Macmillan Audio (Audio Renaissance) released an unabridged version of Paranoia by Joseph Finder back in 2004. Now the audiobook is FREE to all Audible.com account holders. It’s available right now and for the next few days. Here’s a “radio ad” for the book |MP3|
Paranoia
By Joseph Finder; Read by Scott Brick FREE Audible Download – 13 Hours 8 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Macmillan Audio
Published: July 2009
Provider: Audible.com Adam Cassidy is 26 and a low-level employee at a high-tech corporation who hates his job. When he manipulates the system to do something nice for a friend, he finds himself charged with a crime. Corporate Security gives him a choice: prison – or become a spy in the headquarters of their chief competitor, Trion Systems. They train him and feed him inside information. Now at Trion, he’s a star, skyrocketing to the top. He finds he has talents he never knew he possessed. He’s rich, drives a Porsche, lives in a fabulous apartment, and works directly for the CEO. He’s dating the girl of his dreams. His life is perfect. All he has to do to keep it that way is betray everyone he cares about and everything he believes in. But when he tries to break off from his controllers, he finds himself in way over his head, where nothing is what it seems and no one can really be trusted. And then the REAL nightmare begins…
This week’s CBC Radio 1 Podcast of Writers & Company focuses on international crime writers. Host Eleanor Wachtel talks to Gianrico Carofiglio (Italy); Asa Larsson (Sweden); Louise Welsh (Scotland); Giles Blunt (Canada). They talk about mystery writing, their books and their inspirations (Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson, Greek mythology, the Old and New Testament villains King David, Judas, Cain, O.T.-God) . |MP3|
There’s a terrific mix of Science Fiction, Mystery and Crime stories, novels and dramatizations set to be broadcast this week. It looks like every single one is a repeat, but I can’t think of any set of repeats better sounding than these! So what are you waiting for? All of them should be available in your Radio Downloader browser right now!
The High Window
Based on the novel by Raymond Chandler; Performed by a full cast
1 Broadcast – Approx. 90 Minutes [RADIO DRAMA]
Broadcaster: BBC Radio 7
Broadcast: Saturday August 1, 2009 @ 1pm and 1am When wise-cracking private eye Philip Marlowe is hired to track down a valuable missing coin, he quickly discovers that contact with it invariably has fatal consequences. Dramatised by Bill Morrison, John Tydeman’s production was first broadcast in 1977. Stars Ed Bishop.
The Mortal Immortal
By Mary Shelley; Read by Shaun Dooley
1 Broadcast – Approx. 30 Minutes [ABRIDGED?]
Broadcaster: BBC Radio 7
Broadcast: Sunday at 6.30pm and 12.30am Driven to despair by disappointment in love, alchemist’s assistant Cornelius drinks a potion which he discovers to be the elixir of life. At first, Cornelius revels in what he sees as his good fortune – until the drawbacks of his action slowly start to become clear. This production by Gemma Jenkins was specially made for Radio 7 and first broadcast in 2005.
Slipstream
By Simon Bovey; Performed by a full cast
5 Broadcasts – Approx. 2.5 Hours [RADIO DRAMA]
Broadcaster: BBC Radio 7
Broadcast: Monday to Friday, August 3 – 7, 2009 @ 6pm and Midnight When 150 aircraft are shot down in one raid, Colonel Barton fears the destruction was the work of Slipstream, a terrifying new weapon developed by the enemy. Barton determines to find the weapon before it can be used again. Simon Bovey’s World War Two drama was specially commissioned for Radio 7. Produced by Marc Beeby, it stars Rory Kinnear and Tim McMullan and was originally transmitted in 2008.
Pattern Recognition
By William Gibson; Read by Lorelei King
5 Broadcasts – Approx. 2.5 Hours [ABRIDGED]
Broadcaster: BBC Radio 7
Broadcast: Monday to Friday, August 3 – 7, 2009 @ 6.30pm and 12.30am Cayce Pollard has an unusual allergy which leaves her hyper-sensitive to brand names. Instinctively aware of what products will and will not succeed, she enjoys a lucrative career in advertising. On a business trip to London, however, she finds herself involved in tracking down the maker of a strangley addictive online film – a search that proves to be extremely dangerous. This Radio 7 commission was first broadcast in 2007.
Down Payment On Death
By Jim Eldridge; Performed by a full cast
5 Broadcasts – Approx. 2.5 Hours [RADIO DRAMA]
Broadcaster: BBC Radio 7
Broadcast: Monday to Friday, August 3 – 7, 2009 @ 1.30pm, 8.30pm and 1.30am Professional assassin Art Gordo is blackmailed into doing one last job by Clarke from ‘The Department’. Adapted by Jim Eldridge’s 1972 novel. Stars Dinsdale Landon as Art and Glyn Owen as target Allweather. First broadcast in 1976 on the BBC’s World Service.
Here’s a reminder that tonight sees the beginning of The Adventures Of Sexton Blake in a six week run on BBC Radio 2. But if you’re still not sure who this Blake bloke is, I’ve got the solution. Using my amazing skills of research (RadioArchive.cc) I’ve uncovered a July 28th, 2009 documentary about this Sexton Blake character. It’s called The Hunt For Sexton Blake and runs a full hour. Interested parties can find the well seeded torrent for it through RadioArchive.cc. It’s filed in the “factual” section there. Here’s the description:
Who exactly is Sexton Blake? People under the age of 45 might ask that question, but anyone older is likely to have read one of the 4000 stories by over 200 authors, or seen the films, the stage adaptations, the many TV shows, or listened to his adventures on radio.
Sexton Blake is one of the most famous and long-lived fictional detectives and adventurers of all time, who battled opium smugglers, bandit chiefs and the Kaiser. In his heyday he was more widely read than Sherlock Holmes – enjoyed by working people all over the British Empire – and whilst Holmes features in very few stories, Blake appeared in thousands.
In this hour long profile and exploration of Blake’s impact, David Quantick talks to author Michael Moorcock, who used to edit the Sexton Blake Library; Jack Adrian a former writer; and comic book illustrator Kevin O’Neil, who co-created The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen and other heroes.
That Blake didn’t have the same critical recognition, could be attributed to the fact the stories were published in cheap magazines, rather than in proper books. Or because the writers themselves didn’t move in the right circles, to make friends and influence people. While Ian Fleming had been to Eton and Sandhurst, the Blake authors were a rag tag bunch of eccentrics, whose own lives were worked into the tales. Michael Moorcock tells David that the Blake writers were puzzled at how James Bond was liked by critics, when the early novels were badly plotted and featured cartoon-like villains hiding in volcanoes.
David also hears about the Blake author who vanished under mysterious circumstances. The writer’s wife sent in his remaining Blake manuscripts without saying he’d disappeared, and then passed off her new partner’s work as that of her dead husband. It wouldn’t take Sexton Blake to tell you there was something fishy going on there!
Time to double click on that Radio Downloader shortcut you’ve placed on your desktop folks! There’s a rebroadcast of the 2008 BBC Radio 7 commissioned collection of five stories called This Is Pulp Fiction. Airing in the Crime and Thrillers slot are readings of stories by William F. Nolan, Gil Brewer and Jim Thompson! Honestly, how can you pass it all up?
This is Pulp Fiction
By various; Read by Peter Marinker
5 Broadcasts – [ABRIDGED]
Broadcaster: BBC Radio 7
Broadcast: July 28th – 31st 2009 (Monday – Friday @ 1:45pm, 8:45pm and 1:45am) Peter Marinker reads some of the best in classic American Pulp Fiction, abridged for radio by Nick McCarty.
Stories included:
1/5 Divide and Conquer
By Jack Ritchie Tommy’s Casino chain is running smoothly till some new blood tries to muscle in. A classic 1957 crime thriller about a cleverly foiled protection racket.
2/5 The Getaway
By Gil Brewer Gangster Vincente is about to make the biggest hit of his career. A classic 1976 crime thriller about a gangland hit with a twist.
3/5 Black
By Paul Cain There’s a gang war raging, and Black is there to sort things out.
4/5 Forever After
By Jim Thompson Ardis Clinton has a foolproof plan to kill her husband. From 1960, a crime thriller about a woman’s comeuppance.
5/5 A Real Nice Guy
By William F. Nolan A serial sniper is stalking for another target in Los Angeles. From 1980.
This just in… The Adventures Of Sexton Blake starts broadcasting on BBC Radio 2 next Friday night (July 31st at 9.15pm U.K. time) for six weeks.
Sexton Blake may not be a super familiar name to everyone today but according to wikipedia and a few fansites that wasn’t always the case. Created in 1893 Blake was an instant hit when he was born and made resident of Baker Street in the very month Sherlock Holmes was “killed off” by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
Perfectly Normal productions said this new production should also be available on the BBC iPlayer – and we checked, it’s already showing up as a Radio Downloader subscribable show.
Sez Weir (who did the sound design and composed the music for the show):
“Whilst [The Adventures Of Sexton Blake is] more fantasy and crime than straight science-fiction, it stars Simon Jones, better known as Arthur Dent from the classic radio series, The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy. Following broadcast, the show will then be available in a much extended form on CD and as a high quality special edition download from our site.”
COOL!
The Adventures Of Sexton Blake
Based on the character created by Harry Blyth; Performed by a full cast
6 Parts – Approx. 90 Minutes [RADIO DRAMA]
Broadcaster: BBC Radio 2
Broadcast: Fridays @ 21:15-21:30 beginning July 31st 2009 Britain’s iconic and most prolifically chronicled sleuth explodes back into action in a brand new series of thrilling Adventures packed with incident and hilarity! – The name that spells HURTLING ADVENTURE! –
SEXTON BLAKE, (Simon Jones, The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy) and his plucky assistant TINKER (Wayne Forester, Captain Scarlet), aided by MRS BARDELL (June Whitfield, Absolutely Fabulous) battle Diabolical Masterminds, Beautiful Thieves and Dastardly Assassins. – The name that spells DOOM for VILLAINY! – Nearly four decades after his last public incarnation, Sexton Blake remains an icon, a contemporary of Sherlock Holmes who outlasted his fellow Baker Street Sleuth to become hugely popular through books, films and radio during the 20th Century. In his 100-plus years of existence Blake has been portrayed in every possible way, from jobbing detective to Britain’s Saviour. This new series weaves new, fantastical and very funny tales set in a brightly coloured early 20th century world such as that portrayed in the 1920s Union Jack stories, where villains are inevitably dastardly and it’s a matter of course to resolve a case in a sabre-duelling climax atop an exploding zeppelin. – The name that spells … SEXTON BLAKE!
Cast:
SIMON JONES……Sexton Blake, Adventuring Detective
WAYNE FORESTER……Tinker, his Plucky Assistant
JUNE WHITFIELD……Mrs Bardell, their Doughty Housekeeper
GRAHAM HOADLY……Professor Kew, a Spindly Cackler
LORELEI KING……Miss Elizabeth Mary-Louise Tarabelle Beauchamp
SIMON TREVES……Inspector Coutts Of Scotland Yard
FELICITY DUNCAN……Miss Terry, Window-Leaping Adventuress
SUSAN SHERIDAN……Mrs Hudson, Housekeeper To A Neighbouring Detective
MALCOLM BROWN……Count Ivor Carlac, a Villainous Juggernaut
PHILIP GLASSBOROW……Cyril, A Grim Assassin
OSCAR SHARP……The Frantic Caller
WILLIAM FRANKLYN……The Mysterious Waiter
Paranoia
