Radio Books

"...the book is an up-to-date compilation of present knowledge in fish and invertabrate telemetry...I would recommend it to students, and researchers working on aquatic animals, as it will certainly be useful for further studies."

The two cousins who wrote as "Ellery Queen" were born in 1905, and for their centennial the estimable specialty house Crippen & Landru have come out with a book of some radio plays they wrote in the late 30s and early 40s, the peak years for the great detective. Crippen & Landru issued an outline for a final, unfinished novel (A TRAGEDY OF ERRORS) which is marvelous to have, but this volume is a quantum leap more satisfying and a fantastic addition to the Queen corpus.

THE ADVENTURE OF THE LAST MAN CLUB. A play involving a tontine underwritten by an industrial capitalist tycoon and whose members are mostly Navy veterans who served with the dead son of the tycoon. One of the members is hit by a car while crossing the street, and Ellery's hot on the case.

THE ADVENTURE OF NAPOLEON'S RAZOR will appeal to everyone who loves trains, especially guys with model railroading replicas in their basements. Ellery and Nikki try to trap a cunning killer on a train completely sealed off from the outside world.

THE ADVENTURE OF THE BAD BOY. Did a little boy really poison his aunt's stew with arsenic? Ellery and Nikki have to face down the possibility that even a young 10 year old may do evil in the name of love. This one is extremely far-fetched, but persuasive.

THE ADVENTURE OF THE MARCH OF DEATH. When old man March gets bumped off he tries to leave a clue by carving it into his desk with the very knife that stabbed him! Then the killer erases the dying message. You won't feel a thing for any of these people, they're all despicable, but just try to figure out the solution!

THE ADVENTURE OF THE HAUNTED CAVE. Set high in the Adirondacks, HAUNTED CAVE has a spooky story to tell. A ghost hunter is slain inside the wooden door of a cave. The only footprints leading to his body are his own. It seems almost sure that Montague is the victim of a hundred-year old ghost. Almost a Henry Merrivale sort of crime for Ellery.

THE ADVENTURE OF THE LOST CHILD. This case will remind readers of several other well-covered but much more recent true crime stories (Susan Smith, Andrea Yates, etc). The depravity of the murders in this radio play goes considerably beyond anything Queen was writing in his novels at the time. I would have thought the ad agencies would have hesitated before sponsoring this one, it's awfully trenchant.

THE ADVENTURE OF THE BLACK SECRET. Some mystery lovers get all lovey dovey around mysteries set in bookstores with rare book dealers as victims or suspects. This is one of those cases. It isn't my favorite, but I like having Mike Callahan-a rival sleuth-feature in Ellery's cases, and the set-up when Ellery gets arrested on suspicion of shoplifting had me laughing my ass off.

THE ADVENTURE OF THE DYING SCARECROW. I wonder which came first, this macabre play of the countryside's changing seasons and the chainsaw-crazy family who lives on the farm, or maybe Joel Townsley Rogers' novel THE RED RIGHT HAND? Read this one and tell me you don't flash on the Townsley Rogers book.

THE ADVENTURE OF THE WOMAN IN BLACK. A British novelist with a family ghost has grown up believing that if the ghostly woman in black appears to him three times, then he will die. Ellery tries to intervene, but the facts of the case baffle him. Oscar Wilde plays a surprising part in this tale, and the story has atmosphere to burn. This must be the last of the hourlong radio plays, because the remainder of the bunch are much shorter.

THE ADVENTURE OF THE FORGOTTEN MEN. This play takes up the theme of the homeless, but the characterization is pretty dismal. I couldn't tell the difference between the five main characters, Manhattan, Dixie, Yank, Kansas and California. They're all derelicts living in an abandoned lot in New York City.

THE ADVENTURE OF THE MAN WHO COULD DOUBLE THE SIZE OF DIAMONDS. Funny how many Ellery Queen plots depend on strip searching a guy (here, a phony inventor called Doctor Lazarus) and examining every body cavity no matter how indelicate. Something a little kinky there, but that's fine by me.

THE ADVENTURE OF THE DARK CLOUD. The "Dark Cloud" is a yacht on which members of the Valentine family are hosting a swim party and a rousing round of charades. Murder ensues and once again, literary texts function as the database of clues. The dying message here wouldn't have stumped a dolphin.

THE ADVENTURE OF MR. SHORT AND MR, LONG. This is Ellery Queen's version of the famous Sherlock Holmes reference to "Mr. James Phillimore who stepped into his house for an umbrella and was never more seen in this world." Wonder if John Dickson Carr knew this play when he did his own version (with Adrian Conan Doyle) in their book of EXPLOITS? For the two stories share some key points.

THE ADVENTURE OF THE MURDERED MOTHS. Ellery and the gang invade what seems to be some sort of Marjorie Main EGG AND I motel for hillbillies, and meet up with an eloping couple of youngsters. Nikki offers to stand in as bridesmaid for the girl, but then it is discovered that she, Virginia Wender, is underage. Virginia's father gets killed, but not for the reason you'd think! The moths tell the tale . . .

I hated to see this book come to an end. Please, publishers, issue a sequel! If there are 350 of these plays extant, you could do a book every year for the next ten or twenty years! Don't leave us on such a teasing note! These plays bring us the best of Ellery Queen-his wit, his inventiveness, his love of humanity, his spectral note, his innate American spirit, and most of all, the brain teasers that made his name famous for decades. And Nikki Porter too, far less annoying here than in some of the books. Now I realize I should have paid more for the hardcover edition, in which you get an extra play for your money!

My kids loved this book, and love listening to this series on the radio. It's great fun and I enjoy it too! I never have to worry about what they will hear or learn from the Odyssey serires, I know it is quality material and they just might learn something I had been trying to teach them all along! great for kids or adults alike!

When Dashiell Hammett's show The Adventures of Sam Spade made its debut over CBS in August of 1946, personable Howard Duff, a comparative unknown in Hollwyood circles, was assigned the title role. The selection of young Duff for the hard-hitting detective was perfect casting, his success was immediate, and Hollywood began predicting important things to come for this new personality.

The enormous success of the Sam Spade radio program, spawned a series of comic strips, magazine articles and radio cross-overs, not to mention numerous radio programs attempting to become just as popular with their own detectives. Broadcast from 1946 to 1951, the Sam Spade program ruled the airwaves, and fought both network censorship and the threat of Communism to remain on the air. I recommend you listen to a few episodes of this series, avoid the last season's worth of episodes with Steve Dunne in the role, and to REALLY get into the program, get a copy of the book "The Radio Adventures of Sam Spade", also available on Amazon.com.

This is a nice collection of episodes for anyone who has only casually or never heard an episode of the Sam Spade program. In "The Adam Figg Caper," Sam makes love to a nurse to acquire a bottle of medicine. In "The Bail Bond Caper," Effie, Sam's secretary, is on vacation and this marked the first of three consecutive episodes in which Lurene Tuttle, the actress playing Effie, was away. Sandra Gould played the role of Bernadine, a temporary secretary for Sam. Think this trivia is kinda fun? Try the book "The Radio Adventures of Sam Spade" also available on Amazon.com.

This is another wonderful addition to the Guitar Signature Series books. This one was written/transcribed/demonstrated by legendary guitar scholar Wolf Marshall. He has written music analysis columns and transcriptions for magazines such as Guitar for the Practicing Musician and Guitar School, to name just a couple. Next to Andy Aledort, Wolf is probably one of the most respected and recognized names in the guitar magazine business.

As the subtitle of the book suggests, this is "a step-by-step breakdown of the guitar styles of Joe Perry and Brad Whitford". What this means is that you're NOT getting a basic guitar book that just tabs out several complete songs of an artist. What you get is a handful of some of Aeromsith's greatest moments broken down into rhythm sections and solos (in tablature), complete with a comprehensive music analysis (in text). The book also comes with a CD that offers a full band performing each example. For most examples there is also a slowed-down version with just guitar. I found this incredibly helpful for certain solos, such as the outro to Walk This Way where the tempo and the quirky phrasing became much easier to nail down.

The book includes: Back In The Saddle - Come Together - Draw The Line - Dream On - Kings & Queens - Last Child - Mama Kin - Same Old Song & Dance - Sweet Emotion - Toys In The Attic - Train Kept A Rollin' - Walk This Way.

Again I want to stress that not EVERY single song is complete. However, I think there's more than enough to fill in the blanks where things might be left out. If you're a guitar playing fan of Aerosmith's 70's Golden era, then you're going to have alot of fun with this. Order your book now and you won't put that Les Paul down for weeks!

An incredibly insightful mix of fact and fiction that begs the question "how is the media influencing the events that shape our lives". ALL I can say is thank goodness we didn't have Betz (FOX)in 1941! Great book TS!

Another fine collection of radio shows from 1939-1949.

CD #1) The Campbell Playhouse 11-12-1939 "The Murder of Roger Ackroyd"
Orson Wells play Hercule Poirot in this one hour broadcast.

CD #2) Radio City Playhouse 4-25-1949. "Witness for the Prosecution".
Murder Clinic 10-06-1942. "The Tragedy of Marsden Manor".

CD #3) SUSPENSE. 5-18-1943. Charles Laughton in "The ABC Murders"
SUSPENSE. 2-24-1949. James Mason in "Where There's a Will".

The radio preachers in Dorgan's book are nothing like the flashy televangelists that one sees regularly on television. Rather, this is religious broadcasting at its most grassroots level. These are "real" people from Appalachia who have what they believe is a mission. They are people who have a deep-seated faith that has seen them through the turbulent times often inherent in Appalachian life. Dorgan treats his four subjects with sensitivity and respect.

Released in 1993, the book addresses what Dorgan sees as a vanishing part of Appalachian life -- the live Sunday radio preacher. Having just returned from those portions of Appalachian in which these preachers have broadcast, I was pleased to hear that seven years later the genre is far from dead, although I would suspect that Dorgan's assessment is a definite trend.

"The Airwaves of Zion" is a unique book that will be readily taken to heart by those interested in Appalchian Religion and/or Religious Broadcasting.

This is a serious collection of 10 academic essays about Al Jazeera, the 24-hour Arabic satellite-broadcasting network. In a sentence, Al Jazeera has transformed the way Arab nations get their news. The essays, edited by Mohammed Zayani, explain how the network and its state sponsor, Qatar, have created political and media turmoil of a scope well beyond the size of the network or the nation. The essays cover the network's history, Arab journalism, the role of women, the war in Afghanistan, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and how the network has affected the media and governments of other Arab nations. The writers explain how other Arab states and the West perceive this new media outlet and its coverage. An outstanding essay by Faisal Al Kasim, the host of a popular Al Jazeera show, 'The Opposite Direction,' gives some powerful reasons why the network is a threat to other Arab nations. Basically, he writes about the power of a free press and how it could transform traditional secular Arab culture. Of course, to U.S. eyes, Al Jazeera often seems polemic, biased and political, but according to these essays, it is by far the freest media outlet in any Arab country. We recommend this book to anyone seriously interested in the Middle East, broadcasting or the impact of technology on shaping public opinion.