Welcome to Mysteries to Die For. I am TG Wolff and am here with Jack, my piano player and producer. 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. Jack and I perform these live, front to back, no breaks, no fakes, no retakes (unless it's really bad, then he makes me start all over again.)

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 builds from the previous. You have to listen in order for the story to make sense. Start with the episode called “What a Lovely Corpse you Have” and catch up to us from there. We’ll be here for you. We’ve listed a cast of characters in the show notes to help keep track of the players.

To recap, our hero, Diamond, has faked her death, burying the mainstream, suburban professional she was to resurrect her CIA cover. Why? She needs to do what the police won’t, investigate her husband’s death. In the last episode, Diamond arrived in Rome, Italy and met with a statuesque woman harboring security footage of that fateful night. Liberating the footage was easy, watching it was another story. Two surprises emerged. First, another nerd-food scientist, Francisco Thelan, died the same night as Gavriil. And, second, before his death, Gavriil had given another woman his room key.

Today’s story is about gibberish, a cheap skate, and a notebook. This is Episode 6: How Do You Say “Busted” in Russian?

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Characters introduced so far

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

Gavriil Rubchinsky. Russian-born, nerd scientist specializing in quinoa. 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.

Andrew Dixon. Seventeen-year-old genius delinquent currently surfing Diamond’s couch

Carlo Giancarlo. Diamond’s Italian translator and partner in crime.

Ilsa Duma-whatever. Russian-born Italian bookseller. Totally did not seduce Gavriil.

Francisco Thelan. Another nerd-scientist specializing in food. Also dead. Died same night as Gavriil.

Dr. Quili Liu. Gavriil Rubchinsky’s successor, a Chinese-born, nerd-scientist who also loves quinoa.

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

Alexei Rubchinsky. Russian-born, nerd scientist specializing in the body. Diamond’s brother-in-law.

Montgomery Rand. Minor league con man. Reported genius who doesn’t have the brains to use what God gave him.

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Mysteries to Die For is sponsored by Down & Out Books. The featured new release this week is Cold Water by Tom Pitts.

After a miscarriage, a young couple move from San Francisco to the Sacramento suburbs to restart their lives. When the vacant house across the street is taken over by who they think are squatters, they’re pulled into a battle neither of them bargained for. The gang of unruly drug addicts who’ve infested their block have a...