Perfect Guests, my ninth book. I wanted to give readers a gift, an entertainment and escape from our troubled times, something fun, and more than a little sinister. But that’s half the fun, isn’t it? If you’re writing a book about a group of nasty characters lured to a deserted island for the memorial of a rich and famous artist with the promise of an inheritance (but only if they show up), you can be sure there will be in-fighting, backstabbing and nefarious goings on.
 
I wanted to take all the whodunit tropes, a large cast (but of fully developed) characters, an isolated locale (in this case a deserted island), and update the genre to the present day with angst and drama and lots of dark humor. I also added drawings, illustrations I made for the five parts of the story, all painted in gouache with the same frame, to give it the look of an illustrated manuscript.

 
I reread Christie’s And Then There Were None and Highsmith’s Ripley books, and caught a fortuitous production of Hamlet at BAM which had me rereading Macbeth, Othello, and King Lear (which I saw three times in different productions over the past few years), and the idea of Shakespearean tragedy and the five-act structure—from exposition and accelerating action to the climactic fall and catastrophic resolution—took root. The challenge was how to keep it all fast and fun, Shakespearean comedy as well as tragedy. I reminded myself that one of my all-time favorite movie directors and writers, Billy Wilder—The Apartment, Some Like It Hot, Double Indemnity, A Foreign Affair (his Nazi rom-com!), always said that the tougher the subject matter the more you’d better make them laugh, something I took to heart.
 
The book required more plotting than I usually do, though the characters often refused to stay in their lanes, the plot deepened, and the climactic confession, which I had imagined as a few pages, ended up closer to 30—I just couldn’t get the killer to stop talking, but I enjoyed recounting that story almost as much as the killer enjoyed telling it. (I know I am the one writing, but the characters always know what they want to say).
 
In the end, Ten Perfect Guests is as much an homage to classic whodunnits as it is a study in greed and how it corrupts, a social satire with plenty of bite and wit and hopefully people will enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.
 
 
Jonathan Santlofer

 

SLOW HORSES, Season 6, release

Slow Horses, Season 6, released this week on AppleTV. It's a 6-episode season in which two Mick Herron novels,  Joe Country and Slough House, are adapted. I think this is a sensational series. If you haven't seen the previous seasons, I advise you to watch those first, as the back story on the characters builds through each season. More of a book person? You can't go wrong with any Mick Herron mystery. 

Slow Horses is a great series about a very dysfunctional team of MI5 agents and their obnoxious boss, Jackson Lamb (Gary Oldman), and how the navigate the espionage world to defend England from evil forces. This is television at its best! 

LUDWIG: Season 2 News

Good news. Just had word that Ludwig, Season 2, will premiere on Britbox on October 13. There will be  6 episodes. David Mitchell returns as John ‘Ludwig’ Taylor and Anna Maxwell Martin as sister-in-law Lucy Betts-Taylor.

Ludwig centers on John Taylor, an introverted Cambridge man who leads a quiet life. He has never married, never started a family, and never really ventured beyond his front door. He doesn’t have a computer, mobile phone or even a TV, preferring to live in quiet solitude working as a puzzle designer under the pen name, Ludwig.

But, when his identical twin James (also played by Mitchell) disappears off the face of the Earth, all of that changes. In order to find out what happened to his brother, John takes over James’ identity – big shoes to fill when your brother is a DCI leading Cambridge’s major crimes team. John may be a master of cryptic puzzles, but will he be able to crack the biggest puzzle of his life?

Ludwig series 2 picks up where things left off during season 1, with master puzzle-setter John ‘Ludwig’ Taylor now a Crime Scene Consultant for the Cambridge Police Authority.

Can't wait!

Call for Articles: Mysteries set in India

Call for Articles: Mystery Readers Journal: Mysteries set in India (42:4); Winter 2026

For our next issue, we are looking for articles, reviews, and author essays about crime fiction set in India.

DEADLINE: November 5, 2026

If you have a mystery that fits this theme, please consider writing an Author! Author! essay: 500–1500 words, first person, up-close and personal about yourself, your books, and the theme connection. 

We’re also looking for reviews and articles. 

Send submissions to janet @ mysteryreaders . org 

Deadline: November 5, 2026. 

Author Essays are first person, about yourself, your books, and the "India" connection. 500-1000 words. Treat this as if you're chatting with friends and other writers in the bar or cafe (or on zoom) about your work and India in your mysteries. Be sure and cite specific titles, as well as how you use France in your books. Add title and 2-3 sentence bio. 

Reviews: 50-250 words. 

Articles: 500-1000 words. 

Deadline: November 5, 2026  

Send to: Janet Rudolph, Editor. janet @ mysteryreaders . org  

Subject Line:  Mysteries set in India.

Please let me know if you're planning to send an article, review, or author essay--or if you have any questions! 

Subscribe to Mystery Readers Journal for 2026.

Themes in 2026: Fairs, Fetes, & Festivals; Mysteries set in France, Cross-Genre Mysteries; Mysteries set in India.

Many back issues available as PDF downloads. Here are just a few. 

Northern California Mysteries I: Mystery Readers Journal

Senior Sleuths: Mystery Readers Journal

Irish Mysteries: Mystery Readers Journal

Hobbies & Crafts in Mysteries: Mystery Readers Journal

Mysteries set in France: Mystery Readers Journal

Art Mysteries: Mystery Readers Journal

And so many more... We are now in our 42nd year. 4 themed issues a year! 

Have a look at our index of fabulous issues with articles, reviews, and essays from your favorite authors and reviewers. 

***

Cartoon of the Day: The Novel

 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, AGATHA CHRISTIE!

Happy Birthday, Agatha Christie!

Over the years, I've read just about every novel and story, play, and reference book on or by the Queen of Crime, Agatha Christie. I've taught classes on Agatha Christie at UC Berkeley, UC Santa Cruz, and St. Mary's College, as well as lectured to several book clubs. 

Agatha Christie visited the UC Berkeley Botanical Garden and was particularly taken by the Peruvian Lily. Poisonous? Yes. In honor of that long-ago visit, I organized a poison tour at the UC Botanical Gardenfor my own weekly mystery book group. We had a very knowledgeable guide.

For Agatha Christie's Centennial, I attended the CWA (Crime Writers Association - UK) conference in Torquay which included an Agatha Christie Centennial Celebration Banquet. Everyone was there, and, by that, I mean all my favorite British crime writers and several of the actors who portrayed Christie's characters over the years. David Suchet sat at the next table. I saw Joan Hickson in the Ladies Room. During that same trip, I went with CWA to visit Greenway. This was long before the house opened to the public. The family was in residence at the time, and either they forgot that a group of mystery writers was stopping by or they didn’t care, as the house, and especially the dining room table, was in a bit of disarray after what must have been Sunday dinner (lunch to us!). It was a very lovely (and intimate) tour of the house.

When I returned to the States that year, I joined the organizing committee of the U.S. Agatha Christie Centennial Celebration. There were reading challenges, library talks, courses, and lectures, and I even wrote an 'Agatha-Christie inspired' interactive mystery event. It was great fun!

Today there are many Agatha Christie celebrations, but the 'official' Agatha Christie Literary Festival looks to be absolutely smashing. It's this coming weekend (mostly), so if you find yourself in that neck of the woods, I highly recommend attending! September 12-20, 2026. Oh to be in England....

And here's a real treat: A Video of a 1955 interview with Agatha Christie from the BBC Archives in which Agatha Christie talks about her lack of formal education and how boredom during childhood led her to write The Mysterious Affair at Styles. She outlines her working methods, Miss Marple, Herculte Poirot, and discusses why it is much easier to write plays than novels. 

Raise a glass today to Agatha Christie, the Queen of Crime!