Now, wild swimming in the Thames in January sounds alarming enough, but Judith typically ups the ante by deciding against wearing a bathing suit. Like the show, Death Comes to Marlow is set in the present day and begins with Judith – or ‘Pepper’, as she’s known in the crossword world – puzzling over the purpose of a secret assignation that seems to have been arranged through the corner clues of the latest Marlow Free Press crossword.Īs she tends to do when there’s a mystery to be solved, Judith decides to put it out of her mind by indulging in a spot of wild swimming in the Thames, which is conveniently accessible from her back garden. The writer is well-known for his work on the TV series Death in Paradise. With Judith Potts, the principal sleuth among the Marlow Murder Club, author Robert Thorogood adds to the fine tradition of crossword solving lying at the heart of a murder mystery. Arguably, the most famous crossword in crime fiction appears in Agatha Christie’s Curtain, where Captain Hastings’ attempt to solve a cryptic clue inadvertently causes him to intervene in a murder attempt, although other examples are available. Given this close association it’s no surprise that just as detectives and detective fiction have provided the answers to many crossword clues, crosswords have featured prominently in many notable murder mysteries. While a cryptic crossword clue must comprise two elements – a definition of the answer and a piece of wordplay that suggests the same answer – the clues to solving a Golden Age murder mystery must comply with Ronald Knox’s Commandments – the 10 rules that set ‘proper’ crime fiction apart from so-called ‘shockers’. Both relying on clues, they have been inextricably bound for over a century.

The crossword and the classic murder mystery are two types of puzzle that exploded in popularity following World War I.

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