mystery – Page 21

Aural Noir Review of The Adventures Of Sexton Blake

Friday, November 6, 2009Wednesday, November 11, 2009 Jesse Willis

Aural Noir: Review

SFFaudio Essential The Adventures of Sexton Blake
Based on the character created by Harry Blyth; Performed by a full cast
2 CDs or MP3 Download – Approx. 2 Hours [RADIO DRAMA]
Publisher: BBC Audiobooks / Perfectly Normal Productions
Published: September 2009
ISBN: 1408410540
Themes: / Mystery / Adventure / Crime / Steampunk / Airships / London / Exmouth / Willesden /

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!

Back in 2006 we had a story about the new co-venture between Perfectly Normal productions and BBC Audiobooks. Audio drama legend Dirk Maggs was set to revive several “cult British comic characters.” This is the first of these. I hope there will be MANY MORE!

Sexton Blake, a renowned Baker Street detective, and his youthful assistant Tinker regularly face peril with deceptive disguises and flying fists. In between investigations they return to their Baker Street rooming house for endless lashings of tea and heaping plates of kippers. Their landlady, Mrs. Bardell, makes the food, debriefs the great detective, and commiserates with her neighbor, Mrs. H. (she’s also a landlady to another famous Baker street detective). The story begins aboard a runaway locomotive at the tail end of a kind of locked room mystery – after a few shootings by the various suspicious characters and a brief detour into the dining car’s wine cellar, the villain is revealed -only to escape by auto-gyro. When Blake returns to his Baker street residence he’s soon embroiled in a new investigation brought on by the arrival of a beautiful American actress. The investigation is both serpentine and ingenious, and it leads directly into the next – one in which an incredibly capable and amnesic woman saves Blake and Tinker from a false charge of burglary. Their investigation into her curious abilities and former profession lead Blake and Tinker into a house of deathtraps (or is that a deathtrap house). The action finally culminates in a thrilling saber duel atop a Zeppelin! At the beginning of each new episode there’s a mini-scene from an unrelated Sexton Blake adventure – each depicting Blake defeating either a rapscallious villain or a villainous rapscallion.

The Adventures Of Sexton Blake is jam packed with as much rib-tickling raillery as The Hitch-Hiker’s Guide To The Galaxy. The script is unbelievably clever and funny. It features a kind of endless stream-of-consciousness wordplay that clearly follows in the tradition of Douglas Adams, Monty Python, and The Goon Show. What sets it apart from it’s forebearers is a strict adherence to the medium. The only possible way to tell this tale is as an audio drama. Perhaps the most amazing aspect is vaguely amazing feeling I got while listening to it. There’s this kind of general consensus by all the characters to LARP their way through the adventure. No one character has the final word on anything, and every character in the scene is constantly throwing new nuance on the mental pictures being created in the listener. It’s not so much a mystery you can solve by following the clues, it’s more of an adventure you can ride with a flashing smirk.

These adventures are brilliantly envisioned by a terrific combination of skilled comedic acting, an engaging theme song and thousands of layered sound effects. I’m betting the script was at least twice as thick, per minute, as a typical (or ordinary, or normal) one. The outstanding cast and crew has made The Adventures Of Sexton Blake a play that can stand shoulder to shoulder, chin to chin, and eye to eye, with the finest audio dramatizations ever produced – and not feel even the slightest weak in the knees. This is very highly recommended listening!

Crew:
Written by Mil Millington and Jonathan Nash; Directed by Dirk Maggs
Sound Design and Music by Paul Weir
Produced by David Morley

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

Posted by Jesse Willis

New Releases: BBC Audiobooks America does SHERLOCK HOLMES

Monday, October 5, 2009 Jesse Willis

Aural Noir: New Releases

Here are two new releases from BBC Audiobooks America, read by the best Watson ever!

Three Tales of Avarice by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle; Read by Edward Hardwicke

Includes:
•The Adventure of the Priory School
•The Red-Headed League
•The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle

Three Tales of Intrigue by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle; Read by Edward Hardwicke

Includes:
•The Crooked Man
•The Greek Interpreter
•The Naval Treaty

Posted by Jesse Willis

Free @ Audible.com: The Case Of The Missing Will by Agatha Christie

Thursday, September 17, 2009Thursday, September 17, 2009 Jesse Willis

Aural Noir: Online Audio

Here’s a FREE Agatha Christie short story from BBC Audiobooks America [via Audible.com]. I have at least one friend who’ll snap up this download within about two seconds of seeing this post. And check out the narrator!

The Case of the Missing Will
By Agatha Christie; Read by David Suchet
FREE Audible Download – Approx. 21 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: BBC Audiobooks America
Published: 2008
Provider: Audible.com
Poirot receives an unusual request for help from a Miss Violet Marsh, who was orphaned as a child and went to live with her peculiar Uncle Andrew. He died a month ago, leaving a will with a strange clause. Marsh has given instructions that his “clever” niece is allowed to live in his house for one month and in that time she has to “prove her wits” and find his second will. If at the end of that time she hasn’t, all his worldly goods go to charitable institutions and she will be left with nothing. Can Poirot help her?

Posted by Jesse Willis

Aural Noir Review of The Fabulous Clipjoint by Fredric Brown

Tuesday, August 25, 2009Tuesday, August 25, 2009 Jesse Willis

Aural Noir: Review

[This audiobook was created by Wonder Audiobooks which is owned by SFFaudio contributor and a past reviews editior Rick Jackson]

SFFaudio Essential The Fabulous Clipjoint
By Fredric Brown; Read by William Coon
Audible Download – 5 Hours 36 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Audible.com / Wonder Audio
Published: 2009
Themes: / Crime / Mystery / Murder / Alcoholism / Noir / Carny / Chicago / Janesville /

You’ll hear the soft, lazy voice of a dame who’s been around, and you’ll meet up with a beautiful heller. You’ll learn the lurid secrets of a man’s locked past, and you’ll prowl dark alleys with two men–two men turned hunters. And you’ll wonder–why Ed and his Uncle Am didn’t level with the cops; what business a gang would have with Ed’s dead father; and where the killer thought the hunters would go wrong. Here are your answers, in this fast-spinning, two-fisted mystery about thugs, molls, and carnival folks.

Ed Hunter is 18, an apprentice linotype operator in 1940s Chicago. He works with his father. One morning Ed gets up to work only to find his father missing, having not come home the night before. This can only mean one thing – MURDER! The cops aren’t too interested, his alcoholic stepmother and oversexed step sister aren’t up for it, so it’s up to Ed to get justice. But to get the job done he’ll need help so For he enlists his uncle, a carny with more brains and experience than any man Ed knows.

Rick Jackson, the man behind Wonder Audiobooks, is a good friend of mine. It’d be hard to say I’m 100% objective about reviewing his stuff. The problem mostly being that he and I have such similar tastes in audiobooks and fiction that to praise one of his audiobooks is very much like saying how cool I am! But he is cool damn it! And more importantly this is a truly awesome audiobook. I will stake my reputation on you loving it. If you’re twice as apt to like an old crime novel as a new one, then you’re three times as apt to love The Fabulous Clipjoint. The mystery is not hard to follow, the story is told in first person, but conversely it was devilishly hard to solve. I pride myself on being an excellent armchair detective, but I was happily baffled right up til the big reveal. That’s really saying something. William Coon sounds like a wise teenager. But then whenever he’s tasked with another character’s voice he switches: Falsetto, gruff, kindly, Coon does them all. Highly recommended.

Posted by Jesse Willis

BBC R7: Chandler, Daly, Wells, Matheson, King!

Friday, August 7, 2009 Jesse Willis

SFFaudio Online Audio

The coming week on BBC Radio 7 is chock full of must listen content. These are all re-runs so you’ve probably heard at least one or two of them before. Myself, I’m most excited about hearing Anton Lesser’s reading of the Wells story. I’ve only known his work in one series, that FALCO radio drama series I’m always telling everyone about. Also, this 1970s by Wally K. Daly “Scream” series could be good. I’ll check it out, as this week sees its first two (of three) stories airing. Likely next week will see the rebroadcast of the final chapter. So which of these draws your interest?

The Little Sister
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 at 1pm and 1am
The search for a missing man deepens into an investigation of several brutal murders. Philip Marlowe’s enquiries take him to a Hollywood film set where he wonders which of the suspects is putting on the best performance. Ed Bishop stars as Raymond Chandler’s quick-witted, sharp-talking private eye in a 1977 production dramatised by Bill Morrison and produced by John Tydeman.

Before The Screaming Begins
By Wally K. Daly; Performed by a full cast
3 Broadcasts – [RADIO DRAMA]
Broadcaster: BBC Radio 7
Broadcast: Monday to Wednesday at 6pm and Midnight
When Tom Harris is abducted by aliens whilst celebrating his wedding anniversary, the police are understandably sceptical of his wife’s account. But the disappearances continue. Stars
Hannah Gordon, James Laurenson, Patrick Troughton, Jennifer Piercey and Robert Trotter, First broadcast in 1978.

The Silent Scream
By Wally K. Daly; Performed by a full cast
2 Broadcast – [RADIO DRAMA]
Broadcaster: BBC Radio 7
Broadcast: Thursday and Friday at 6pm and Midnight
James Laurenson returns as Tom Harris in the sequel to Before The Screaming Begins. The threat from the aliens increases. First broadcast in 1979. Martin Jenkins production co-stars Hannah Gordon, Donald Hewlett and Colin Douglas.

Fantastic Journeys: The Door In The Wall
By H.G. Wells; Read by Anton Lesser
1 Broadcast – [UNABRIDGED?]
Broadcaster: BBC Radio 7
Broadcast: Saturday at 6.30 pm and 00.30am
On the eve of great success in public life, Lionel Wallace is troubled by the vision of a lost childhood paradise behind a mysterious door in a wall. Will he concentrate on his career – or succumb to the temptation to pursue this vanished world? First heard earlier this year (2009). The first of a five part series of short stories.

Duel
By Richard Matheson; Read by Nathan Osgood
1 Broadcast – Approx 20 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Broadcaster: BBC 7 / 7th Dimension
Broadcast: Saturday at 6.30pm and 12.30am
“Driving to San Francisco, a businessman finds himself the victim of a deadly game being played by the driver of a huge, mysterious truck. Later to become Steven Spielberg’s classic 1971 film.” Previously broadcast in 2006 and 2007.

I Am Legend
By Richard Matheson; Read by Angus McInnes
9 Broadcasts – approx 5 Hours [UNABRIDGED?]
Broadcaster: BBC Radio 7
Broadcast: Monday to Friday at 6.30pm and 00.30am
“Taking place in New York, it’s a tale of vampires and a man immune to the plague that has decimated most of the population.” Adapted by Scott Stainton Miller.Produced by Eilidh McCreadie. Previously broadcast in 2006 and 2007.

Rita Hayworth And The Shawshank Redemption
By Stephen King; Read by Clarke Peters
5 Broadcasts – [UNABRIDGED?]
Broadcaster: BBC Radio 7
Broadcast: Monday to Friday at 1.30pm, 8.30pm and 1.30am
In a brutal American prison, wrongly-convicted Andy Dufresne develops an ingenious method of survival – and conceives an even more resourceful plan of escape. This was the story that inspired the film The Shawshank Redemption.

Posted by Jesse Willis

BBC Radio 7: Raymond Chandler, Mary Shelley, Simon Bovey, William Gibson

Saturday, August 1, 2009 Jesse Willis

SFFaudio Online Audio

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.

Posted by Jesse Willis