Tomorrow, Saturday, Mark Steyn on the Town, Mark's weekend music show will air at 5pm British Summer Time - which is 6pm in Western Europe and 12pm Eastern/9am Pacific in North America. You can listen from almost anywhere on the planet by clicking the button at top right here.
~Just ahead of Episode Fifteen of The Murder on the Links, I rise on a point of personal privilege: as the control-freak regulators and the woke billionaires of the Big Social cartel tighten their grip, and the glory days of the wild and free decentralised Internet of yore recede ever further into the past, I want to thank all of you who keep this l'il ol' mom'n'pop website and its various activities as part of your daily routine. It means a lot.
I thank you also for all your insightful comments on our latest yarn - Agatha Christie's second whodunnit to star Hercule Poirot. Larry, a Steyn Clubber from the Carolinas, writes:
There's a lot of rabbit holes to follow in this tale: the wife, the lover, the son, the lover's daughter - I'm wondering if we've even met the murderer yet. And now this new victim, killed with the same knife used in the first murder, which disappeared shortly after Hastings let a pretty girl talk him into showing her the crime scene - which is exactly what I would have done. And then there is the impressionable Hastings left alone with Giraud. What fun!
This is my favorite Christie Tale so far. My best to you sir.
Thank you, Larry. But you need to affect le style Poirot. In tonight's episode, the detective's loyal sidekick arrives at the railway station to find the little Belgian has solved the case - until Hastings informs him that there is now a second body:
"What is that you say? Another murder? Ah, then, I am all wrong. I have failed. Giraud may mock himself at me—he will have reason!"
"You did not expect it, then..?"
He interrupted me.
"Wait, my friend. I must be right, therefore this new murder is impossible unless—unless—oh, wait, I implore you. Say no word—"
He was silent for a moment or two, then, resuming his normal manner, he said in a quiet assured voice: "The victim is a man of middle-age. His body was found in the locked shed near the scene of the crime and had been dead at least forty-eight hours. And it is most probable that he was stabbed in a similar manner to M. Renauld, though not necessarily in the back."
It was my turn to gape—and gape I did. In all my knowledge of Poirot he had never done anything so amazing as this.
So no need to visit the crime scene and start crawling on the floor for clues. Members of The Mark Steyn Club can hear me read Episode Fifteen by clicking here and logging-in.
Earlier installments of The Murder on the Links can be found here - and thank you again for all your comments, thumbs up or down, on this latest serialisation. Very much appreciated. But there are plenty of other capers in this series, all laid out on our home page in a convenient Netflix-esque tile format that makes it easy for listeners to pick out their preferred audio entertainment of an evening. If you'd like to know more about The Mark Steyn Club, please click here - and don't forget, for fellow fans of classic fiction and/or poetry, our Steyn Club Gift Membership.
I'll see you back here tomorrow for Episode Sixteen of The Murder on the Links. And, if you're one of that brave band who still enjoy me in video, do check out our most recent editions of The Mark Steyn Show.