Month: March 2018

AWR0039: Les Miserables: Javert

Amazing World of Radio

Val Jean starts a new life and becomes a leading citizen, but Inspector Javert is sure he recognizes him from somewhere. Meanwhile a young single mother named Fantine struggles to survive in early 19th Century France.

Original Air Date: July 30, 1937

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EP2453: Richard Diamond: The Cover-Up Murders

Dick Powell

An anonymous man calls Walt and threatens to commit a murder at 8 o’clock. He succeeds and plans to do it again.

Rebroadcast Date: June 7, 1953

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EP2452: Rocky Fortune: A Sitting Duck for Death

Frank Sinatra

A killer who Rocky put away escapes prison threatening to murder Rocky and those who sent him up. Rocky tries to get out of town, but one of the men on the list wants to use Rocky as a decoy to draw out the killer.

Original Air Date: February 23, 1954

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EP2451: Night Beat: The Policy Wheel Racket

Frank Lovejoy

A blind man tells Randy the leader of a local rescue mission has been severely beaten. Randy wants to find out why but the man won’t tell him.

Original Air Date: September 18, 1952

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EP2450s: Police Woman: The Case of the Scheming Bridegroom

Betty Garde

A woman is interested in marrying a man from a personals ad but fears he’s a murderer, Lt. Mary Sullivan investigates.

Original Air Date June 29, 1947

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EP2450: Dragnet: The Big Impossible

Jack Webb

Friday and Smith think they’ve found the man behind a series of robberies. The only problem? He couldn’t have possibly done it because he was in a sanitarium.

Original Air Date: March 15, 1953

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Audiobook Review: Brand of the Black Bat


Introduced at the same time as Batman, the Black Bat was a pulp fiction vigilante appearing in sixty-five short novels between 1939-1955.

Brand of the Black Bat provides the character’s origin. DA Tony Quinn’s eyes are splashed with acid leading to disfigurement and blindness. However, a mysterious woman helps him get an operation that restores his sight. He sets out to punish evildoers and fight crime outside the law as the Black Bat.

The Black Bat in his first appearance is given a pretty solid origin story which was unusual for the time. We get to see the events that changed his life, how he met his associates, and his first case as the Black Bat. As a pulp crime story, Brand of the Black Bat is fairly good. It’s no Maltese Falcon, but it has some good villains, a decent mystery, and a satisfying conclusion.

The story does feature a lot of oddities and eccentricities that reflect the silly publishing practices of the time. There’s the case of Silky, a burglar who breaks into Quinn’s house on the night before he’s blinded. It’s the same night another person is breaking into Quinn’s house to kill him. Silky wakes Quinn which allows Quinn to thwart the killer. In turn, Quinn makes Silky his valet and has him following into court the next day.  Silky immediately becomes his loyal servant and lifetime confidante. Quinn keeps pretending to be blind. To avoid suspicion of not being blind, he constantly finds new ways to appear klutzy and totally helpless. In real life, most people who’ve been blind a long time don’t have such foibles. And then there’s the over the top dialogue.

The audiobook is read by Michael McConnohie, who also reads the Doc Savage audiobooks. His powerful, resonant voice makes this book a delight to listen to. The exciting and epic moments of the book sound even better with McConnohie’s powerful reading voice. For the same reason, those parts that are unintentionally funny are even funnier.

If you like pulp fiction, the Brand of the Black Bat is worth a read or a listen. It gives a good, detailed origin story for its protagonist and supporting characters. It’s the type of story that can be seen as a potential inspiration for modern heroes like Marvel’s Daredevil. Despite its flaws and the parts that haven’t aged well, it’s well worth checking out.

Rating: 3.75 out of 5.0

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EP2449: Yours Truly Johnny Dollar: The Stock in Trade Matter

Bob Bailey

Johnny investigates the murder of a man in a small town who lived alone in an old Southern plantation house.

Original Air Date: June 4, 1961

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EP2448: Boston Blackie: The Joe Easton Car Theft Ring

Richard Kollmar

Blackie is worried that boys are abandoning the local gym to curry favor with a mobster who was just released from prison and is now flush with cash. Meanwhile, a string of car thefts is plaguing the city.

Original Air Date: March 11, 1947

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