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L. Wayne Hicks joins Tea, Tonic & Toxin to discuss The Rat Began to Gnaw the Rope,  published in 1943 by C. W. Grafton (father of Sue Grafton).
L. Wayne Hicks is a freelance writer who covered real-life crimes for newspapers in Florida and Colorado. He has written profiles of many mystery writers including Sara Paretsky, Michael Connelly, John Dunning, Robert B. Parker, Donald J. Sobol, Stephen White, and C. W. Grafton.
The Rat Began to Gnaw the Rope (1943) by C. W. Grafton (the father of Sue Grafton) is a classic in the mystery genre for its clever fusion of humor, small-town charm, and hardboiled crime elements. Featuring Gil Henry, an unassuming and resourceful lawyer, the novel showcases an unconventional hero who unravels a web of corruption and intrigue with sharp wit and determination. Grafton’s skillful storytelling and engaging prose set a high standard for blending humor with suspense.
Sue Grafton wrote the famous “alphabet series.” C.W. Grafton’s work also holds historical significance, reflecting a legacy of inventive storytelling in mystery fiction.

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The Life and Career of C. W. Grafton, Father of Sue Grafton
Grafton led a fascinating double life as a practicing lawyer and novelist. How might his legal training have shaped the voice, pacing, or logic of his fiction—and might writing fiction have helped him think differently about the law?
Grafton spent his early years as the child of missionaries in China. Based on what you’ve learned, what elements of that unusual upbringing—cultural displacement, observation, alienation—do you see reflected in his worldview or narrative style?
C. W. Grafton seemed torn between creative ambition and professional responsibility. How does that tension surface in his work or in his private correspondence? Did he ever try to reconcile the “lawyer” and the “storyteller” within himself?
How would you characterize Grafton’s personality—especially his humor, his self-awareness (or self-deprecation), and his feelings about success and failure?
The Writing and Themes
The Rat Began to Gnaw the Rope won the Mary Roberts Rinehart Prize in 1943. What set this debut apart from its contemporaries? Was it the humor, the voice, the unusual protagonist, the legal realism, or something else entirely?
For modern readers encountering the novel for the first time, what should they expect stylistically? How well does the book’s blend of hard-boiled grit, small-town politics, and sharp wit hold up today?
Grafton mixes genuine violence with laugh-out-loud humor—Gil getting “anatomical difficulties” in a new suit, deadpan one-liners, and witty observational asides. How successful was at balancing this humor with the darker elements of the plot?
Gil Henry is such an unusual protagonist: pudgy, mild-mannered, YMCA resident, overly thoughtful at all the wrong times, yet also dogged and surprisingly gutsy. What does Gil’s characterization reveal about Grafton’s idea of heroism—or of justice?
The nursery-rhyme title signals a larger conceptual game, possibly a series. What evidence do we have about whether Grafton intended additional Gil Henry books—and why did he pivot away?

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The 2026 book list revealed and discussed. What was selected and why? Do you agree? Disagree? Have authors to add?
Get your copy of all of our History of Mystery book selections here! (including even some 2027 selections)
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January 2026
Publication: 1943
THE MINISTRY OF FEAR by Graham Greene is a thrilling blend of espionage and psychological mystery set in wartime London. 
Publication: 1944
GREEN FOR DANGER by Christianna Brand is a masterful wartime mystery set in a British hospital during the Blitz.  It’s a standout in Golden Age detective fiction.
March 2026
Publication: 1944
DEATH COMES AS THE END by Agatha Christie is a groundbreaking historical mystery set in ancient Egypt.  It’s the first full-length historical whodunit.
April 2026
Publication: 1944
HOME SWEET HOMICIDE by Craig Rice features a trio of resourceful siblings who set out to solve a murder in their neighborhood. The novel exemplifies Rice’s talent for blending lighthearted storytelling with intricate puzzles, earning her acclaim in the genre — and a Time Magazine cover.
May 2025
Publication: 1945
DIED IN THE WOOL by Ngaio Marsh is a compelling mystery set on a remote New Zealand sheep farm. Marsh was one of the Queens of Crime, and this novel is among her best.
June 2025
Publication: 1946
THE MOVING TOYSHOP by Edmund Crispin is an ingenious mystery featuring eccentric Oxford professor Gervase Fen.  Celebrated for its wit and inventive plot, it’s a crime fiction classic.
July 2026
Publication: 1946
THE HORIZONTAL MAN by Helen Eustis is a psychological mystery set in an Ivy League women’s college.  But as the investigation unfolds, the line between sanity and madness begins to blur.
August 2026
Publication: 1946
THE BIG CLOCK by Kenneth Fearing is a thriller-noir about a man trapped inside the machinery of a powerful publishing empire. This classic inspired the film No Way Out.
September 2026
Publication: 1947
THE FABULOUS CLIPJOINT by Fredric Brown is a gritty mystery about the search for truth. Their investigation takes them through the burlesque houses, bars, and back alleys of Chicago.
October 2026
Publication: 1947
IN A LONELY PLACE by Dorothy B. Hughes is a haunting psychological noir told from the perspective of a charming but deeply disturbed war veteran. As a series of L.A. stranglings terrifies the city, the truth about the protagonist’s volatile desires and violent impulses slowly unravel.
November 2026
Publication: 1947
THE BLANK WALL by Elisabeth Sanxay Holding a suspenseful psychological thriller about an ordinary woman who becomes entangled in a man’s suspicious death while protecting her daughter from inside her seemingly quiet home. 
December 2026
Publication: 1948
THE FRANCHISE AFFAIR by Josephine Tey is a mystery centered on a disturbing accusation. The novel is celebrated for its nuanced psychology and dismantling of false
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Tea, Tonic & Toxin is a history of mystery book club and podcast. We’re reading the best mysteries ever written and interviewing some of the world’s best contemporary mystery and thriller writers.
LAURA by Vera Caspary (1943) is a sophisticated mystery that blends romance and psychological intrigue. Told through shifting perspectives, it follows a detective investigating the murder of a glamorous ad exec. It remains a cornerstone of noir fiction.
Otto Preminger’s 1944 film version is also a stunner. The American Film Institute named it one of the 10 best mystery films of all time.
Get your copy of Laura and all of our History of Mystery book selections here!
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Waldo Lydecker in Laura by Vera Caspary
He met the “lovely child” eight years earlier when she tried to get him to endorse a Byron fountain pen. He describes her as a “fawn and fawn-like,” a “Bambi.”
He’s an omniscient narrator and interpreter. He describes scenes he never saw and dialogues he never heard. “My written dialogue will have more clarity, compatness, and essence of character than their spoken lines, for I am able to edit while I write, whereas they carried on their conversations in a loose and pointless fashion with no sense of form or crisis in the building of their scenes” (19).
Waldo saw everything through the lens of his own emotions. He thought of Laura as a perfect innocent protégée, Shelby as the false hero, and Mark as a little boy he could toy with. McPherson about Waldo: “You’re smooth all right, but you’ve got nothing to say” (9).
The restaurant he and Laura dined at is Montagnino’s. Slum smells mix with the smells of luscious Italian food and a rising storm. Waldo and Mark eat mussels cooked with mustard greens in a chianti, along with a chicken fried in olive oil, laid on a bed of yellow taglierini, garlanded with mushrooms and red peppers. They drink wine Lacrymae Christi (“Christ’s tear”) (produced on the slopes of Mt. Vesuvius, it’s the nearest equivalent of the wine drunk by ancient Romans).
Waldo sees in Claudius’s window a duplicate of the vase made of mercury glass that he had given Laura. Learning the piece has been sold, he breaks it. “He stood in the rain, looking back at Claudius’s shop and smiling. Almost as if he’d got the vase anyway” (105).
At the end of Laura by Vera Caspary, in the ambulance and at the hospital, Waldo keeps talking about himself in the third person. “He was like a hero a boy had always worshipped” (171).
Detective Mark McPherson
“A two-timing dame gets murdered in her flat. So what? … I’m a workingman, I’ve got hours like everyone else. And if you expect me to work overtime on this third-class mystery, you’re thinking of a couple other fellows” (8). Soon thereafter, Waldo sees the light on in Laura’s apartment. “I knew that a young man who had once scorned overtime had given his heart to a job” (39).
He walks with a limp from a shootout (The Siege of Babylon, Long Island). How he lives: “The steel furniture in my bedroom reminded me of a dentist’s office. There wasn’t a comfortable chair in the room” (65). Waldo thinks he’s a misogynist and thinks “his
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Mike Ripley joins Tea, Tonic & Toxin to discuss Margery Allingham’s Albert Campion novels, along with his latest novel in the series, Mr Campion’s Christmas.
Mike Ripley completed the third Albert Campion novel left unfinished on the death of Pip Youngman Carter (Margery Allingham’s husband) in 1969. Mr Campion’s Farewell was published in 2014, and Mike has continued the Campion series annually with the twelfth and final book in the series, Mr Campion’s Christmas, appearing in 2024.
Check out Mike Ripley's work here.
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Mike Ripley joined Carolyn Daughters and Sarah Harrison to discuss the Margery Allingham Campion novels and his latest book in the series, Mr Campion’s Christmas.
Mike is the author of 28 novels, including the award-winning ‘Angel’ series of comedy thrillers and one of the few authors to win the Crime Writers’ Last Laugh Award twice. From 1989 to 2008, he was a crime fiction critic for The Daily Telegraph and then The Birmingham Post, reviewing more than 950 crime novels. He co-edited three volumes of Fresh Blood stories by new British writers, including Ian Rankin, Lee Child, Ken Bruen, Charlie Higson, and Christopher Brookmyre. He was also a scriptwriter on the BBC’s series Lovejoy.
Mike Ripley completed the third Albert Campion novel left unfinished on the death of Pip Youngman Carter (husband of Margery Allingham) in 1969. Mr Campion’s Farewell was published in the UK and the US in 2014, and Mike has continued the Campion series annually with the twelfth and final book in the series, Mr Campion’s Christmas, appearing in 2024. 
Described by The Times as “England’s funniest crime writer,” Mike is a respected critic of crime fiction, writing for the Guardian, Daily Telegraph, and The Times. He writes the monthly “Getting Away With Murder” column on Shots Magazine. He was the series editor of the Ostara Crime and Top Notch Thrillers imprints, rescuing and reviving more than a hundred crime novels and thrillers that did not deserve to be forgotten. He also became known as the unofficial historian of the British thriller after the publication of “Kiss Kiss Bang Bang,” which won the 2018 H.R.F. Keating Award for non-fiction.
Mike Ripley first learned of the final unfinished Albert Campion novel when he was a guest speaker at the Margery Allingham Society’s annual convention. He offered – and received the Margery Allingham Society’s blessing – to complete the manuscript on the adventures of Albert Campion, who Ripley describes as “one of the brightest stars in the rich firmament of British crime writing.”

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Tea, Tonic & Toxin is a history of mystery book club and podcast. We’re reading the best mysteries ever written and interviewing some of the world’s best contemporary mystery and thriller writers.
Traitor’s Purse (1940) by Margery Allingham is a mystery thriller classic that masterfully combines psychological tension with a high-stakes plot. Suffering from amnesia, amateur sleuth Albert Campion races to stop a wartime national security threat.
Known for its psychological depth, the book blends espionage with a classic whodunit. Allingham’s exploration of identity, loyalty, and duty cements the book’s status as a timeless classic in the genre.
Get your book here!
Or check out Mike Ripley's work here.
Watch clips from our conversations with guests!
Join our  Patreon community here! It's free to join, with extra perks for members at every level.
Mike Ripley joins Tea, Tonic & Toxin to discuss Margery Allingham’s Albert Campion novels, along with his latest novel in the series, Mr Campion’s Christmas.
Mike Ripley completed the third Albert Campion novel left unfinished on the death of Pip Youngman Carter (Margery Allingham’s husband) in 1969. Mr Campion’s Farewell was published in 2014, and Mike has continued the Campion series annually with the twelfth and final book in the series, Mr Campion’s Christmas, appearing in 2024.
Mike Ripley joined Carolyn Daughters and Sarah Harrison to discuss the Margery Allingham Campion novels and his latest book in the series, Mr Campion’s Christmas.
Mike is the author of 28 novels, including the award-winning ‘Angel’ series of comedy thrillers and one of the few authors to win the Crime Writers’ Last Laugh Award twice. From 1989 to 2008, he was a crime fiction critic for The Daily Telegraph and then The Birmingham Post, reviewing more than 950 crime novels. He co-edited three volumes of Fresh Blood stories by new British writers, including Ian Rankin, Lee Child, Ken Bruen, Charlie Higson, and Christopher Brookmyre. He was also a scriptwriter on the BBC’s series Lovejoy.
Mike Ripley completed the third Albert Campion novel left unfinished on the death of Pip Youngman Carter (husband of Margery Allingham) in 1969. Mr Campion’s Farewell was published in the UK and the US in 2014, and Mike has continued the Campion series annually with the twelfth and final book in the series, Mr Campion’s Christmas, appearing in 2024. 
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