The writers and story editors of Murdoch Mysteries display a great love, if not passion, for a wide range of literary works and admiration for their creators. Throughout the MM Seasons, they have skillfully woven in quotes, references, and the authors themselves into the their plots and story lines.
Season 1
Elementary, My Dear Murdoch
- Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes
Body Double
- "Sorry sight...murder!" – MacBeth Act II, sc.2, William Shakespeare
- "Out damn spot..." – MacBeth Act V, sc.1
- "If we should fail..." – MacBeth Act I, sc. 7
- "Alas, poor Yorick, I knew him, Horatio." – Hamlet Act V, Sc.1, William Shakespeare
- "Fillet of a fenny snake, In the caldron boil and bake;" – MacBeth Act IV, Scene1
- "Foul whisp'rings are abroad. " – MacBeth Act V, Scene1
- "A kind heart he had; A woman would run through / fire and water for such a kind heart." – The Merry Wives of Windsor Act III, Sc.4, William Shakespeare
- "False face must hide what the false heart doth know." – MacBeth Act I, Sc. 7
"Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player / That struts and frets his hour upon the stage / And then is heard no more. It is a tale / Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, / Signifying nothing." – MacBeth Act V, Sc. 5
- "Lead us not into temptation" – Bible Matthew 6:13
- H.G Wells books The War in the Air and The Food of the Gods
Season 2
Houdini Whodunit
- H.G. Wells' The Time Machine (published 1895)
Let Us Ask the Maiden
- The Zohar
- Songs of Songs, also known as Song of Solomon or Canticles : “Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth! For your love is better (more delightful) than wine;”
Anything You Can Do...
- The Collected Works of William Topaz McGonagall
- The Critical and Explanatory Account of the Poetry of George Gordon Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley by I. Faith Chapter on Values, Themes, and symbols
- Byron’s Death and Darkness poem
- Shelley’s To A Skylark : “Hail to thee, blithe Spirit! / Bird thou never wert, / That from Heaven, or near it, / Pourest thy full heart.”
- Poets of the Romantic Era vs Post-Restoration Period
- Jasper: "Any woman that can recite To A Skylark while opening a human heart is a rare woman indeed, make it right, William."
Season 3
Future Imperfect
- H.G. Wells' The Island of Doctor Moreau (published 1896)
Season 4
Monsieur Murdoch
- Georges Simenon based his Chief Inspector Jules Maigret on Marcel Guillaume, head of the brigade spéciale of the Parisian police judiciaire.
Blood Lust
- Irish author Bram Stoker's Dracula (published 1897), a Gothic horror novel
Murdoch in Wonderland
- Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland (published 1865)
Season 5
Murdoch of the Klondike
- Jack London's Call of the Wild (published 1903)
Season 6
A Study in Sherlock
- Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes
Season 7
Return of Sherlock Holmes
- Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes
Journey to the Centre of Toronto
- Jules Verne's Journey to the Center of the Earth (published 1864)
Season 8
The Devil Wears Whalebone
- Lauren Weisberger's The Devil Wore Prada (published 2003)
Season 9
Marked Twain
- Mark Twain