From the fecund mind of mystery/thriller writer, Edgar Wallace, best known as the first screenwriter of the film King Kong. His better known mystery series include the J.G. Reeder and Green Archer series. Wallace's stories were so well accepted over 160 films were made from them. This week I'll look at Wallace and the radio play "Criminal At Large" from the Molle' Mystery Theatre from April 1944. The radio play was based upon a stage play and film called The Frightened Lady.

Music under is Deep Purple played by Art Tatum.

Eric Ambler is mostly known as a writer of spy related novels. Mask of Dimitrios (published in the U.S. as A Coffin for Dimitrios) is about a writer of detective stories who bargains for more than he can handle as he researches the mysterious Dimitrios. He is pulled farther and farther into a web of deceit. The book was made into a film and the film into a radio play as presented on the Screen Guild Theatre in 1945.

A look at the story and Ambler.

From the pen of Dorothy L. Sayers, a different kind of detective story involving her detective, Lord Peter Wimsey. “The Cave of Ali Baba” was heard over Suspense in 1942 based on her original short story “The Adventurous Exploits of the Cave of Ali Baba” published in 1928.

One of Agatha Christie’s most successful stories with her Belgian detective Hercule Poirot was in itself controversial and a number of books have been written about the detective story. Her fellow writers at the time felt she had crossed the line in their “rules of the game” when creating a tidy cozy mystery. I’ll look briefly at the controversy and you’ll hear Orson Welles disappointing creation of her Belgian detective in the Mercury Theater’s production of this well-known detective story.

I’m back for a brief visit to one of the “lost in time” detective writers - Leslie T. White, an early 20th century forensics detective for the Los Angeles District Attorney. White turned to detective story writing influencing among others - Raymond Chandler. One of his stories was adapted for the Molle Mystery Theater in 1946 and is presented here.

Merry Christmas!  This will unfortunately have to be my last podcast for some time. Not sure how long I will be away, but stay subscribed. I am returning to the master of detective writers and a creator of one of radio’s favorite detectives - Conan Doyle and his Sherlock Holmes. This episode is from the mind of Denis Greene and Anthony Boucher and is not part of the Holmes canon. A nice little Christmas story!

Another Carlton Morse adventure starring the A-1 Detective team of Jack and Doc. This episode has elements of the true detective genre some of which is straight out of the style of Hammett and Chandler.

The further adventures of Jack, Doc and Jeri Booker continue in “The Pirate Loot of the Island of Skulls.” Two more episodes this week plus snippets of interviews with Carlton E. Morse and Russell Thorson. The storyline unfortunately is not complete in audio format, so I’ll try to give some summaries between various episodes to give wholeness to the complete story.

This week I am beginning a series of podcasts featuring the A-1 Detective team of Jack Packard and Doc Long - Carleton Morse’s intrepid detectives from I Love A Mystery. The series is not a complete one as there are very few complete runs of this adventure thriller series: A twelve part series called “The Pirate Loot of the Island of Skulls” from 1942. I’ll be looking at Morse, the series and this serial adventure over the next few weeks.

The final entry into my look at women radio detectives. This week is an example of the many husband and wife detective teams that appeared on radio. Others included Adventures of the Thin Man, Mr. & Mrs North, It’s a Crime, Mr. Collins and Front Page Farrell. This week’s series used characters from the pen of Frances Crane in which Jean Abbott is a much stronger detective than she was portrayed on radio. Claudia Morgan (right) and Les Damon starred as Jean and Pat Abbott.