Month: October 2021

EP3584: Tales of Texas Rangers: Trigger Man

Jayce has to hunt down two vicious fugitive brothers from Oklahoma.

Original Air Date: July 29, 1950

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Book Review: The Kennel Murder Case

In the Kennel Murder Case, a wealthy man is found dead upstairs in a locked room with signs that point to murder. His brother is thought to be the prime suspect until he’s found dead downstairs in a closet. A key clue to solving the case is a badly beaten Scottish terrier. Of course, it falls to Philo Vance to unravel the case.

This is the sixth Philo Vance and in my opinion, it’s much better than the first. Vance is far more likable for one. While in the first book, Vance had a thru line arguing physical evidence was so humbug and how he knows better, the smugness is dialed down considerably. And physical evidence is important to him as he investigates and formulates his theory.

It also helps that Vance is a dog-lover and passionate about the Scottish Terrier breed, giving a really impassioned speech on the breed’s virtues. It humanizes his character quite a bit. Although, it should be noted there are some key differences in the way dogs were treated in the 1930s and what we view as best practices today.

In addition, writer S.S. Van Dine also featured some cameos from real people he knew, which gives the book warmth.

The puzzle has a lot of clues, red herrings, and moving parts that boggle the mind and keep the reader engaged. I’m not a huge fan of the solution, due to ridiculous and improbable mistakes and miscues by so many people. If a re-enactment of the murders as portrayed in the book were done on film, it’d be appropriate to play the Benny Hill theme over it.

Another annoyance is that  Sergeant Heath formulates his theories based on racial stereotypes, although these never pan out.  Despite this, this is an enjoyable read. If you love a decent puzzle mystery or are curious about Philo Vance, this is a fun way to experience the character, if you can tolerate the offensive content and the absurd content..

Rating: 4 out of 5

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EP3583: Yours Truly Johnny Dollar: The Madison Matter

John Lund

A woman shows up in Hartford claiming to be the wife on a Doctor in Los Angeles who reported her dead to collect the insurance.

Original Air Date: April 14, 1953

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EP3582: Philo Vance: The Eagle Murder Case


A man is put into an ambulance with minor injuries after a car accident and when he’s pulled out, he’s dead of a knife wound in his side.

Original AIr Date: September 26, 1946

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EP3581: Man Called X: Race Against Death

Herbert Marshall

Ken fears that the murder of a crusading reporter is tied to a terrorist Puerto Rican nationalist party.

Original Air Date: April 21, 1951

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EP3580: Jeff Regan: Five Hundred Santas from Mexico

A green-eyed dancer hires Regan to find her husband (who works as a department-store Santa) and prove he’s dead so she can collect the insurance.

Original Air Date: November 30, 1949

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EP3579: Casey, Crime Photographer: The Miracle

Stats Cotsworth

A woman begins to doubt that her father really miraculously recovered after being treated by a shady doctor and tells Casey and Ann that she think her father was replaced by someone.

Original Air Date: January 15, 1948

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Audio Drama Review: Black Jack Justice, Season Ten

The Tenth Season of Black Jack Justice saw Jack Justice (Christopher Mott) and Trixie Dixon, Girl Detective (Andrea Lyons) engage in six more episodes set in the 1950s and featuring the regular cast of characters as they navigate a world of mobsters, lying clients, and even a disappearing mummy.

At this point in the series, Black Jack Justice had settled into its reliable mix of hard-boiled narration, philosophical musings on well-worn adages, caustic banter, and occasional gunplay. If you’ve listened to and loved the first nine seasons, there’d be nothing to make you say, “Stop this ride, I want to get off!” It continues to be excellent at what it does.

The fifth episode of the season did push up against the limits of the series. “The One that Got Away,” was about a murder attempt on a man Trixie had toyed with earlier in the series, an operative for the Brakewait insurance agency who’s getting married. The episode is a fun one as Trixie is at the office working late and one by one, Jack and other male supporting characters show up with the man following an attempt on his life after the party. The story has fun twists and crazy dialogue. Yet, it also strives to be more focused on Trixie dealing with someone she’d dated getting married. There, it doesn’t quite work. Trixie as she’s been played for ten seasons is completely self-assured and self-contained with no interest and perhaps no ability to form long-term relationship and no inkling of any further depth. The episode doesn’t do much to push the boundaries of her character as there’s not much further it can be pushed after ten seasons. She works as a superb homage to the dime novel detective but that’s about it.

Overall, the tenth season works, particularly when it sticks to what it does and knows best. If you enjoy noir stories, with witty dialogue and a dose of comedy, Black Jack Justice continues to be a worthy listen.

The Tenth Season of Black Jack Justice is available for free on the Decoder Ring Theatre website.

Rate: 4 out of 5

EP3578: Tales of the Texas Rangers: Apache Peak

Jace Pearson investigates the killing of a New York driver by a hitchhiker.

Original Air Date: July 22, 1950

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EP3577: Yours Truly Johnny Dollar: The Enoch Arden Matter

John Lund

A famous actor has been declared dead and his widow received an insurance payout. However, a nurse claims to have seen the actor alive and Johnny’s called in to investigate.

Original Air Date: April 7, 1953

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EP3576: Philo Vance: The Case of Strange Music

A cantankerous husband is found murdered in a wax display.

Original Air Date: August 9, 1945

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EP3575: Man Called X: Treason at White Sands

Herbert Marshall

The Man Called X has to find out who’s leaking information from a top-secret government project in New Mexico.

Original Air Date: April 14, 1951

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EP3574: Jeff Regan: The Man in the Church

Regan is hired to deliver $5,000. Regan gets suspicious and follows the recipient home only to see him murdered.

 

Original Air Date: October 12, 1949

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EP3573: Casey, Crime Photographer: Queen of the Amazon

Stats Cotsworth

Casey and Ann interview an ex-circus strongwoman who captured two burglars who made the mistake of trying to rob her hope chest. What was in the chest?

Original Air Date: January 8, 1948

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Audio Drama Review: The Avengers: The Comic Strip Adaptations, Volume 5

Big Finish released its fifth volume of Avengers Comic Strip Adaptations based on four 1960s Avengers comic strip stories featuring John Steed and Tara King. In this recast version, Julian Wadham and Emily Woodward play Steed and King with their superior Mother played by veteran British Actor Christopher Benjamin (Jago & Litefoot.) 

The box set opens with “Whatever Next.” Steed and King are summoned to headquarters by Mother to witness a heroic saving of the world through Soviet and US Cooperation. The reason for the cooperation? An eerily correct prediction from a man who claims he got the information from aliens. Steed and King are on the case and quickly find themselves marked for murder.

This story is clever, fun, and moves at a solid place. At it’s core is an entertaining mystery that introduced a lot of twists and red herrings before turning in an unexpected solution. Overall, this is a solid opening story for the set.

In the second story, “How Does Your Garden Grow,” Steed and King are called into investigate when giant plants endanger the operation of a British Airbase.

As a story, this is a superb vehicle for Tara King, as we learn she’s an expert pilot. She gets to shine and show her stuff several times. We get a decent enough mystery that has a nice twist and sets the stage for some lovely aerial dog fights, which are well-realized over audio.

In, “A Very Civil War,” An armored van is robbed carrying new Bank of England notes. However, both the van and the stolen money is recovered or is it? Steed senses something’s wrong and sets off to find the truth.

This story has a  good mystery as to what happened. But it’s much more of a hook. Once Steed begins to look into it (as Steed himself observes), the solution becomes rather obvious. It’s all a lead in to the classic Avengers situation of infiltrating a quirky group of people (in this case re-enactors of the English Civil War) to find out what’s going on.

This is very much a standard Avengers story but realized well. It makes for a breezy fifty minutes of entertainment and does out a good measure of mystery, swashbuckling action, and more than a bit of humor, with just a touch of light flirting. Overall, a thoroughly satisfying listen.

The sets concludes with “Mother’s Day.” Mother is set to go back to her old school for sports day as the guest of honor after the first honoree had to drop out. However, Steed and King look into it and find a string of mysterious deaths and disappearances surrounding all the other members of Mother’s Sports Day championship back in the 1930s.

This is a good old-fashioned romp. The story gives us a big mystery to be solved, but also there’s plenty of fun cases of impersonation and trying to maintain cover, wacky motives, insane murder attempts, and then there’s Mother’s Aunt with her constant pronouncements of doom.

This episode also sees the return of Linda Thorson (the original Tara King) to the Avengers franchise in another part and she turns in an absolutely superb performance in an interesting part.

This is the last announced Avengers project from Big Finish as of this writing. While I hope there will be more, if this is the last Avengers story they do, this is a wonderful release to go out on.

Rating: 4.25 out of 5

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