Mysteries To Experience Again

Do you have a list of mysteries that you would read or watch again if you could relive the experience of solving the crime or the big reveal? In today’s episode, Brook and Sarah discuss a few of their favorites.

Discussed

Vertigo (1958) Alfred Hitchcock, Paramount

Rear Window (1954) Alfred Hitchcock, Paramount

Sixth Sense (1999) M. Night Shyamalan, Hollywood Pictures

The Others (2001) Alejandro Amenabar

Cliff Janeway Series (1992-2006) John Dunning

The Prestige (1995) Christopher Priest

 A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder (2019) Holly Jackson

And Then There Were None (1939) Agatha Christie

Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie (2009) Alan Bradley

Thursday Murder Club (2020) Richard Osman

The Reappearance of Rachel Price (2024) Holly Jackson

The Silent Patient (2019) Alex Michaelides

Moriarty (2014) Anthony Horowitz

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Transcript

This transcript is generated by a computer and there may be some mis-spellings and strange punctuation. We try to catch these before posting, but some things slip through.

Sarah	Welcome to Clued in Mystery. I’m Sarah.
Brook	And I’m Brook, and we both love mystery.
Sarah	Hi, Brook.
Brook	Hi, Sarah. So, I am not much of a re-reader or a re-watcher. What about you? Where do you fall on that?
Sarah	There have been a couple of times when I have reread something or actually re-listened to it after finishing the audio book, starting the audio book over again. I’ve done that a couple of times. And there are a few books that I have reread, but it doesn’t happen all the time.
Brook	Mm-hmm. Yeah, because you know, there are those people who um either say like I “every year I reread such-and-such book or I’ve watched that movie 50 times” or something and and I think once the novelty or once the um the revelation has happened in a story, then it doesn’t hold my interest as well. But today we’re going to kind of talk about some of the mysteries that we wish our memory could be wiped clean and we could enjoy them again for the first time.
Sarah	I mean, I have to admit that my memory is not great. And I think I’ve shared this before where I can and have frequently watched something and then gotten to the end to the, you know, the culprit is revealed and I’m like, “Oh yeah, I have seen this before.”
Brook	It’s the beauty of you know our memories not being as sharp as they used to. And you know that’s definitely something that I think we’ll come across is in some ways we really can.
Brook	Uh, still enjoy these stories again because enough time has passed or whatnot.
Sarah	Yeah.
Brook	So, I kind of thought about it in what are some of the movies that I really wish that I could get that first viewing again, and then some of the books. Um, and my movies include most of the Hitchcock shows, my favorites are Vertigo and Rear Window. Those are two of my favorites. And I loved The Sixth Sense. And I remember that, you know, gasp at the end. um And then also The Others, which has a very similar, and it’s a Nicole Kidman movie, and it has that similar big twist at the end.
Sarah	I feel the same way about Sixth Sense that, ah you know, watching that, I don’t think I would ever forget that reveal. And so I will not be able to rewatch that as I can, you know, rewatch episodes of Midsomer Murders, for example, because I just don’t remember who in the town was the bad guy that time.
Sarah	Sixth Sense, I think, is definitely one of those films that you can only really have that gasp once, right? To rewatch it would be through, for me, through the lens of, like, how was this reveal built up to, right?
Sarah	And it would be interesting to watch it with someone who hadn’t seen it, maybe just to see if they pick up on on any of the of the clues. But yeah, i don’t I don’t think I will ever forget that one.
Brook	Exactly. And so those that I mentioned, and I saw this pattern, you know, because maybe not so much in Rear Window, that’s a pretty much a straight murder mystery. But with Vertigo and Sixth Sense and The Others, these there was all this big reversal, and everything you thought was one way, was you know something different. And like you said, it’s really hard to enjoy that the second time unless you’re looking at the building blocks. And It really lets me know that like those big twist movies are are ones that I just really love.
Sarah	Well, and I think the um remarkable thing about The Sixth Sense is that that reveal Like no, even if someone had seen it before, they they kept that to themselves, right?
Brook	Oh, good point.
Sarah	Like it it was this kind of unspoken conversation that viewers had. “I am not going to spoil this for you because it was just such, I don’t know, such an experience.”
Brook	Yeah, you’re right. I think as a culture, we did really well of not, uh, not ruining it for one another.
Sarah	Mm hmm. So I think um viewers and readers really like that twist, right? And we, I think, have spoken about this before, that um particularly if it’s an unreliable narrator, right, that, but it’s hard to go into something knowing that the narrator is unreliable, because then you kind of know what the, what the big reveal is. But that is such a popular experience when it’s done really well.
Brook	Mm-hmm. What’s a mystery that you wish you could go into with just fresh eyes, Sarah?
Sarah	So I think, um and I know we just watched the Netflix adaptation of A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder, but when I think about the experience of reading that for the first time, um and the only time i i I didn’t reread it in advance of of watching the Netflix series, which you know I lamented in our conversations about that, but um It was so unlike anything that I had previously read that I just really enjoyed the experience of reading it. And I think, you know, when we’re having this conversation, I think that’s what we’re talking about is how could, how, how can we recreate that experience of falling in love with characters, falling in love with the mystery, falling in love with the book or a movie.
Brook	Mmhmm.
Sarah	And so that’s why we wish that we could do that again, because it was just so enjoyable.
Brook	Yeah, I know exactly what you mean. And I think that’s part of why we wish we could go back to some of these, because it was the feeling. It’s um it’s almost like nostalgia.
Brook	And especially if you think back to maybe some of the mysteries that you enjoyed as a younger reader, and you were just coming into your love of mystery.
Sarah	Mm hmm.
Brook	So it is like kind of hearkening back to that time in your life. and um Yeah, I know exactly what you mean.
Sarah	I reread And Then There Were None. Um, a couple of years ago, it was in advance of one of our, our episodes, one of our earlier episodes. And I first read that. I mean, I think it might’ve been the first Agatha Christie that I read and I was probably, Oh, I was definitely too young to be reading them.
Sarah	And enough time, enough decades have passed since then that I couldn’t remember at all what happened in the book, apart from these people go to an island and, and you know, one by one are picked off.
Brook	Mm-hm.
Sarah	And I remember just feeling very, um finding it very suspenseful and I really enjoyed you know the reading it the second time.
Sarah	The first time I read it, i don’t I don’t remember much about that experience, except that it really turned me on to mysteries generally, right?
Brook	Mm-hm.
Sarah	And and really fostered my love of the genre. I enjoyed just like the way that it was, that the story was built. ah I enjoyed rereading that because it really was like it was like I was doing it for the first time because so much time had elapsed.
Brook	Mmhmm. I feel that way about a lot of Christie’s titles because they’re so intricate. And um I think I can read them over and over with you know some time in between, obviously. It’s what you said earlier, like, oh, maybe I have read this before when you’re about three-quarters of the way through. But um you know her plots are very intricate and nuanced. And yeah, I i usually can pick one up again and and be OK with it.
Brook	That mentioning of suspense I think is another calling card of stories that you want to revisit again, that they really can build that suspense and keep you on the edge of your seat. And um as far as books go, I you know think about, as you said, And Then There Were None. um The Prestige was also a book that had not only a big twist, but a huge amount of suspense that I just could definitely see myself going back to that and reading it again. um And then some some favorite detective fiction, it makes me wonder, this thinking about this this week, if, like I said about Agatha Christie, I could go back and because enough time has passed and still um pick up a series that I devoured earlier in life. um An example would be um This is by John Dunning and it’s the Cliff Janaway series. He’s a detective who loses his badge and then he opens a rare bookshop. And um I was probably in high school or early college when I read, I think there’s five books in the series, but this week I’ve been thinking, “well, maybe I need to revisit that” because I just loved that series so much.
Sarah	Well, and there is something um comforting. You know, you mentioned kind of the nostalgia of revisiting something that you enjoyed when you were younger, right? And and maybe your life was simpler or or whatever.
Brook	Mm hmm.
Sarah	Um, and I feel that way about, um, Alan Bradley’s series. Uh, so the first book is the Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie. And I have read that. It’s probably the mystery that I’ve read the most number of times. Um, and each time I read it, I’m struck by just the writing, you know, I think it’s um ah beautifully written, and also a great mystery. And you know, so it’s one of those, if we’re going to talk about literary mysteries, I you know, I would I would put it in there.
Sarah	But it it all it just feels so comfortable to read.
Brook	Yeah, a favorite book can do that. Definitely.
Brook	I always am very impressed when you talk about, um, you mentioned it that occasionally you’ll finish a book and then turn right around and begin, begin it again. And you’re kind of encapsulating just what we talked about because you know that ending, you might know if the narrator is reliable or not. Um, but then with the author’s eyes or just intense mystery fan eyes, you go back and experience it again and sort of see how the author put it all together.
Sarah	Yeah, I did that with um Richard Osman’s Thursday Murder Club, the first book. And I think I did that with the fourth book in the series as well. Those characters, I think anybody who reads them just falls in love with the characters. and But I thought it was just that first book was a really cleverly done mystery as well. I actually did it more recently with The Reappearance of Rachel Price, which is written by Holly Jackson, who also wrote A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder. Uh, and I thought it was very cleverly done and I wanted to unpack that.
Brook	Yeah, I think it’s super smart, primarily from an author standpoint, but also um just if you’re a fan because it kind of trains you for what you’re going to watch for and think about in the next mystery and maybe you’ll unravel it before you get to the end of the book.
Sarah	Well, I don’t know, Brook, if I get trained that well, because I’m taken by surprise most of the time when I write read a book.
Brook	As am I, Sarah.
Sarah	Another book that I had on, you know, that kind of came to mind is The Silent Patient. And I think that was, I just enjoyed the twist of that book. I thought it was cleverly done and the kind of experience of, I can i can remember where I was because I was listening to that and I was on a run and I can remember I was crossing a bridge when the reveal happened and so every time I crossed that bridge it makes me think of the book.
Brook	Oh, that’s fantastic. I know what you mean about listening to an audio book and and being able to remember where you were at certain points of the story. Isn’t that ah a cool phenomenon? But 100% The Silent Patient falls into that same category of some of those others we mentioned because you know everything changes. And what you thought you knew the whole time is is completely different. And um yeah, another great book.
Sarah	And Anthony Horowitz’s Moriarty is another one that I can remember where I was when um and kind of went when I finished the book because it was just such a such a great ending.
Brook	Yeah, yeah. So these are, although we cannot re-experience these stories for the first time again and get quite the same thrill that we did the first time. I think that these are probably all stories that we would put on our list of like highly recommended because they’re going to be things that we know are going to um really be satisfying and thrilling to um to readers. So, we’ll definitely obviously have these in our show notes. I think it goes without saying that if you’re looking for something, these would all be great reads or watches.
Sarah	I think another book, and this is maybe um what is it that brings you back to reading another book in a series, right? Might be another way to to look at this. So, I don’t necessarily need to reread the books that I’ve already done, but I know I will continue to read the ah Peter Grant series, or sorry, Peter Grant is the detective, um the Ben Aaronovich series, The Rivers of London. And again, it’s, you know, it’s the characters, but it’s also the mystery and the setting. And, uh, you know, actually it is probably a series that I would reread those books in a couple of years once I’ve completely forgotten, um, how, how they end.
Brook	Yeah. And I think it’s nice when a series has come to a close too, because then when you go back to revisit it, there’s, you know, usually that through line. And that means that if the series is completed, then you get that complete arc too, if you wanted to, to reread the entire series.
Sarah	One thing that I’ve noticed, Brook with my son and his reading is that he will reread or ask me to read with him a book that I know he has read multiple times already. And I wish that I had asked him about this before we were speaking today because it doesn’t, it doesn’t bother him at all.
Brook	Yeah, I hadn’t thought of that, but at some point in our reading development, because I can remember reading you know the same book over and over. Certainly you do it when you’re very small because the books are very short, but even when you get up to reading chapter books, sometimes there’s something you just love about a book and you’ll read it many times. I don’t know when that really goes away, but I wonder if it has to do with what you said earlier about it being like comfortable and um There’s just something really cozy and nice about you know where this is going.
Sarah	I think you’re, I think you’re absolutely right.
Sarah	Well, Brook, this has been a lot of fun talking about books that we would watch again or read again either if we could experience them for the first time or not.
Brook	It has, Sarah, this has been really good. And it’s brought back a list of books that I’ve experienced in the past that now I’m thinking I might want to return to after all, even though I’m not a big re-reader. So, and thank you all for joining us today on Clued in Mystery. Until next time, I’m Brook.
Sarah	And I’m Sarah and we both love mystery.