iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Jamie Bernthal-Hooker @jcbernthal.com · 24/10/2025

Next month, the Seagull Amateurs, my local theatre company, is staging a play I wrote! Seeing the cast in character is really special.

Nine people outlined in various colours above the words 'Clue-don't' written in the style of a ransom note, with each letter cut out and pasted.

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Jamie Bernthal-Hooker @jcbernthal.com · 10/09/2025

I’m so excited that, in 2 days, we are launching both Silent Echoes, a golden age crime conference and Ten Little Mysteries, a book of new fiction inspired by the Golden Age. Get a sneak preview of the introduction here: jcbernthal.com/2025/09/07/c...

A green background with gold patterns including a stylised woman’s face, atop logos for Golden Age Mysteries Ltd, FSU College of Communication and Information, and The Golden Age of Crime. Text below reads: ‘Silent Echoes: Golden Age Crime Fiction and Trauma, FSU (Florida State University) London Study Centre, 12-13 September 2025’

Red, white, and cream book cover for Ten Little Mysteries by Golden Age Mysteries Ltd

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Jamie Bernthal-Hooker @jcbernthal.com · 30/04/2025

After launching the very exciting no-longer-secret project, I’m at the theatre. It is funny.

Theatre programme for The Comedy About Spies held in front of a stage.

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Jamie Bernthal-Hooker @jcbernthal.com · 21/04/2025

❗We are excited to announce our keynote speaker for 'Silent Echoes: Golden Age Crime Fiction and Trauma', at FSU's London Study Centre in September. Professor Jessica Meyer @thehistorygirl1.bsky.social is an expert on masculinity, war, and popular culture whose work we LOVE. We cannot wait.

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Jamie Bernthal-Hooker @jcbernthal.com · 06/04/2025

You can now get Jessica Brick Investigates as an ebook! Like the physical book, it contains the first 5 comic mystery stories featuring my amateur sleuth Jessica Brick (she models herself on Miss Marple, but isn't very good). www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0F3V75GV3/

Book cover: Jessica Brick Investigates by Jamie Bernthal

Table of Contents:

A Fete Worse than Death
Cyanide on the Side
Dead Fan's Folly
Charity Ends
Murder on the Cards
Bonus Content: Jessica Brick's Novel!

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Jamie Bernthal-Hooker @jcbernthal.com · 17/03/2025

What a joy to talk all things Agatha Christie with Mark Perzel for McFarland’s Best Part of the Book podcast. The podcast tells you how to get an exclusive discount on my gargantuan encyclopaedic AGATHA CHRISTIE: A COMPANION TO THE MYSTERY FICTION! bestpartofthebook.alitu.com

A copy of the book Agatha Christie a Companion to the Mystery fiction by J.C. Bernthal, series editor Elizabeth Foxwell, volume 12 of McFarland Companions to Mystery fiction, overlaid with a colourful graphic reading Best Part of the Book with Mark Perzel.

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Jamie Bernthal-Hooker @jcbernthal.com · 14/03/2025

The couple moved around the States. By the 1970s, Pearl's husband was lodging at a bordello in Mississippi, run by the legendary ‘Mississippi Madam,’ Nellie Jackson, whom he briefly married. One problem: he was still married to Pearl.

Red poster for the film 'Mississippi Madam: The Life of Nellie Jackson'

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Jamie Bernthal-Hooker @jcbernthal.com · 14/03/2025

This is Pearl. She was born in 1923. Like both her parents, she worked in clothing: she gave her job as ‘court seamstress’ and seems to have had a decent social life. During the war, she worked with the wounded and met a lot of people, including a Scottish-Canadian veteran.

Newspaper photograph of a woman with big hair wearing pearls. It is headed 'English Bride'.

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Jamie Bernthal-Hooker @jcbernthal.com · 14/03/2025

This is my brilliantly artistic grandmother, who died 10 years ago yesterday. She was born during the Second World War and adopted. In her last years, before a rapid cancer ended things too soon, she tried to find out more about her roots.

Picture of a smiling woman with white sunlit hair and a red spotted scarf.

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Jamie Bernthal-Hooker @jcbernthal.com · 11/03/2025

She kindly signed my copy of ‘The Female Detective’. This is widely held to be the first novel featuring a female detective but it was written by a bloke and eventually republished with a male intro and foreword. So, for a few years, I asked women at the top of the crime writing tree to sign it.

Title page of The Female Detective by Andrew Forrester, signed by Val McDermid, Jessica Mann, Alana Knight, PD James, Lucy Foley, Kate Summerscale, Kate Rhodes, Sophie Hannah, and Frances Brady.

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Jamie Bernthal-Hooker @jcbernthal.com · 08/03/2025

“What we ask is to be human individuals, however peculiar and unexpected.” For #InternationalWomensDay, the @goldenagemysteries.bsky.social gang and I are reading Dorothy L. Sayers’ ‘Are Women Human?’ A sometime witty, mostly exasperated reply to very silly attitudes in 1938, which still persist.

White book cover with words ‘ARE WOMEN HUMAN? Dorothy L. Sayers. Penetrating, sensible, and witty essays on the role of women in society.’

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Jamie Bernthal-Hooker @jcbernthal.com · 05/03/2025

Finally, a fun fact. The celebrated Anjelica Huston, here playing Lady Tresillian via Queen Elizabeth II, is the granddaughter of Walter Huston, who played Dr Armstrong in the iconic 1945 And Then There Were None.

A black and white scene from René Clair’s And Then There Were None. A man, Walter Huston, holds a candelabra while a young woman, June Duprez, looks concerned.

A woman, Anjelica Huston, in ornate purple night clothes sitting up in a bed with a newspaper.

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Jamie Bernthal-Hooker @jcbernthal.com · 05/03/2025

Finally seen #TowardsZero. It’s good. I will never truly appreciate this promotional image but was pleasantly surprised more than once. It was very nice to see Burgh Island.

Promotional image for Towards Zero. A woman sits up in a bed on a beach against the sea, while various people dressed in 1930s evening wear stand around in vaguely provocative poses.

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Jamie Bernthal-Hooker @jcbernthal.com · 04/03/2025

I love amateur dramatics - supporting and taking part. Did a show over the weekend (I played a murderer!) and rehearsing the next one tonight. A nice way to build community and confidence, share culture, and escape into a microcosm where everything is simultaneously too serious and too unserious.

A view of a blue-lit stage from the wings. Ropes appear at one end, a table and chairs are visible on stage and the auditorium, with seats, tables, and panels is all red. There is a dark dropped screen and overhead lights top-right.

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Jamie Bernthal-Hooker @jcbernthal.com · 02/03/2025

But as long as it captures some element of the book without cheapening the source material, I will be very happy indeed. More people need to read, and pretend they’ve always loved, Towards Zero, as they did with Murder is Easy last year.

Book cover of Agatha Christie, Towards Zero (blue and white text and graphic on a red and black background, published by Dodd, Mead in 1944)

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Jamie Bernthal-Hooker @jcbernthal.com · 28/02/2025

How do I entertain myself? By attempting elderly crosswords, it seems. This 'Crime and Detection'-themed trivia crossword appeared in The Times in December 1938 and very Golden Age-y.

A crossword grid, labelled 'Crime and Detection'

ACROSS

1 Headquarters, not of 14, but of 13 (two words) (5, 6).
7 His name may suggest study and the lamp (two words) (5, 5).
13 The first called the second "my dear" (five words) (8, 6, 3, 2, 6).
15 Not the hangman’s island (5).
16 It’s a name for corruption (7).
17 Formed a branch establishment, perhaps (6).
18 See 38 (4).
20 This detective novelist fills 18 with noise (two words) (3, 4).
23 The Manderson affair (three words) (6, 4, 4).
26 Vessel notorious for an intended abduction (6).
27 Learned characters in 49, 21 (4).
28 He helped Hanaud in 40 across (7).
31 This is only half a sentence (4).
34 41’s trouble was that he wanted to (3).
35 Here wrong is right (4).
36 Creator of Lecoq (8).
38 This 18 was found not to have 46 anyone with "Strong Poison" (7).
40 Mason’s characters, who refused to act like kings and queens, &c. (four words) (4, 7, 2, 8).
45 Destination of Sir John Magill’s last journey (7).
47 They were described as just 58 (two words) (5, 3).
48 Sign of a criminal fellowship (4).
50 A girl, anyway (3).
52 This Philip Macdonald story is a singular place for an Agatha Christie murder (4).
53 Its use caused "Unnatural Death" (7).
54 Underworld resort of malefactors (4).
55 Old punishment for murderers (6).
58 "The Squeaker" is (three words) (2, 5, 7).
61 Vague as it is, it seems tactless to ask a crook if he has done it (7).
63 In short the principal scene of 49, 21 (4).
64 The cause of 14 years’ hard labour (6).
66 Lord Peter’s were finally successful in Latin (7).
67 Contingent (5).
70 Catholic virtue in cases of detection (five words) (3, 9, 2, 5, 5).
72 Slang phrase for a shocking death (three words) (3, 3, 4).
73 He dies, according to Agatha Christie (two words) (4, 7).

D 1 A sinister name which suggests resorts for sunbathing (7).
2 What The 9 Tailors really rang (5).
3 CID men find the old hands know these (5).
4 He’s cut short himself, and others are upset (3).
5 A case of bringing a person up for examination (10).
6 The puzzle was that it was fastened on the inside (six words) (3, 7, 2, 3, 6, 4).
7 Scene of a 43 mystery (7).
8 They, at any rate, feel that they have nothing to conceal (7).
9 For long a suspect in the case of the 53 (5).
10 Gem which held a prisoner (4).
11 A rascal in disguise (6).
12 Poirot does, and so does Parker Pyne (11).
14 These, if mentioned in a crime story, are pretty sure to be 4s (7).
16 A Kipling mystery (4).
19 This killed a queen (3).
21 See 49 (5).
22 The professional in fiction is often compared with the amateur (5).
24 Disguise of Soapy Sam in The Terror (5).
25 Like W. W. Jacobs's paw (6).
29 Queen’s sort of orange mystery (7).
30 No gentlemen (6).
32 Philip Macdonald’s is white (4).
33 He said his was a dream of a murder (4).
37 Bismarck’s bloodless policy.
39 18’s man’s man (6)
40 An intermediary, who is new yet made up (6)
41 He made a mess of his inheritance (4)
42 Annoyed like a gangster (4)
43 His sleuth is French (two words) (5, 6)
44 Punishment for a candidate who has failed at honours? (two words) (4, 8)
46 See 3
49 Highly toured darkness, with 21 (5)
50 A case of the missing 52 in defence? (5)
51 Electrical device like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (10)
54 Traitors often suffered by this manoeuvre (two words) (4, 3)
56 One of 47 in Shakespeare who might be termed 30 (3)
57 One was the scene of a moving mystery (4)
59 A person who, perhaps, hopes for a reduction in his time (7)
60 Creature like one of the 55 (7)
62 He ran away from the chief executioner’s wife (6)
65 Approximately a French author (5)
67 Deprive of valuable cover, as they do in 63 (5)
68 By it the sleuth knows when he is on the scent (5)
69 A part of proceedings in Chancery (4)
71 Her son was a murderer; her island is 58 (3)

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Jamie Bernthal-Hooker @jcbernthal.com · 21/01/2025

Speckle declined to have his photograph taken.

The blurry face of a brown and white guinea pig who is resting on the fluffy white and pink-clad arm of a man, whose amused face is half-visible.

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Jamie Bernthal-Hooker @jcbernthal.com · 17/01/2025

Recorded two podcasts this week on wildly different topics. Feeling like a renaissance man. (Actually, I’m feeling like a coffee.)

A gold vintage Marconi type A microphone on a grey background

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Jamie Bernthal-Hooker @jcbernthal.com · 16/01/2025

Wait, I have a theory. What if they were trying to banish Linda this whole time and we just didn’t notice because of the spelling? #TheTraitors

Two hands holding a plaque with NATHER written on it (instead of NATHAN)

One hand holding a plaque with ARMANIA written on it (instead of ARMANI)

A plaque with MEINA written on it (instead of MINAH)

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Jamie Bernthal-Hooker @jcbernthal.com · 12/01/2025

12 January: When Agatha Christie died in 1976, West End theatres dimmed their lights. Christie is a towering figure in British literature and culture, in part because she never positioned herself as one. Image shows Ben Twiston-Davies' Agatha Christie memorial, near Covent Garden. #OnThisDay

A sculpted bust of Agatha Christie inset in a large book-like sculpture, with the legend 'Agatha Christie, 1890-1976' and an image of a mousetrap above the head. There are people and a bright advertisement in the background.

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Jamie Bernthal-Hooker @jcbernthal.com · 10/01/2025

The word ‘icon’ is overused, but… ‘I’m absolutely not lying’ #TheTraitors

Linda, a woman in white, from The Traitors

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Jamie Bernthal-Hooker @jcbernthal.com · 06/01/2025

Writing fiction, not to a deadline, for the first time in months and it’s like, ‘ahh, that’s what was wrong with me’

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Jamie Bernthal-Hooker @jcbernthal.com · 01/12/2024

In our back garden, I can see two stars with my naked eye, but the phone sees all this.

Starry sky with telephone cables in the foreground.

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Jamie Bernthal-Hooker @jcbernthal.com · 30/11/2024

Today’s charity shop haul. The John Dickson Carr is appropriate, on his 118th birthday. #Booksky

Four books: Joseph Skvorecky’s Miss Silver’s Past, The Reader Guide & Handbook 1934, Agatha Christie Christie’s They Do It With Mirrors, and John Dickson Carr’s The Lost Gallows.

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Jamie Bernthal-Hooker @jcbernthal.com · 26/11/2024

Would you like to read Agatha Christie absolutely excoriate a certain type of man in eight words? “Technically he knew a great deal about women.” - Mary Westmacott (Christie), A Daughter’s A Daughter

Book cover for “a daughter’s a daughter” by Mary Westmacott. The cover is sepia, depicting an older woman in the top left and a younger woman in the bottom right.

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Jamie Bernthal-Hooker @jcbernthal.com · 19/11/2024

Tonight’s reading companion is a very plush capybara.

A plush you capybara with two toy guinea pigs on its back, on a wooden surface in front of some books.

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Jamie Bernthal-Hooker @jcbernthal.com · 16/11/2024

Huge moment for Agatha Christie in Italy as her selected works have been published in Mondadori’s Meridiano series — this acknowledges ‘contemporary classic’ status alongside Borges, Tolstoy, Flaubert, and Proust. It has not been without debate.

A book next to a slipcase depicting a girl with the words ‘CHRISTIE, Fiabe gialle’ (Christie, Yellow Fairy Tales)

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Jamie Bernthal-Hooker @jcbernthal.com · 15/11/2024

Audible’s new adaptation of The Mysterious Affair at Styles is very good! Its best Agatha Christie adaptation so far, and one of its best audio dramas (that I’ve heard).

Image showing actors, cards, and a bottle with the text ‘audible original, Agatha Christie, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, A Poirot Mystery’, and a yellow banner reading ‘only from audible’

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Jamie Bernthal-Hooker @jcbernthal.com · 13/11/2024

“I like living. I have sometimes been wildly despairing, acutely miserable, racked with sorrow, but through it all I still know quite certainly that just to be alive is a grand thing.” – Agatha Christie, An Autobiography

Book cover of Agatha Christie, An Autobiography

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Jamie Bernthal-Hooker @jcbernthal.com · 12/11/2024

Hello from me, and more importantly from Smudge and Speckle ❤️ #guineapigs

Smudge, a black and orange guinea pig, eating hay

Speckle, a brown, white, and orange guinea pig, staring with faint disapproval

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