Welcome to Mysteries to Die For. I am TG Wolff and am here with Jack, my piano player and editor. This is a podcast where we combine storytelling with original music to put you at the heart of mystery, murder, and mayhem. Some episodes will be my own stories, others will be classics that helped shape the mystery genre we know today. These are arrangements, which means instead of word-for-word readings, you get a performance meant to be heard.

This is Season 1. The first half of the season comes from my book Widow’s Run, which was published in 2019 by Down & Out Books. If you love clever, sharp-edged mysteries and thrillers, check out Down & Out on the web. www.downandoutbooks.com

Today’s episode picks up from episode 1. If you haven’t listened, you might want to start there to meet the players and set the stage. Really, today’s episode won’t make sense without it. We’ve listed a cast of characters in the show notes.

To recap, we met Diamond at her own funeral. She had faked her death, burying the mainstream, suburban professional she was to resurrect her CIA cover. Her funeral was interrupted by a leather-clad, f-bombing blast from her past named Sam Irish. She met her contact, Ian Black, to get the information he acquired for her. But first, he needed her to do a little job for him. We join Diamond as she leaves the funeral.

Today’s story is about a king, unlikely friends, and quinoa. This is Episode 2: Pump This, Jack or is it Pump This Jack

Characters previously introduced....

Diamond, our hero. Recently widowed. Recently (fake) killed herself. On a mission.

Gavriil Rubchinsky. Russian-born, nerd scientist determined to feed the world. Diamond’s husband. Died May 14, 2018. The reason for Diamond.

Ian Black. Average, ordinary, white man. Extraordinary purveyor of anything, anywhere, anytime.

Sam Irish. British agent. Formerly worked with Diamond. Pissed she died without him.

Enrique Torres. CIA agent who trained and worked with Diamond. Can’t believe a candle took her out.

Alexei Rubchinsky. Russian-born, nerd scientist of the medical variety. Diamond’s brother-in-law.

*******

Now available from Down & Out Books, The Swamp Killers. A novel in stories. Here’s what we know is true:

Timmy Milici, a low-level hitter with the infamous Atlanta-based Duplass crime family, ran off with Melody Duplass to Jacksonville, Florida. Olivia Duplass, her mother and head of the Duplass family, was incensed, and put a price on Timmy—a hundred thousand for his corpse, but with explicit instructions that her daughter not be harmed.

We know that’s true.

Or, at least, we think we do.

Sixteen writers tell their versions of what happened those fateful days in this gripping novel-in-stories, brought to you from the team behind The Night of the Flood....