Well, it has been quite an odyssey.  Arthur Conan Doyle’s classic episodes have been narrated by readers like Stephen Fry, for a cost; and by readers like your host, for free, in the spirit of the 18th century Enlightenment. This series has been other-directed–directed to others–without charge or fee. The hope is to spread cheer and enjoyment of the mysteries of an extraordinary writer and his remarkable detective.  Please let me know, at [email protected], if you have enjoyed this series.  And may I suggest that you listen to some of the best of these recordings, which I will identify soon, but which have long been available here at Audibly Speaking, my podcast.

–Your host, Rick Reiman, wishing you happy listening.

Some readers, who are avid fans of the atmosphere of the story by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Sherlock Holmes tale, “The Adventure of Shoscomb Old Place,” may be disappointed with the hastily wrapped conclusion that Doyle sought fit to conclude the story.  As a pastiche, a different ending concludes this audio narration of the tale. Will Sir Robert Norburton get his just deserts after all. Listen and learn to find out.

A hoped-for interview ahead with Gabra Zackman of audio narration fame is the news in today’s show on the channel. We also look back on the perils of narrating Sherlock Holmes while “falling out” with Covid, as well as the advances in the art of audio narration thanks to the progress of time.   Something different: Sherlock Holmes, sick with Covid, this time on AudiblySpeaking!

What a whimsical tale Dr. Watson has to tell of Jabez Wilson and “The Red-Headed League!” Between the laughter and the mirth that Holmes teases out of the tale, there emerges a dastardly crime so cunning that only Holmes himself could solve it.  John Clay, the “fourth smartest man in London,” according to Holmes, and probably a man working for Moriarty, the second smartest man, is plotting to bankrupt a vital English bank. But the narrator should not reveal the plot.  He simply takes the part of the players, in this narration by your audio interpreter of all things Holmesian, Rick Reiman. He hopes, and knows that, thanks to the brilliant writing of Arthur Conan Doyle, that you will enjoy it.

Hello, everybody! Rick Reiman here, audio narrator for Audibly Speaking. On rare occasions, I re-record a short story in the Sherlock Holmes series written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.  Not that I think I did a bad job in my reading the first time around. But I am quite certain that I am doing better in my reinterpretation of these stories as I go along, both sonically and artistically.  Therefore, I look back on those Sherlock Holmes stories that I think are Doyle’s very best and try to do them (and my audience) greater justice than I did the first time around.  I think that these stories, albeit on a digital platform, help us live out our digital lives more productively and in ways less likely to lead to digital addiction.  They are my contribution to the digital minimalism movement, for more information about which I heartily recommend the YouTube channel of Laura Malvoyante.  In what Holmes would call “my own small way,” this is a contribution of mine to that movement.

Late in his authorial career, in the 1920s to be precise, Arthur Conan Doyle, who was then deeply immersed in beliefs of mysticism and seances, had occasion to pair his rational detective, Sherlock Holmes, with a case about vampires. Did Doyle change the hyper-rational Holmes to suit the author’s new beliefs? Listen and find out!

In this epic short story, Arthur Conan Doyle exceeds himself.  “The Naval Treaty” is the longest of all of Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes short stories.  It contains allusions to his other stories and many humorous asides as well as quite larger-than-life characters, some almost Dickensian in their strangeness.  Holmes has to sift his clues and there are almost too many for him to select the relevant from the superfluous. “Almost,” but not too many–not for Sherlock Holmes.

Read by Richard Reiman

Sherlock Holmes returns to life in this thrilling story by Arthur Conan Doyle.  Doyle had killed off the greatest consulting detective in the world, but the reading public insisted he rethink his plans. So Holmes returns from the dead in this classic story from the pen of his creator, Doyle.