Broadcast Murder
Sale price
$17.99
Regular price $21.99
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Broadcast Murder
Sale price
$17.99
Regular price $21.99
A clever, witty, and utterly addictive locked-room Golden Age mystery.
London, 1937. The golden age of radio. Millions of listeners gather around their wireless sets each evening, drawn by the crackle of static and the promise of escape. And none command the airwaves quite like Simon Lane, the pompous, cravat-wearing creator of the Simon Lane Mysteries – a man so convinced of his own brilliance that he solves fictional crimes before the fictional police have even arrived.
But on the night of the final broadcast of the series, art imitates death in the most shocking way possible. Richard Forster, a handsome, predatory actor with a trail of broken hearts and darker secrets in his wake, is performing the role of the victim – alone in a soundproof studio, separated from the rest of the cast because of one actress's traumatic past. When the gunshot comes, live on air, the millions listening assume it is just another sound effect. It is not.
The studio door is locked from the inside. The key lies on a table beside the body. And the gun is still clasped in Forster's lifeless hand. Suicide, the police conclude. Open and shut.
But Inspector Max Wolf, known to his colleagues as 'Wolfie', a balding, cat-loving detective with a dry wit and a nose for the impossible, is not so sure. As Wolf peels back the layers of jealousy, and long-buried secrets, he uncovers a truth far more disturbing than suicide than any of the drawing-room puzzles Simon Lane has ever solved.
A classic locked-room mystery in the finest tradition of John Dickson Carr and Ellery Queen, Broadcast Murder combines the technical ingenuity of the impossible crime with the wit, charm, and period atmosphere of Golden Age detective fiction.
London, 1937. The golden age of radio. Millions of listeners gather around their wireless sets each evening, drawn by the crackle of static and the promise of escape. And none command the airwaves quite like Simon Lane, the pompous, cravat-wearing creator of the Simon Lane Mysteries – a man so convinced of his own brilliance that he solves fictional crimes before the fictional police have even arrived.
But on the night of the final broadcast of the series, art imitates death in the most shocking way possible. Richard Forster, a handsome, predatory actor with a trail of broken hearts and darker secrets in his wake, is performing the role of the victim – alone in a soundproof studio, separated from the rest of the cast because of one actress's traumatic past. When the gunshot comes, live on air, the millions listening assume it is just another sound effect. It is not.
The studio door is locked from the inside. The key lies on a table beside the body. And the gun is still clasped in Forster's lifeless hand. Suicide, the police conclude. Open and shut.
But Inspector Max Wolf, known to his colleagues as 'Wolfie', a balding, cat-loving detective with a dry wit and a nose for the impossible, is not so sure. As Wolf peels back the layers of jealousy, and long-buried secrets, he uncovers a truth far more disturbing than suicide than any of the drawing-room puzzles Simon Lane has ever solved.
A classic locked-room mystery in the finest tradition of John Dickson Carr and Ellery Queen, Broadcast Murder combines the technical ingenuity of the impossible crime with the wit, charm, and period atmosphere of Golden Age detective fiction.