“The Hands of Mr. Ottermole” was short story by early 20th century writer, Thomas Burke, a British writer. Anthony Boucher, the great mystery fiction critic, said of the story that it is “a sheerly, terrifying story…which imparts to the reader a quality of horror and shock usually associated with tales of supernatural or pure sensation, while staying in the bounds… (more…)
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This podcast – a look at the police procedural Police Blotter. The series was little known and only two copies exist. It wasn’t a very good series and definitely not a procedural along the lines of Dragnet from which it was probably created to copy. It starred character actor Bill Zuckert who is heard over many radio dramas in the… (more…)
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A Merry Christmas gift – I am repeating an episode I did of Richard Diamond, Private Detective back in 2006. This one is a wonderful Christmas variation on Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. Enjoy!
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The newspaperman as detective has been a part of many radio series. I revisit one of them in Box 13 which starred Alan Ladd. Leroy Panek says “If many of the writers of the period were journalists, the newspaper person is also a favorite character in their detective and crime stories.” The same is true of radio since many of… (more…)
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Rupert Croft-Cooke is a little known British writer who wrote a short story based upon a play called Banquo’s Chair in 1930. His mystery writings were never on the level of Dorothy Sayers, Agatha Christie or G.K Chesterton, all of whom he spoofed in a detective story he wrote. But his story Banquo’s Chair did achieve some success starting with… (more…)
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A revisit to the early forties female detective series Hot Copy which premiered in October 1941 and carried through the war years until November 1944. With the initial lead of Anne Rogers, columnist and detective, starring Fern Persons, a Chicago area radio actress. The series featured mostly crimes committed that seem to have a war theme including black market sales… (more…)
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Often pilot episodes never make it to broadcast. Crime on the Waterfront starring Myron Wallace is one of those detective series that never saw the light of airtime. Coming before potential sponsors in 1949 just when television was getting wind in its sail, and given the plethora of radio detectives already on, Crime on the Waterfront never had a chance.… (more…)
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This week, a Suspense clone suggested by and scripted by John Dickson Carr, who was also the creator of the Man In Black on Suspense. Appointment With Fear was JD Carr’s bringing of Suspense to the British public in the mid-1940s. Their Man in Black looked and sounded the part – Valentine Dyall, a man with a sonorous voice. This… (more…)
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This week a completely different radio play for the Radio Detective Story Hour. Not so much mystery as spy thriller. And not so much old time radio as new radio drama. The story involves a mystery on a train during Cold War Europe. The train is another route of the Orient Express and involves murder, documents and a bit of… (more…)
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This week you’ll hear from a detective who is not well known, yet, the novel on which it is based is considered very influential to the modern detective story. E.C. Bentley originally wrote his novel, Trent’s Last Case, on a challenge from his life-long friend, G.K. Chesterton. Bentley wrote this after becoming exasperated with the “perfection” Conan Doyle built into… (more…)
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