Radio Detectives

The Golden Age of Radio had incredible detective shows that kept Americans glued to their radio sets. Families gathered around their living room radios to hear their favorite Hollywood stars voicing fiction’s most famous gumshoes. This collection includes Humphrey Bogart as Sam Spade searching for the Black Bird in The Maltese Falcon in a radio adaptation that co-starred the original film cast of Mary Astor, Sydney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s detective genius, Sherlock Holmes, came to NBC radio from 1930 through 1955 with various actors taking over the roles of Holmes and Doctor Watson through the years. You’ll hear Basil Rathbone, Tom Conway, John Stanley, and Sir Ralph Richardson (Holmes); and Nigel Bruce, Alfred Shirley, and Sir John Gielgud (Watson) in these 16 episodes. 

The complete BBC Radio collection bringing together two full-cast dramatisations of Douglas Adams' Dirk Gently novels. In Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency Dirk Gently has an unshakable belief in the interconnectedness of all things, but his Holistic Detective Agency mainly succeeds in tracking down missing cats for old ladies. Then Dirk stumbles upon an old friend behaving bizarrely - and he's drawn into a four-billion-year-old mystery that must be solved if the human race is to avoid immediate extinction....

Dramatisations and readings of five of Josephine Tey's classic mystery novels. Scottish novelist and playwright Josephine Tey was one of the greatest Golden Age crime writers and the author of eight mysteries, including six featuring Scotland Yard inspector Alan Grant. The most famous of these, The Daughter of Time, was acclaimed the greatest crime novel of all time by the Crime Writers' Association. A full-cast dramatisation of this iconic story is included here, along with adaptations of four of her other much-loved mystery novels.

The Martin Beck books are widely acknowledged as some of the most influential detective novels ever written. Written by Swedish husband and wife team Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö between 1965 and 1975, the 10-book series set a gold standard for all subsequent Scandinavian crime fiction. Long before Kurt Wallander or Harry Hole, Beck was the original flawed policeman, working with a motley collection of colleagues to uncover the cruelty and injustice lurking beneath the surface of Sweden's liberal society.

From the very first book publication in October 1920 to the film release of Death on the Nile in October 2020, this investigation into Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot celebrates a century of probably the world’s favourite fictional detective. This book tells his story decade-by-decade, exploring his appearances not only in the original novels, short stories and plays but also across stage, screen and radio productions.

Janie Johnson has been on an emotional roller-coaster ride ever since she saw her face on the side of a milk carton. At first she thought the people she called Mom and Dad had kidnapped her. Then she learned they were only trying to protect her. Finally, she had to get acquainted with another whole new family. Now Janie's two families have made peace. But just as her life returns to normal, her Connecticut father suffers a stroke. With her mother reeling from the tragedy, Janie steps in to help manage the family finances.

In these eight intriguing tales, Holmes and Watson solve cases that range from the suspicious to the downright strange. They encounter mysteries as diverse as vanishing staff, secret plans and eccentric lodgers as Holmes is struck down by a rare tropical disease and, later, lured away from retirement to help his country on the eve of war.

Grahame Mayer specialises in selling books, not solving mysteries. So when he’s asked to play private investigator and track down a soldier from the Spanish Civil War, he wonders if it’s some sort of test – and if so, what will happen if he fails.... Armed with fresh information, he is sent to Glasgow on the trail of Jock Cameron, and a meeting with a former nurse who knew him back in Spain furnishes Grahame with further clues. But despite these new leads, the elusive Jock remains tantalisingly out of reach.

When Detective Valentine (Logan Cutler Smith) woke up today, he knew his patience would be tested. It's been one year since his wife was murdered and he still hasn't caught the culprit yet let alone collected a clue or a lead. Things look bleak in this case until another murder surfaces. While investigating the string of homicides left by the killer, Valentine slowly starts to come unraveled. Will Valentine solve the case or will he let his natural paranoia get the best of him? Tune in to find out!

Holmes is confronted with the disappearance of the bride of a nobleman - just minutes after the ceremony. "The Adventure of the Noble Bachelor" is one of the 56 original Sherlock Holmes stories and was first published in Strand Magazine in April 1892. It served as the (loose) basis for The Eligible Bachelor, a film starring Jeremy Brett as Holmes, Edward Hardwicke as Watson, and Simon Williams as Lord St. Simon.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s detective genius, Sherlock Holmes, came to NBC radio in 1930 starring Richard Gordon. By 1939, Basil Rathbone was heard as Holmes with Nigel Bruce as Doctor Watson. The duo was simultaneously starring in a popular series of Sherlock Holmes features for Fox, and later for Universal. 

Michael Shayne, "the reckless, redheaded Irishman", was a popular hard-boiled detective created by crime novelist Brett Halliday. In the novels, Michael Shayne settled in Miami just after WWII, making crime pay by fighting it with a license and an attitude. Like Mike Hammer and Philip Marlowe, Shayne was a loner. The backstory on Mike is that he was happily married, but it hit him hard when his wife was tragically murdered. Grief stricken, Shayne loses himself in his work as a private eye, prowling the dark streets of the city.

Actor and singer Dick Powell, after many musicals for the Warner Brothers and Fox studios, embarked on a new career as a hard-boiled tough guy. Powell got the opportunity to further flex his new tough-guy muscles in the medium of radio, starring in the role of investigator Richard Rogue in the crime drama Rogue’s Gallery. In this collection, Powell portrays Rogue with a charming lack of care and refusal to take things too seriously, all while delivering solid entertainment for detective and crime drama fans.

Unsettling accounts of ordinary people caught up in extraordinary circumstances, the weight of which carry them to an inevitable fate, are presented here by the grim-voiced Father Time. This omniscient and ominous host, portrayed by both Charles Webster and William Conrad, lends the proceedings an appropriate atmosphere of foreboding. The Clock brings you the desperate obsessions, investigations, attractions, nightmares and violence of the underhanded, the unsuspecting, and the insane.

He knows crime, and he knows criminals...because he was once on the wrong side of the law himself. That's Boston Blackie - a friend to those who have no friends, an enemy to those who make him an enemy! Broadway actor Richard Kollmar stars in his best-remembered radio role as the tough yet sympathetic ex-safecracker. Lesley Woods costars as his lady friend Mary Wesley, with Maurice Tarplin as Inspector Faraday. Join them for 16 exciting investigations of jewel heists, murder and more! 

Mystery, adventure, and international intrigue surround Ken Thurston, The Man Called X! Radio's most enduring cloak-and-dagger drama presents suave stage and screen star Herbert Marshall in 16 tales of globetrotting espionage! Announcer John McIntire tells of the man "who crosses the ocean as readily as you or I cross town." Leon Belasco costars as Pegon Zellschmidt, with a supporting cast that includes Ge Ge Pearson, Steven Geray, Ted von Eltz, Frank Graham, Alan Reed, Cathy Lewis, William Conrad, and more.

From out of the rain-swept postwar night comes Harry Nile - a man who's seen it all, because he just can't look away. Here are 19 state-of-the-art radio noir dramas, produced by West Coast legend Jim French, and starring Larry Albert as the hard-boiled, straight-shooting Harry! This collection includes four more installments of the "War Comes To Harry Nile" storyline, a Christmas episode, two two-part adventures, and more. You'll hear Pat French, Jay Green, John Patrick Lowrie...and a whole bunch of killer cases.

John Stanley takes over the role of the World's Most Famous Consulting Detective in this collection of Sherlock Holmes radio adventures, with Wendell Holmes as Watson! Priceless artifacts, vital plans, and human lives are at stake through eight hours of exciting episodes. This series goes back to basics with 16 classic tales of deductive mystery in the grand manner, mixing original adaptations of the Doyle canon with brisk new stories - including a three-part tale of international intrigue and espionage.