Month: November 2012

Audio Drama Review: Hilary Caine Mysteries, Box Set 1

In the Hilary Caine Mysteres, MJ Elliot, known for his adaptations of classic Sherlock Holmes and Father Brown programs created an original comedy mystery series for Jim French Productions in Seattle.

It’s the 1930s and Hilary Caine (played by Australian Karen Heaven) works as the house detective for the tabloid Tittle Tattle Magazine. She goes and solves crimes and they tell the true story (or something approximating the true story) in the pages of the tabloid Tittle Tattle magazine. She usual assists Inspector Julius Finn (Randy Hoffmeyer) or is it the other way around?

Hilary has a great line of patter that simply has to be listened to in order to be believed. The comedy is priceless. Consider this example:

Hilary: I was having with my friend Hercules Poyrot –
Finn: I believes that Hercules Poirot. And I believe he’s fictional.
Hilary: Nonsense. If he wasn’t real, who was I having lunch with?
And this line:

Hillary: She made me furious when she said English people are repressed.
Finn: You did a good job hiding it.

Another time when asked about her religious affiliation, she declared she was “a lapsed skeptic.” However,  just because she makes statements that could come from Gracie Allen and has an imagination that seems to struggle to under the difference between reality and fictions, she shouldn’t be underestimated. She’s got a keen mind and manages to unravel some clever mysteries. MJ Elliot and Jim French successfully captured the spirit of the 1930s screwball mystery comedies. I was also somewhat reminded of Barbara Britton’s portrayal of Pam North on television, although Hillary Caine’s stories are much more British.

The nine mysteries in this collection are mostly solid though there are a couple that seemed a little too easy to figure. One of them reminded me a little bit of the Father Brown Story, “The Quick One” in it’s set up though it’s denouement was different.

Overall, the people who brought us the Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and The Adventures of Harry Nile have once again brought fans of classic mysteries a wonderful character to enjoy, so I heartily recommend this collection.

The collection is available at Jim French Production’s website  for $29.95 on CD and $15.00 for audio downloads. It is also available on Audible at a discount or for free as part of an Audible trial offer.

If you enjoyed this post, you can have new posts about Detective stories and the golden age of radio and television delivered automatically to your Kindle.

This post contains affiliate links, which means that items purchased from these links may result in a commission being paid to the author of this post at no extra cost to the purchaser.

EP0790: Yours Truly Johnny Dollar: The Uncut Canary Matter

John Lund
Johnny searches for a difficult to cut diamond.

Original Air Date: February 16, 1954

Save more and combine hotel and airline fare at http://www.johnnydollarair.com

Become one of our friends on Facebook…http://www.facebook.com/radiodetectives

Take the listener survey at http://survey.greatdetectives.net

Click here to download, click here to add this podcast to your Itunes, click here to subscribe to this podcast on Zune, click here to subscribe to this feed using any other feed reader

EP0789: Sherlock Holmes: The Guest in the Coffin

Someone has declared open war on London’s policemen and ordered a coffin for Sherlock Holmes.

Original Air Date: February 14, 1949

Take our listener survey: http://survey.greatdetectives.net

Become one of our friends on Facebook… http://www.facebook.com/radiodetectives

Call 208-991-4783 to leave a voicemail.

Click here to download, click here to add this podcast to your Itunes, click here to sub